Tormore Island, Ireland's highest seastack

 The most outstanding summer weather continues towards October and with the first ascent of Bothanvarra sea stack last month I kind of thought that was the end of the foolish nautical activities for 2014. But no, a very prolonged period of uber calm allowed a 4k ring of confidence to project from the west coast of Ireland for a 16 hour period. The contents of the ring was a less than 1 meter swell and a huge wave period and so a free ascent of Tormore Island was pushed to the very top of the to do list.

Tormore Island Film 2014

 Tormore Island is Ireland's highest sea stack and stands at 148 meters above the mighty Neptune. Access to the base of the stack is a very involved affair and on the stack's first ascent in 2008 we used a RiB and a 250 HP out-board engine to gain access, story of this ascent is HERE. This ascent of the stack with noble brothers Pete McConnel, Alan Tees, Peter Cooper was a most excellent day out alas with hindsight the use of an internal combustion engine to reach the stack began to niggle.
 As time passed a very cunning plan to remove the use of motorized nautical transport was devised and I soon realised that the most perfect sea and wind conditions would be necessary to allow safe passage.
 The island sits in a very exposed location in one of the most remote stretches of coastline in Ireland. Around the landward side of it's base live a collection of skerries and stacks which cause a great deal of white water violence and potentially great concern for any would be mariner.

 Tormore Island from south

Tormore Island from the north

 And sho, after having spent the last 8 years playing out on the coastline around Tormore, I had a very cunning plan to access the landward channel of the stack using,off course, the trusty inflatable dingy and no outboard engine.

 Joining me on this rather foolish quest was noble brother Leman Lemanski and with an unsociably early start we were walking into Glenlough Bay across the dark sky bog. As always with all cunning plans of this nature you never know if your nautical calculations are correct until you first sight your intended the sea passage, and lo upon our arrival at Glenlough Bay, the sea was very well behaved indeed. :-) 

 Tormore from Glenlough Bay

Glenlough Bay

The Land of the Giants

Landed on Tormore Island

 The weather and sea were in absolutely perfect condition with a very long and low wave period and pretty much no hint of white water anywhere. We sorted the dry bags and set sail from the landward side of Southern stack and paddled directly across the mouth of Glenlough Bay. on passage we bumped into sea kayakers, Valli and her pal just before entering the realm of the giants. The landward channel of Tormore comprises a small cauldron of outstanding natural beauty surrounded by the giants of Tormore, Hidden Stack, Cobblers Tower, Cnoc na Mara and about a dozen other semi submerged skerries. Under normal sea conditions this wee cauldron is a white watered pits of hate and a suicidal place to be paddling but today it was the entrance to the further. 

 We paddled through the flat calm cauldron and landed on the landward side of Tormore. A swift racking up and we were off upwards. The cunning plan was to follow the original route of 2008 and as I had made a return in 2013 with noble brother Aidan McGinely the belays at the tops of pitches 1 and 2 were in tip top condition.        

Looking down pitch 1

Looking up pitch 2

 The first two pitches of the route take you approx 80 meters up the stack and to this point the climbing is more mountaineering than technical rock climbing. At the top of pitch two we were standing on a grassy ledge clipped to a couple of equalised pegs, above us loomed slightly harder and more technical rock climbing. The next 40 meters of climbing is by far the most technical on the route with spaced gear, suspect rock and huge grass cornices to play on. This took us to a huge grassy ledge in the middle of nowhere and high above the sea. 

 The views from this stance are outstanding with the most remote and beautiful coastline in Ireland beginning to stretch from horizon to horizon. Alas above us is another 60 meters of climbing to the summit with 40 meters of it being unprotected vertical grass.  

Glenlough Bay from Tormore Summit

Tormore Island

 And so, standing on the summit of Tormore Island at 148 meters above the ocean, 500 meters from your nearest point of mainland Donegal, 20 odd kilometers from the nearest main road and over looking the distant edge of the further. It is impossible to express in words a location that few even know exists and only five have ever stood. A summit in which the ground nester reign supreme and the transient world we exist in is a far and distant memory.   

Tormore Summit view

    

Donegal Rock Climbing

 Summer has arrived in Western Donegal with a vengeance, blistering sunshine, flat calms seas and a multitude of nautical summits to be stood on. We've been out to play pretty much everyday and this months highlights include a vertical kicking on a potential new route in the Poison Glen, a new route on An Bhuideal sea stack, several visits to Owey Island to collect photographs, 4 other sea stack summits and a day out filming for German Television.
 I've finally finished the paperback version of the Donegal Guidebook, 1000+ routes and 200+ photo topo's compiled, edited and sorted. All sections are currently complete with one more big push out to Owey Island to get the last three remaining seaward face crags. :-) All that really remains to do then is to populate the topos and sort out the scenery and action shots and we are off to the printers. HURRAH!

 Anyways, went for a wee play with Louise O'Connor to the outstanding An Port Bay. The cunning plan was simply to once again stand on the summit of An Staca. This 23 meter sea stack is known locally as Búd an Diabhil (The Devil's Penis) was first climbed in March 2011 by a superb route up the seaward face. A couple of anonymous climbers climbed a bold route up the landward arete the following year and since then the stack has been pretty much left alone. 

An Staca Film 2014

 Sitting at the end of a 20 km winding b list road and living in one of the most remote locations in Ireland is An Port. This little known and very isolated road end is outstandingly beautiful and residing either side of it is a truly excellent collection of gothic leviathans in the form of 36 very isolated and mildy scary sea stacks.

An Staca Film 2011

 Access to An Staca is by a swift 500 meter paddle directly out to sea from the road end to land on the landward side of the sea stack. The normally tetchy Atlantic Ocean was like a mill pond was we gently paddled out to our nautical oasis.
 We racked up in the shadow of the stack in baking sunshine with the rock under our bare foot being almost too hot to stand on. At a modest grade of VS 4C the sea ward face route begins with very easy stepped climbing with a slight increase in steepness with every move. This takes you to a niche just below the summit, alas between you and the summit is a big steep bulge and off course the 4C move. With my good self at the sharp end it was with several ups and downs and a bit of a grunt to arrive on the summit. Louise off course, floated up the route and wondered what all the fuss was about. :-)
 A most outstanding climb, location and summit, the last time I stood on this summit the stack was surrounded by 20 footers and a modicum of white water. The two films above show the difference in a calm and a bouncy day out sea stack climbing.    

An Port Bay, Donegal

Launching the mighty vessel

Landing on the sea stack

The view from the base of the stack

The Summit

The view from An Staca Summit

Glenlough Bay Donegal

 Living in one of the most remote locations in Ireland is Glenlough Bay, this huge raised shingle storm beach (An Clochán Mór) stretches for over a kilometer along the base of an amphitheatre of 250 meter high scree and sea cliffs. Easiest access is from An Port road end but an equally scenic way to the bay is by the nearly reclaimed by nature footpath into the two ruins at the east end of Glenlough. These ruins are where Dylan Thomas spent some quiet time over the summer of 1935, during his stay he wrote a collection of his best know works.
 " Ten miles from the nearest human being and as lonely as Christ." were the words of Dylan on his stay in Glenlough.
 Anyways, Glenlough Bay is a most outstanding location and from an exploratory rock climbers perspective it contains a huge amount of climbable rock. :-)
 The current rock climbers guidebook to this area is HERE.

Glenlough Bay Film

 The safest access to the beach is by descent down a huge funneled gully at the southern end of the bay. This gully is pretty much steep heather and scree most of the way, with a short rock slab at half height. As you walk along the cliff tops from the Cnoc na Mara viewpoint, the descent gully is approx 300 meteres from the view point. During the descent simply keep following the stream until you are approx 50 meters above the beach, from here trend right and follow the sheep track onto the beach.   

March 2013

 Glenlough bay contains five major sea stacks including Tormore Island, Ireland's highest sea stack. Tormore stands guard at the southern end of the bay and dominates this stretch of coastline from An Bhuideal to Glenlough. At the northern end of Glenlough lives the two most remote climbing locations in Ireland, "The End's of the Earth Crag" and "Beyond the End's of the Earth Crag." Both of these quartzite sea cliffs sit in very exposed locations and get hammered in big west to south west seas.  
 The End's of the Earth Crag is the huge stepped slab at the far north of the bay. Access to the base of the crag is by a short exposed scramble and an easy angled abseil down "Groovy Gully" at the seaward side of the crag. By far the best time to visit this crag is during huge South West motion as the entire crag is protected from sea motion by a huge roof  below the slab.
 Just to the north of Glenlough lives "The Beyond the Ends of the Earth Crag," a near vertical wall of immaculate quartzite. Again this crag is best visited whilst it is under very heavy sea conditions to feel the full effect of Neptune and the forces of nature.  

Access Gully to Glenlough

Donegal Sea Stacks

View from the summit of Tent Stack

The Land of the Giants

Glenlough Bay beach

Arranmore Island. The Lighthouse Stack

  Arranmore, (Árrain Mhór) Donegal's largest and most populated island provides a huge seaward face of outstanding sea cliffs and monster sea stacks. From Stac an Iolar at the islands south west tip to Torneady Point at the north west point this 10 kilometre coast line provides a very wild rock climbing location.

The Lighthouse Stack film 2014

 Over the last few weeks we've made three visits to Arranmore with a view to several cunning plans. The first of which was simply a revisit to the summit of The Lighthouse Stack at Rinrawros Point. This superb 50 meter sea stack sits below the spectacular lighthouse at the southern end of the Giants Reek Cauldron. First climbed in July 2009 then again in Aug 2010 and in keeping with these first two ascents it would have been rude not to solo the stack for a third time. 

The Lighthouse Stack Film 2010 

 And Sho, armed with clifftop photographer Aidan Mc Ginley and Oscar we took the early morning ferry from Burtonport with Arranmore Ferry company. A swift drive across the island and we were once more overlooking the abyss at the Rinrawros Lighthouse. 

 The cunning plan for the day was to climb the landward Arete of the stack, this 85 meter long route climbs the very obvious ridge on the stack. This climb is one of the best Diff graded rock climbs in Ireland, with tetchy nautical access, an adventurous location, considerable exposure, immaculate rock and a general sense of commitment.

The Lighthouse Stack

 The first task at hand was to gain the base of the stack, alas the southerly winds had arrived 12 hours earlier and the south facing cliffs around the stack were bouncing a wee bit white. After over an hour of seeking the best exit point I was finally afloat and immediately headed straight out to sea to avoid the inshore whiteness at the base of the cliffs. A 300 meter paddle took me the the channel around the stack and once more to be dwarfed the giants.

The sea passage to the sea stack

Base of the Sea Stack

 Once in the channel between the stack and the land the sea calmed it's self greatly as I was now in the lea of Arranmore Island and landing on the stack was a simple step off. A swift change of attire and it was now simply a case of following the jugs and immaculate rock to the summit of the stack. The line take the soaring landward aréte and provides considerable exposure as you ascend the knife edge aréte. 

Climbing the Stack

Sea Stack Summit

 And so, once more onto the summit alas during this time the southerly winds had increased and the sea and my mainland exit point were under attack from the legions. A 500 meter paddle along the innaccessible coastline to the south of the stack was necessary to arrive at the mini harbour built for supplying the lighthouse in the days long before regular ferry service to the island.

 It is now at this juncture that the proceeding become a wee bit surreal. Inland of the harbour is a huge 80 meter long sea arch and as I was afloat anyways decided to paddle through it. On the return journey through the arch I met a naked Italian swimmer who looked very much like Jesus. :-) An outstanding end to an outstanding day. :-)

Jesus in a Sea Cave  

  

   

Ireland's Remote Places

 Spring has arrived in Donegal with a blast of glorious sunshine and without further ado Louise O' Connor and my good self made two swift visits to "Beyond the Ends of the Earth Crag." The first of these visits was on a day of uber bouncy south west seas running and alas the crag was taking green and white to walls and roof of the cave at the back of the crag. We abandoned any cunning plans and went and visited an old friend along the coast, "The Unforgiven" sea stack now has a new and slightly less emotional exit point. :-)
 The second visit to the crag resulted in equally bumpy sea conditions BUT seas were running from the west and allowed us to abseil into the cave at the back of the crag and climb a superb 40 meter high line traverse across the wall, all in glorious sunshine. "Exposure Explosion" is an excellent traverse line with superb juggy rock throughout the climb.  

Exposure Explosion film

 "Beyond the Ends of the Earth Crag" is surely a prime contender for the most remote rock climbing location on mainland Ireland. It sits approx 5 km from An Port road end and the walk in is along the wildest stretch of coast line in Ireland. I have been playing out on this area of coast since May 2008 and have made over 500 visits to the sea cliffs and sea stacks living along this coast, it really is an outstanding place to be. I have never failed to have fun on this coast in all my visits in fact it gets harder to leave and return to the real world on every visit.

DJ Locker Traverse film

 The above film shows the first visit to this remote sea cliff as Peter O' Toole joined in the nautical action for a 70 meter low level traverse above an equally tetchy ocean. The climbing on this route is of the same high quality as "Exposure Explosion," but being much closer to the sea it is prone to much more nautical action as the above film shows.

Glenlough Bay

Beyond The End's of the Earth

View from the crag

"Exposure Explosion" the route

Peter O' Toole on "DJ Locker Traverse"

 Louise O' Connor on "Exposure Explosion."

Winter Climbing in Donegal, Ireland

Winter in Donegal film

 Muckish North Face

 Ideal winter climbing conditions in the Donegal mountains are a rare beast indeed, requiring a prolonged mix of freeze/ thaws cycles and a good couple of dumps of snow. Alas with the relative low altitude of Donegal's highest summits and their very close proximity to the Atlantic Ocean the prevalent conditions in the uplands are greatly influenced by the North Atlantic Drift and it's warm and wet air stream.
 What this all means is, if the correct climactic conditions occur to allow frozen cascades of ice and gullies filled with pristine néve then it is case of, get out and play, because tomorrow it may all be gone.

View from the start of the climb

 After several e-mails back and forward to Noble Bother Laurence Glynn (Larry), we finally got an alignment of the planets and a small weather window to allow winter to make an attendance in County Donegal. 

 After a week of heavy snow and several nights of minus temperatures, the hills of he county were beginning of show great signs of being winterized. 

Pitch 1: Arrive at the gully

Base of "Gully of the Gods."

 We met early Sunday morning and we sorted our climbing rack and headed to the North Face of Muckish Mountain. By our weather watching and calculations the center of this north facing corrie would contain suitable refrozen frozen snow and good winter climbing.

 This was Larry's first dabble with winter climbing and as we parked the van at the old mine working at the road end, the North corrie of Muckish looked extremely atmospheric and thankfully very winter indeed! :-)  

Pitch 2, in the Gods proper

Winter Climbing in Ireland

Muckish Mountain view

We parked the van at the lower roadside parking and headed up into the corrie. Underfoot the snow was showing great signs of consolidation and all ground water was frozen solid. We headed straight up the centre of the corrie as this allowed us to see into all the gullies on both sides of the corrie. What we were looking for was the most complete and thickest tongue of néve running down the best looking gully. 

 We decided on and headed straight to the base of "Gully of the Gods," a superb grade I/II gully running up the back of the corrie. Approx 40 meters below the start of the gully we roped up and rigged a belay as the steep ground around us had a light covering of windslab and several runnels indicated previous avalanche activity. 

Mid height in the gully

Mid Height in "Gully of the Gods."

100m up the route

 Once in the gully proper the snow firmed to become solid néve and the ground steepened to give perfect grade 1 climbing on perfect snow ice. We continued to pitch the route in 30 to 50 m pitches and the higher we climbed the better the néve became. he final 40 meter pitch was solid néve which allowed us to climb on front points and axe picks, the finest type of winter climbing there is. 

 It is one of the great joys of winter climbing to be on a steep face of solid snow with you held in place by approx 4 inches of metal, one inch on each foot and hand, all the time with a 500 meter steep drop at your heels. :-)  

Larry arrives at the final belay

Topping Out onto the summit Plateau of Muckish

Winter climbing in Ireland

 Whilst Larry and I were at play in The Gully of the Gods, Adam and Patrick Tinney climbed a new grade 1 gully to the right of the chunky tower and the "White Reverence" Face. This excellent looking gully is the most obvious on this side of the corrie alas it is prone to catching any sunshine that is going and is prone to a quick thaw and disappearance. Nice one gents!

Donegal Winter Climbing Guidebook