And sho, following on from the above post and where we were at three weeks ago, there has been a change or three to the original cunning plan.
The Donegal Rock Climbing Guidebook 2015 is now a 352 page select guide to the entire county and covers every uber classic route from Muckross Head to Malin Head. What has been done is to take the two volumes I edited over the winter and which weighed in at near 700 pages and dissect them into a single select guide. (for information on the two volumes see above link)
This has been done and we are now at the getting my amateur Indesign bothering guide to a proper publisher for the transition to a book. Step forth Noble Brother Dave Flannagan and Three Rock Books, Dave is now on board for a wee bit (lot) of Indesign wisdom and has been signed by Mountaineering Ireland to get this guidebook to a printer friendly state.
This is a massive relief to my good self as I took the production of this project as far as I could and without the necessary further publishing skills I always knew a dead end was in sight.
What Dave and myself are currently doing is sorting each chapter at a time. The routes, crags and content is all ready decided with the guide now having 5 distinct chapters (from South to North) and each chapter split into localised areas. This is off course, the fine tuning stage and it is this attention to detail that makes or breaks a guidebook. Below are a couple of screen shots from the five chapters and gives an idea of where we are are at present. :-)
The future volume 1 Rock Climbers guidebook to Donegal is currently in it's final stages of proof reading and grammar correction, to say it has been a bit epic getting the project to this stage, would be an understatement of biblical proportions. Gathering the new route information from lines completed since the previous guide involved 100s of e-mails and PMs to many different climbers mostly following vague rumours and whispers. This information was used to build the free on-line PDFs for each section and location found around the county, Donegal on-line guide.
Due to the vast and dis-connected nature to almost 3000 of the recorded rock climbs in Co. Donegal it was necessary to first decide how much rock to actually put into a guidebook. It eventually made sense to produce two guides each detailing two very separate climbing mediums and locations.
Volume 1
The first guide covers Belshade to Tory Island by simply following the coastline clockwise and jumping on and off and island or three. This volume covers vast areas of new locations, crags and islands. Having been heavily involved in the development of many of these areas it made the process both very easy and very difficult to decide what to include/exclude. For example, having met an angel at the base of a remote sea stack on a solo first ascent mission, does this influence the inclusion of the stack in a guidebook? Thankfully this stack provides a world class rock climb, so the decision to include was an easy one to make.
An Bhuideal Sea Stack Film
Volume 2
In the second guidebook we travel inland and visit the uplands of the county in both summer and winter. With visits to Ireland’s largest mountain crag and Ireland’s longest ice climb both of which live in the Poison Glen in the Derryveagh Mountains. We then head north over Errigal and Muckish Mountains to Kerrykeel. Our final destination is Malinhead at Ireland’s most northerly point on the Inishowen Peninsula.
Muckross Rock Climbing
Owey Island Rock Climbing
Volume 1 covers a vast collection of areas on many different mediums, starting on the established two mountain granite venues in the Bluestack Mountains, Belshade and Eglish Valley. We then simply follow the coastline clockwise to Tory Island. The locations around the coast of South and West Donegal contain a perfect mix of previously published venues such as Muckross, Gola Island and Malinbeg. Over fifty percent of the guidebook is previously unpublished information on locations and routes such as Ends of the Ends Crag, and the Slievetooey Coast. Where perhaps the largest change in routes from previous Donegal guides are on Cruit, Owey and Tory Islands where development since the previous guide has been a bit prolific. These sections are much larger by a country mile than any of the previous guidebooks to the county. And finally there are off course the sea stacks, with far too many climbed stacks to possibly ever put into a standard and sensible sized guidebook. What I simply did was choose a good selection of outstanding and in several cases world class sea stack climbs from Diff to XS from all along the coast and islands.
Cruit Island Rock Climbing
Gola Island Rock Climbing
In the past year or two, three Irish guidebooks have been published one was in the form of an App to Donegal created by me. (Donegal rock climbing App). It was most definitely a wee experiment in Irish guidebook writing and several parts of it are recreated in a slightly different format in these two hardcopy Donegal Guidebooks.
The next was the Fairhead guide, edited by Craig Hiller and Ricky Bell. Craig being a professional photographer and Ricky being Ireland's best rock climber, their guidebook raised the standard of Irish guidebooks considerably. It was the first to use all colour double page spread topos and it was also the first to be edited and indesigned by the authors and not a publishing house.
Then came Dave Flannigan's select Guide to Ireland, a huge undertaking to not only choose but to fit all the best rock climbing in the country into one book. It raised the already high bar set by the Fairhead Guide up a notch or two and currently sets the standard for Irish climbing guidebooks. It should be noted Dave had already began raising the Irish guidebook standards in 2009 with his first guidebook "Bouldering in Ireland."
With "Rock Climbing in Ireland," currently setting the Irish guidebook Gold standard, any guide coming out now at a lower standard is alas doomed to fail. With this in mind I returned to many venues around Donegal at different times of morning and evening to get the best crag shots. It is the modern crag shot topos and clear directions to the crag that make a guide user friendly to the first time visitor to the areas described.
Winter climbing conditions in Ireland are a reasonably rare commodity with the ever present south west trade winds stripping all Jack Frost's good work from the mountains in an alarmingly short time. With the majority of Ireland's mountains being of a more modest height than their Scottish counterparts and being subject to the same freeze thaw cycles as Scotland, the thaw cycles can be a lot more devastating to the néve and fat ice build up.
What is required for good winter conditions is at least five days of at least minus 5 at night with daytime temperature hovering about +3. Two further requirements to create good conditions are a good freeve prior to the first snow dump to allow the turf to freeze. It is quite rare for Donegal to get several big dumps of snow which create a complex snow pack. It is much a more regular occurrence for Donegal to get one large snow dump and then consolidation occurs to this single snow mass.
Anyways, when winter does play ball in Donegal the mountains are transformed into a winter mountaineering playground. The north faces of Slieve Snaght, the Poison Glen, Errigal and Muckish being the prime winter climbing venues. These faces are predominantly very wet places during the summer months with this seepage in the winter months providing the perfect amount of water for good ice build up.
Below are a few wintery pictures of Donegals mountains over the past few years, every winter has been very different from the previous year. Some years there is an abundance of snow and very little freezing temperatures and other years it freezes so hard and quick that no snow falls and streams freeze at source and no ice cascades form.
Errigal from Slieve Snaght
The above picture shows the view from the summit of Slieve Snaght looking north towards Errigal. The gully in the foreground contains a shade over 6 meters of snow drift. We attempted to sleep the night in a snow hole, which took hours to dig out, alas the thaw came a few hours earlier and the roof collapsed as the sun set. We walked home off the hills in the dark.
Looking across the Poison Glen to Slieve Snaght
From the summit of Maumlack looking across the Poison Glen to Slieve Snaght, the alpine faces of the Poison Glen were in pristine winter condition with near 1000ft of compact néve in the gullies and the two falls transformed into near complete multi tiered cascades.
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.
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.
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.
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. :-)
