More Climbing

Had a really enjoyable rest-of-the time climbing at Rai Lay. Philipp clocked up a 7a+ (or was it 7b) to his name.. and Nicole was climbing pretty hard as well (though unfortunately knocked out with some sort of food disagreement somewhat.

I was really happy that Mhairi was climbing so well – and really enjoying the outdoor climbing. I was even happy (well, mostly) that she was climbing better + pushing herself harder than me. She was leading 6a+ solidly after 2 weeks, and I wish I could have said the same! but it was great fun.

The best climb we did was thanks to Dave, and it was just awesome climbing. The route was called Humanality. 5 pitches or so, 5,6a+,6b,6b+,6b. You end up 100m (vertical) above the beach. It’s quite exciting. There are some awesome pitches. Really, it was a total highlight.

I think the line in red shows roughly where the route went.

Those two pics are of Dave, one of him leading the 6a+ route.

The feeling when we got to the top was something else, 100m up, one pic is of Dave and I, the other of Mhairi’s leg looking straight down from the top (perhaps not a good pic to look at if you get vertigo!)

And all too soon (well, sooner than expected) it was time to head home to Dublin for Christmas (2 years 1 month away from home). I had an amazing holiday with the folk from New Zealand (and Germany!), but by far and away the best thing about the 4 months of travel was Mhairi. She’s great (even if she does climb harder than me)