Colmcillers at Fairhead Meet May 2024
Report from Ronan Duddy, Club Chairperson.
Photo taken by Hugh McC. Ronan (blue) on Lazarus, Emi (grey) on Pangur Bán.
Fiona and I attended the Fairhead meet for the first time this year, which ran from the 31st of May to the 2nd of June. Though we only camped for the Saturday night, we got a good variety of climbing done and met new people. It was a paid-ticketed event, hosted by the McBride family and organised by the Dal Riada climbing club. For us there were a lot of “not-
done-this-before” moments during the weekend.
Arriving on Saturday morning, we pitched our tent in a field belonging to the McBride’s family farm. There was the hustle and bustle of colourfully clothed people gingling about with trad gear on their hips and ropes on their shoulders; with tents, campervans and cars packed around the open field. The weather was sublime. Having got settled, we carpooled with our friends Emi and James over to Murlough Bay car park to attend the Fairhead boulder field tour organised by Rob Hunter and Veronica Lee. The walk into the boulder field was quite idyllic. Following the track down towards the sea and in front of the towering cliffs above, the trail eventually disappears into a sea of boulders. It was exceedingly hot and thronged with a horde of climbers exploring the boulders, like ants among bread crumbs. The amount of climbers was staggering.
Fiona and I haven’t bouldered outdoors before as we didn’t own any boulder mats. However, the level of excitement and enthusiasm from our fellow boulder climbers was infectious. Folks were very welcoming to let others use their mats to try a climb. Once one was attempting a climb, a cluster of human hands lurched outwards to spot one’s potential fall. At times it felt as if there were over a dozen hands reached out from varying angles and places. The owners of the hands would shout encouraging statements to compel your journey upward. Aside from the vast array of hands, there were a vast quantity of boulder mats. These are required to protect potential falls at Fairhead given the hard jaggedy erratic-ness of the boulder field. There are plenty of places to lose an ankle as well. I cannot recall the names or grades of the boulders we climbed, as there was simply too much fun being had.
In the evening we attended a talk by Catherine Destivelle in one of the barns at the farm. Her talk was absorbing. She gave a general overview of her journey as a mountaineer, as well as her many achievements. She showed photos and footage of her adventures throughout her career, including her famous soloing feats which left the audience in awe. I believe the audience gave her a standing ovation. Fiona approached Catherine to sign her copy of her book, Rock Queen, and was well chuffed for the night. It was Niall Grimes, whom we had unfortunately missed on the Friday night, that encouraged Fiona to speak with Catherine. We complemented Niall on his Jam Crack Podcast and stated how often we listen to it on our way to new climbing adventures as it keeps us entertained!
On Sunday when queuing for a perky cappuccino from the McBrides wee coffee truck, I couldn’t help overhearing a younger group of climbers with southern accents talking about what they were going to climb. They were going to climb something at the Prow, maybe The Fence (VS 4c). This buzz was reflective of the mood throughout the weekend. There was so much exciting and lively banter floating about.
After my eavesdropping, I saw George C and Gerard O’S in McBride’s car park. It’s always nice to see familiar faces at a crag. They were heading to Farrangandoo, where we’ve never been before. This part of Fairhead is just west of the Prow and similarly requires an abseil. Due to the number of climbers at the meet, queuing for a climb was to be expected. We parted our ways as there was a fever to get climbing. Though Fiona, Emi, James and I left the camp site and headed for Farrangandoo sometime later because the fever hadn’t quite hit us yet. As we walked over we could see perhaps half a dozen climbers hovering above an abseil. Seeing George belaying Gerard confirmed that we were at Farrangandoo. They had just finished climbing Lazarus (VS 4c) before heading off to the Prow to find a route less busy. George offered some valued info on the area with potential climbs for us which is always appreciated.
Our plan was for Emi to lead with James, and for myself to lead with Fiona. I recall myself feeling queasy when thinking about what route we should tackle. Between the four of us we had a finite amount of gear, and because Fairhead is just so vertical, unforgiving and long, I didn’t want to run out of protection (who does?). George said “don’t psych yourself out” before he and Gerard headed to the Prow. Gerard also mentioned one way to get to Lazarus would be to abseil into the top of a gully and tie onto the abseil to belay from, given that it is a bit awkward to get to. Emi and I split the gear between us and headed down the abseil.
Reaching the base of the crag, Emi and James waited on their turn to climb Pangur Bán (HVS 5a). Fiona and I finally caught ‘go fever’ and decided to scramble up the incredibly steep grassy gully to gain the start of Lazarus, as it looked straightforward enough. However, as I was setting off, I could hear the voice of another climber speaking with Fiona politely saying something along the lines of “I don’t doubt his climbing ability but that’s a dodgy gully, be careful…” After climbing hesitantly three or four moves up this gully, looking around for any solid bits of rock to cling on to (and of course reflecting on the guy’s words), it dawned on me that I should rope up. The thought of soloing up steep, grassy and unstable rock for about 10 metres still gives me the shivers.
On belay, I climbed up the gully to discover Hugh McC beginning to second Velocette (VS4b). I wished him a ‘bon voyage’ while building a belay for Fiona. She climbed the gully and put me on belay, where we both agreed the gully was disgusting in concept and really shouldn’t be climbed. Abseiling down to the top of the gully would be a much better way to start the climb as advised. This coloured my ascent of Lazarus where I was convinced that I bit off more than I could chew. The ‘gully of doom’ experience, combined with an anxiety of llacking gear to climb the actual route, affected my mindset. I spaced out protection where I could and bumped up cams as I went. When at rests, I even went so far as to take out the previous bit of protection, bump it up above my current piece and reclaim the piece that was my most recent. “Just in case I need this later”, I thought… In reality I didn’t need it later and the climb was soon complete.
I belayed Fiona off a fence post (classy). This was also her first time using crack gloves. She loved them. We both agree that the gloves make the cracks a little more bearable, or accessible. I think this is because crack climbing is quite an un-intuitive style to learn. Gloves help. Fiona reached the crux of the climb, let out some Xena warrior princess battle cries and topped out. She collected five pieces of gear on her seconding which I couldn’t believe. A gregarious Italian climber named Mario congratulated me on this. Emi and James had also completed Pangur Bán which sounded like a good route. It’s meant to contain a good variety of climbing on it (face climbing, laybacks and cracks). We didn’t stay long after this and headed back home to reconvene with our civilian lives.
Overall the meet was great fun and a good social experience. It was nice to see so many climbers with such an enthusiastic and contagious desire to climb.