A sprinkling of '06

I hadn't climbed for several years before our trip to Turkey in March 2006. The main event of this trip was the total solar eclipse. But it was also great to be back on rock for the first time in a while. I wouldn't take this lot anywhere else, but thanks for a great trip, Pete, Ronald and Pieter.

Back in Ireland, I decided to get back into it again, but where and with who? I was fortunate to hook up with Mark Warnock from Portadown; we met up through an online climbers forum, and we did our first route together at Fairhead in May. I also met Maciej Buhcic, Macdara O'Graham and Mark Anderson, and did some fantastic routes in the Mournes. The summer of '06 was lovely, and the long days lend themselves to evening climbing. I often went out after work, leaving Dundalk at 6pm, driving 50 minutes to the Mournes, climbing a route or two, and was back home at 11pm, when it gets truly dark in mid-summer. My climbing was going really well; I also soloed a few classic routes from V-diff up to Severe standard, including Fingerbowl and Sunset on Hen Mountain, Devil's Rib on Slieve Beg, and Class Distinction on Pigeon.

By July I had climbed several harder routes, up to E1 5b. Quare Crack on Hen, Cabin Cruise on Spellack, and The Penguin on Newcastle Beach on Binnian North Tor. At Fairhead, Mark and I climbed Burn-up, Hell's Kitchen and The Black Thief (both on my 36th birthday) and An Bealach Runda. Things were going great.

What happened next really needs a post all to itself.