FM - Lamagan Slabs

We are enjoying an Indian summer at present, just as we did this time last year and the year before. On Saturday 12 September, Mark and I set a date with "FM", a long easy route on the slabs on the east side of Slieve Lamagan. Mark texted me early in the morning to say he was not well, but because I was all ready to go, I decided to go anyway, taking a half-rope with me in addition to my gear rack. My intention was to have a look at FM to see if I felt confident enough to free solo or maybe rope-solo it.


It was another glorious day, and the view above, looking up the Annalong Valley, is one I've photographed many times, but seldom with completely clear skies.


The photo above is of Slieve Lamagan, with the slabs facing the camera directly. FM follows a crack line more or less straight up the middle, past the white spot. I doubt I would have soloed it, because this route is one of those that always looks wet; it has a lot of dark lichen on the rock that looks like wet streaks. I was aware of this, but not having climbed it before, I didn't want to come across a wet slab at some point where I couldn't easily retreat. I was standing near the base of it weighing all this up when I heard the familiar tinkling of climbing equipment, and saw three climbers about to overtake me on the slope. After a brief discussion over whether the rock was wet or not, I explained to them that I had been going to climb it that day but my climbing partner was sick. Once they established that I had equipment with me, I was asked to join them, and I readily agreed. We split into two teams of two, Martin leading Maura, and me leading Margaret behind them (it's only just occurred to me that all our names start with "M"). They had a full rope and one half-rope, so it worked out perfectly, Martin led on the full rope and I used the two half-ropes.




I really enjoyed the climb and the company of these folk from Dublin. This is one of the things I love about climbing, that you can meet perfect strangers but if you all climb you always seem to have a lot in common, and not just the lingo of climbing itself. Oh and the rock was bone-dry the whole way.