Climbing - Hen Mountain - 2/6/12

[Eamonn]

Anyone fancy going for a climb tomorrow? I was thinking of just heading to hen again.

[lou]

Yip i'll be going this time...finally!! Looking forward to it

[Eamonn]

meeting at 1000 tomorrow morning at Hen car park.

[Eamonn]

Super day out climbing.

We did five routes
Jim's Jaunt VD *   
The Merry Ploughboy VD    
Escalator   D **
Escalator Direct S 4a    
Simplicity   VD **

We did Simplicity twice taking turns leading and this was Lou's first lead

Here's some pictures of Escalator Direct









Liam modeling the supersize tent bivi.

[alanrsv]

Looks like you had a great day , what did you think of the lead on Simplicity and Escalator direct ?

[Eamonn]

Looks like you had a great day , what did you think of the lead on Simplicity and Escalator direct ?

Simplicity was class, think i managed to only get about two bits of gear in , but there was good hand holds and feet placements.

Escalator Direct was tougher than it looked, lol, not as much protection as i thought there was going to be, my first bit was about 10m up.

[alanrsv]

well done.........next time, had to work this morning

[LandyLiam]

I popped up in the afternoon for a little picnic with the kids, brought an old tent i found in the Mournes, no poles so just have to use the walking pole to keep it up, was testing it ou to see if it would do as a sort of bivvying tarp (it failed! actually it wasn't too bad if the pegs are in good ground)



nice view of Eamon's nuts 



Lou belaying on Escalator Direct



Lou climbing Escalator Direct



Lou using the nut key



Our tent struggling in the wind



nice view though

[Samm]

What's simplicity like? I think it's going to be my first outdoor climb and I'm a big wuss, scared of heights and a terrible climber!

[Eamonn]

What's simplicity like? I think it's going to be my first outdoor climb and I'm a big wuss, scared of heights and a terrible climber!

It's a really good climb, abit like a really steep set of stairs. There's good foot & hand holds but not much protection. The start of it is a wee bit tricky too. When are you climbing it?

[alanrsv]

What's simplicity like? I think it's going to be my first outdoor climb and I'm a big wuss, scared of heights and a terrible climber!

It's a good climb samm, but for your first climb try an easier route like east arete, common arete or common route on hen, then go for simplicity,  especially if you want to lead them

[Samm]

It's a good climb samm, but for your first climb try an easier route like east arete, common arete or common route on hen, then go for simplicity,  especially if you want to lead them

Thanks for that. Hopefully I'll get out to at least try something in the next week or two, though I'm just recovering from injury and haven't done a tap of exercise in 2 months so I'll be impressed if I can get myself up Hen nevermind climbing too!

[lou]

Hada great wee day out....thanks Eamonn and cheers for lettin me do my first lead   still smiling from it.  Heres to more fun climbs!