Climbing, a five star romantic getaway!

Climbing isn’t just all about the rocks… in my opinion. Climbing is about getting away from it all. Leaving the built up towns, the congestion, the chaos that comes with modern life and losing yourself in nature. It is like a mini adventure in my mind.

As you see above our five star accommodation on Cruit island in Co. Donegal.  It was just perfect for a get away, with the Craig a mere five steps away.

  Also a great place to learn how to trad climb (place gear into the rock in order to climb up) with short climbs and a soft landing to boot

We set up camp and had our own private beach to enjoy with a full sky of stars, good company and a few beers.

 

A toasty fire to keep us warm

 

 

  A hungry Vixen to add o the company!

 

We called it an early night to get up bright and early  to give us time for a good breakfast. We fueled  ourselves for the five step hike to the criag the next morning.

 

Breakfast

 

There was a lot of variety of climbs.

• H For Hard
• HS For Hard Severe
• S For Severe
• VS for Very Severe
• HVS Hard Very Severe
• Then I think you are onto E territory, E standing for Extreme.

I climb my very first VS and was very pleased with myself… okay I lied. I second it but If you have been reading my blogs you would know that it had taken me nearly six months to learn how to tie a figure of eight. So no way was I going to be allowed near any gear. This was back in the end of May. Still early days as I started climbing in December.

Create a guide book and they will come…

With all good secrets. Our secluded beach didn’t stay that way for long.

Other climbers arrived down on the beach and set up camp. Adding to the vibe and making the place feel like our own climbing community. That in itself is what I love about climbing. I find it a very inclusive sport with the most friendly of people. All willing to give a belay or offer some coffee.

Cruit Island although a long travel journey. It takes in the van roughly between 5-6 hours from Dublin, it is well worth the trip! We were lucky in that the weather was fantastic. So warm in fact that I jumped into the sea to cool off from climbing in the sunshine.

The surrounding area were picturesque too.

 

To summarize a most enjoyable trip. A spot I would love to return to and get back on to place some gear of my own.

 

 

Climbing a great excuse to holiday!

This year I was lucky enough to take my first overseas climbing holiday, El chorro.

El Chorro is in the south of Spain approximately two hours give or take from Malaga Airport . The holiday was in mid April. I had only been climbing for roughly six months.Though I was in very safe hands with the man himself. He who got me into climbing… Lucky for me. As in saying that it had taken me the six months to learn how to do a figure of eight knot. I was told that I had to untie and then retie myself back in at the top of the climb. Which meant I had to secure my self at the top with a quick draw * I think? Any way some sort of dohicky, in order to prevent my falling to my death. So no pressure!

We started off on some 4s and worked our way up to a 6a. All was going pretty well until me and the main man had.. lets call it a.. communication malfunction! As it happened we had some very nosey neighbour’s climbing next to us. One very opinionated neighbour thought I hadn’t secured myself at the top before uniting to retie in… silly man..

I was petrified! I was thinking this is it! This is how it ends, I am going to fall to my death. A little bit O.T.T looking back on it now. As it turned out I was secured but both myself and himself the climbing partner in crime got an awful fright.

So my top climbing tip for beginners is to have total trust and communication with your climbing partner and to ignore nosy neighbours. After I recovered my composure we climbed on for the rest of the afternoon.

So my take on El Chorro… Between showers climbing was good the rock was slightly polished but there was a great variety of climbs to make up for it. Amenities at the campsite were top-notch and there was a great climbing community vibe even for a few nosey neighbours.

A big thumbs up for a first time overseas sports climbing trip to El Chorro and if you do get rained off there is the Camino Del Ray to hike or a few beers to down! @MN329SocMedia