The climbing at Lackglass is on high quality limestone in a beautiful secluded location. The problems are on both boulders and vertical walls. The wall heights range from 3m upwards and the climbing has a similar feel to that found on the upper sections of Ailladie's Boulder and Aran walls. As they are all wave washed during big Atlantic storms, loose rock is not an issue. For those operating in the Font fifth and sixth grades the climbing is arguably as good as anything else you will find in the country. While it may not be as varied as the high friction granite bouldering in Glendalough, the high concentration of problems with good landings and the Atlantic setting more than compensate.
The following photos, courtesy of Damon Corso and Nigel Callender, set the scene:
To see photos of people in action climbing at Lackglass click here. For background information and problem location read on.
The area was first bouldered in April 2005. Apart from the odd boulderer the only other people you are likely to meet at Lackglass are fishermen. Various climbers have been quite active here since then. A comprehensive guide has recently been produced by Gzregorz Florek in pdf format and is available on www.theshortspan.com
The village of Doolin itself is a traditional music stronghold and a great place to hang out. It is one of Ireland's prime tourist destinations being only 10km's from the Cliffs of Moher and a departure point for the Aran Islands.
The walk in is pretty with an abundance of flowers in summer and takes about 10 minutes. Go North out of Doolin until you come to the Aran View Hotel. Drive down the small lane opposite it to its end. From here go through a gate and follow the right hand side of the wall down to the sea. Near the end scramble over some boulders to arrive at Base Camp.
The illustrations below are taken from several visits made in 2007 with various climbers and a bunch of nieces/nephews. Michael Reardon and Damon Corso happened to be there on that first visit that Donal O'Connor and I made on July 8th.
The illustrations show problems that I have either climbed myself or seen others climb and take a guess at their Font grade. All grades are estimated for standing starts unless otherwise indicated. For those familar with the British grading system but not the Font one, the Font grades from 5a to 6a would be approximately the same as the equivalent British technical grade. Above this it tends to break down.
The various areas and boulders described below can be seen on the topo. Update: The 2007/2008 Winter storms changed the scenery a little, these changes are noted in red text below.
Base Camp wall and BC boulders
Following the right hand side of the stone wall and scrambling over the boulders at the end will bring you to Base Camp. This is a large rock platform mostly above high tide where most of the climbing is found. Base Camp wall is shown below and is a short wall which has been measured to be between 3.8m and 4.4m high. It contains a few easy but good problems in the F3 to F5a grade and is a good wall to warm up on.
From left to right:
Craker, Font 3, Follow the crack in the slab
Sider, Font 4, Obvious weakness in the middle
Sticker, Font 5a, Gain and use the finger crack
Ender, Font 4, To the arete and up
Bobs Traverse, Font 6a/b in the left to right direction
You are quite likely find a pair of boulders close to where you put down your gear. These are the BC boulders. They are not particularly high, but do provide a few quality problems in the 5's and 6's. Note that although these boulders are here in 2007, they may not be in future years. Even though they are well above the normal high tide mark, huge Atlantic storms are well capable of rolling them around.
The boulders along with lines are shown below. The left hand boulder is 3.3m high and its front face has:
From left to right:
Jug City, F 5b, sit start, delicate, start from the large flat hold
Sidewinder, F 6b, sit start, follow the fingery side pulls
Side Pull, F6a as stand start, harder as a sit start
Monkey Bars, F5c, sit start
Its side face has:
From left to right:
Plod, F 3, just left of the arete
Deceit, F 5b, this looks trivial but the smooth exit slab gives reason for thought
Jug City, F 5b, sit start, delicate, start from the large flat hold
The right hand boulder is lower than the left but has 3 good sit start lines. The storms took this boulder away, it is nowhere to be found !
From left to right:
Arete, Sit Start, F 6a.
Stormer, Sit Start, F 6c+, start on the undercut and trend left
Through the Break, Sit Start, F 6c, start of the good side pull and trend right
South from Base Camp
A few metres South of the BC boulders is Inisheer wall which has been measured to be 3.8m high. It and Inisheer boulder (leaning against its right hand end) are shown below: The right hand section of Inisheer Wall is gone, sting and letterbox no longer exist. Inisheer Boulder has been rotated slightly and a smaller boulder has rolled up against Tip Toe so this no longer exists as a problem. However the slab right of Tip Toe no longer has a green slime pool under it and there are scope for new easier problems there. Pop has also disappeared, however in the jumble of boulders behind a similar but slightly harder problem has appeared. Additionally there is a good new problem in the Font 7's has in this area.
From left to right:
Poetry, F 5b, sit start, very pleasant moves on sidepulls to start this problem
Doolin Crack, F 5b, nice crack which can be climbed on either side, getting started is the crux
Sting, F 5a, layoff the break to get going, shallow pool at the bottom
Letterbox, F 4, gain the niche and up
Blast Off, F 5b sit start, delicate problem
Left Edge, F 3, left hand side and edge of the slab
Right Edge, F 3, right hand side and edge of the slab
Tip Toe, F 5b, left hand side of the front face of the slab, crux at start
Pop, F 5c, this is on the back side of Inisheer Boulder. It is not marked on the above topo but shown below:
South of Inisheer wall are some more boulders and beyond these is one of the main features of the area, RMW, which stands for the Reardon Memorial wall. RMW is 6-6.5 metres high and offers several good problems. In spite of the height, the difficulties are generally low down and the holds get better as you go higher. A bouldering mat or two and a good spotter make the problems a very reasonable proposition.
The photo below is courtesy of Damon Corso and shows lines that himself and Michael Reardon climbed on July 8th. Damon's estimated Font grades are shown below in orange, my own estimates for problems I climbed on that day are in white (its years since I bouldered in Fontainbleau and then only a few times... but the grades should be at least fairly consistent with other grades on this page)
1. Standard Corner, F 5a, F 3 Corner
2. Reardon's Mailbox, F 6b/+
3. Reardon's Mailbox Right, F 6b/+, F 6a
4. A Roof over your Head, F 6b
5. Bachar's Cock Lock, F 6c
6. Pop, Jump, Lock, F 6b+, F 6a Main difficulty is getting on to the first decent holds, jump !
7. Da Light, F 6a, F 5b
8. Da Light Right, F 6b
9. Standard Finger Crack, F 6a, F 5c
10. The Slab, F 5a, F 3 Slab
11. Abandoned, F 5a, F 3 Slab
Below are photos, courtesy of Damon Corso, of Paul Harrington on problem Standard Finger Crack and Donal O'Connor/Michael Reardon on Reardon's Mailbox
Around the corner from RMW is the Den. This is a little cave offering shelter from the rain and a some good problems:
From left to right:
Foolin in Doolin, Font 5c, Vertical seam which is a little more difficult than it looks
Doolin Cafe Arete, Font 7b SS, Up the arete
Renegade, Font 6C SS, move out right to the huge flat hold and up, photo below is courtesy of Damon Corso and shows him on this problem
Bordering the right side of the Den is another short wall with some easier stuff:
From left to right:
Medusa, F 3,
Grey Whale. F 5b , the crack is sharp
North from Base Camp
Going North around the corner of BC wall brings you to an area with several boulders known as the Zoo. A couple of the boulders with some problems are shown below:
From left to right:
Arete, Font 5c
Gaston, Font 5c
Feetless, Font 5b
Robs Arete, Font 4
A little beyond this is a couple of boulders with harder problems and then Kostya's Wall which is shown in the photo below. This is quite long, about 3-4 m high and contains a few good though short problems of varying difficulty.
