Ennedi Desert climbing

The Ennedi Desert is located in North Eastern Chad. Up until early 2010 it was not known if there was even climbable rock there, but then Mark Synnott lead a North Face expedition with James Pearson and Alex Honnald (a group similar to the one that went to the Musandam peninsula). National Geographic photographer Jimmy Chin came along with them and captured some stunning photos and videos of the climbing. Mark had been wanting to climb towers ever since he was a child so for him this was a trip that had to happen.

The Geology

Due to its location the rock formations are all sandstone, which can be quite crumbly and hard to climb but in their chase they came across hard durable sandstone which is perfect for climbing.

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock which is made up of little sand sized particles of other bits of weathered rock such as granite. Over long periods of time as the sandstone dries, it cracks and this is one of the reasons climbers like it so much. Crack climbing is another form of rock climbing and it thrives in regions with lots of sandstone.

The Climbing

There is only really one type of climbing to be found  in the Ennedi and that is trad climbing since nobody has been there before to climb, nothing is bolted and you have to place your own gear as you go. Unless you are Alex Honnald who is renowned for doing lots of free solo climbs, on the trip in the amount of time it took Mark and James to climb one tower Alex had already climbed 5 free soloed.

This is the video that was put together of the trip, check it out its really good! 

Photo
http://media.outsideonline.com/images/WCMDEV_154862_climbing-ennedi-desert.jpg

Dalkey Quarry

Dalkey Quarry is located 14 km South East of Dublin city centre on the coast of the Irish Sea. Dalkey Quarry used to be used for extracting granite for building in the 19^th century, quarrying started in 1815 and the rock was used to build the still standing Dún Laoghaire. Now Dalkey is most famous for being one of the most famous crags in Ireland.

Geology

Dalkey Hill is made of granite and so the quarry makes for great climbing, like in Yosemite the rock here is hard and durable. It is good for placing your cams and other such gear. The rock here would have cooled from molten rock under the earth’s surface, allowing large crystals to form, as opposed to above where is would cool quickly and result in small crystals such as in basalt.

 The Climbing

Climbing in the quarry started in 1942 when the first climbs were recorded, many of the routes done then are still challenging climbers today. Since then the quarry has undergone a real spring clean and now there are over 300 climbs (as listed in the current guidebook). Climbs are nearly all single-pitch and range from 10-35 meters. The grades allow for nearly all levels and go up to E7 (6b equivalent). Nearly all the climbs follow cracks up the cliffs.

There are lots of videos on YouTube and Vimeo of Dalkey so check them out! (but the quality of them aren't great!)

 Sources 

http://www.alpinesports.ie/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/d/a/dalkey.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalkey_Quarry

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~moroneyk/Images-Large/61427.jpg

Climbing Oman

Up until a few years ago nobody had ever even considered Oman as place that has good rock climbing. Until in early this year (2014) when North Face team athlete Mark Synnnott lead an expedition to the Musandam Peninsula with fellow North Face athletes Alex Honnald and Hazel Findlay. A National Geographic crew lead by photographer Jimmy Chin came along for the trip and made some beautiful images and video. They did some large wall climbs but they also did deep water soloing which is a very exciting new branch of rock climbing. As well as amazing climbing on untouched rock it was a very interesting cultural experience for the team.

The Geology

It is soluble because of its mineral make up, this makes it form the sharp, jagged peaks that are found in the Northern most point of Oman, these peaks that fall directly into the water offer a completely different climbing experience from the huge granite walls of Yosemite that most of them are used to.

If you are interested check out this beautiful video

Sources
Photo http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FCWLtyTmX3o/maxresdefault.jpg

Glendalough

Intro to Glendalough

Glendalough or (Valley of the Two lakes in Irish)  is a very well known valley for many reasons, its Glaciated U-Shaped Valley is studied by many Junior Cert Geography students all around the country, its monastic settlement is famous worldwide, but within the climbing community it is famous for providing some of the best bouldering available in Ireland, there are also rope climbs at Glendalough but we are going to focus mainly on the bouldering.

The Geology

The geology of Glendalough is very interesting, the two main rock types present in Glendalough are Granite and Mica Schist. Granite is the same type of rock that is present in Yosemite Valley which we talked about last week ( http://matthewsblogs98.blogspot.ie/2014/11/climbing-in-yosemite.html ). Granite has very good properties for climbing, it is hard and easy to grip and so it makes for very entertaining boulder problems. The other rock type found in Glendalough is Mica Schist, Mica Schist is a metamorphic rock that has metamorphosed from rocks such as shale and mud stone, although it is a common rock in this area nearly none of the boulders are Mica Schist.

The Climbing 

There are over 100 problems to be attempted in Glendalough and vary in difficulty from easy to desperately hard (the hardest is "Wonderland" 8b) I recommend that if you are planning a bouldering trip to the valley go in Spring or Autumn in order to get the best of the weather while avoiding the tourist rush in Summer.
As far as accommodation for climbers goes, if you are tough enough you will be quite happy with the Irish Mountaineering Club Hut which is located a 40 minute walk from the boulders and will cost you E7.50, but you will need your own sleeping bag, otherwise there are loads of B+Bs in the area if you would like a bit more luxury.

Enjoy the climbing!

By the way if you would like a bit more information on the Geography of Glendalough, I did a field Report on it as a school project,  I got a good mark so check it out!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lfmop9p15ji3kro/GLENDALOUGH%20FIELD%20REPORT.docx?dl=0

Sources 

http://theshortspan.com/features/boulderinginglendalough.htm

http://theshortspan.com/index.php/the-hardest-problems-in-ireland/

http://theshortspan.com/photo/intro/glendalough14.jpg


Video from Chris Rooney on vimeo

Climbing in Yosemite

Intro to Yosemite

Yosemite Valley is a climbing hotspot located in California. It is such a famous area for climbing because of its huge granite walls the most famous of which is El Capitan which towers 3,593 feet above the valley floor. El Capitan is so famous due to its glass smooth appearance and high climbing difficulty.

The Geology

Yosemite Valley is a glaciated U-shaped valley which was eroded during the last ice age, thousands of years ago. The rock in Yosemite is nearly all granite, a plutonic igneous rock, (this means that the rock is formed from magma that cools and solidifies under the Earth’s surface very slowly, and this allows large crystals to form).

The reasons that granite is so suited for climbing are that; it is a fairly course-grained rock which makes it quite grippy for the average hard-fingered climber, it is very hard and resists erosion which causes it to form large cliffs like the ones found in Yosemite, it breaks into large blocks by jointing creating large cracks, which is why some of the best crack climbs in the world can be found on granite cliffs.

The Climbing

As well as the huge multi-pitch (more than one rope-length) climbs, there are much smaller climbs which do not require a rope, just a crash mat, that in the past were used by climbers to train for the big walls. However, nowadays they are considered to be another branch of climbing called bouldering. Bouldering is considered a more sociable, and strength testing way of climbing rather than endurance, and we will be looking into it in a little more detail next week when we talk about climbing a bit closer to home, Glendalough.

Sources

www.yosemitepark.com

http://www.nps.gov/yose/naturescience/geology.htm

http://climbing.about.com/od/wheretoclimb/a/3-Types-Of-Rock-For-Climbing-Granite-Sandstone-and-Limestone.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_View 

Introduction

Hello my name is Matthew and this is my project on the Geography of Rock Climbing. I started rock climbing in August this year and since then I have been hooked. I climb at least once a week in UCD, and most of my spare time is spent looking at climbing videos on the internet.