Team Geared Up

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) You’re almost too late to enter a team for the most fun event on the Irish Mountain Running Calendar. Myself and our girly team of Clonliffe females have been recce-ing the various routes of the Wicklow Way Relay. It’s 8 different sections of the Wicklow Way totally something like 120k. The route takes in beautiful parts of Dublin and Wicklow and although marked it’s always necessary to run your route quite close to the event day on the off chance that the scenery has changed. We had a great run last year and our aim was to get into the top ten but we were just outside it. Our goal this year is to blast well into the top ten, no problems!! ;-) The winning team of recent years has been Rathfarnham but there looks like a strong challenge this year from a team made up of Clonliffe and guests. Photos here of a couple of us girls and some of our Gobi March participants after our recces of legs 5 and 6 last Sunday. As you can see it involved small amounts of running, large amounts of laughing and picnic-ing. Isn’t that the way to do it?! -Aisling- Image is 8 of the ten Clonliffe females who participated in last year s relay!

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Racing the Planet have just e-mailed competitors for the Gobi March with their tent allocation. The event kicks off in about a month and I wrote before about how husband Tony, brother Eugene and bestest mates Paul Moran and Liam O Riain were heading that direction. Well you re just not gonna believe who they ve bagged as a tent buddy!! They ve only gone and been allocated to share a tent with the 27th most influential person in the World (that s according to Time Magazine)! Dean Karnazes is sharing with the Paddies on his second desert event this year, (he s on a quest to complete all 4 of the Racing the Planet series of desert races). Unperturbed by the news of a celebrity in their tent one of the team can be qouted as saying: I don t believe the name they gave our tent - Langerville. And none of us are from Cark. We should complain about no wans in our tent. Who ll make the tea, do the wash up and wash our socks etc? Can anything be done? Yeah there ll be words at our next Wednesday Night session I can tell ya ;-) I had to counter balance that level of sexism with a hefty dose of gratuitous Dean -ism, i.e. the picture above. Just look at him go!! -Aisling- Image credit: Time Magazine.

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Wow. Wow. Wow. Koh Tao is nice. Very few places make my grade of the return list , but staying a suite in Bans Dive Resort on Koh Tao and heading out for a few dives per day and relaxing the evenings with cocktails on the beach has. This is tropical. Proper S.E.Asia beach stuff. Great restaurants. Spectacular scenery. Really chilled. We went to do our PADI Open Water and stayed to complete the PADI Adventure Diver. Having arrived and been brought to the resort in the back of a pick-up truck we started into an evening of theory followed by more theory the next morning. The next afternoon got a little more interesting as we started off in the pool getting used to equipment. There was predictably lots of trying to fly, waving arms about until working out was neutral buoyancy was. Here s a video of me looking like a bird that can t get off the ground. And Aoife looking, as always, slightly more graceful And so from out of the pool on our second day and into the dive-boat for enroute to our first dive site. Two giant rocks called Twin Peaks . Afterwards we moved on to a giant white rock, aptly named White Rock! We repeated these dives the next day, building up our confidence and experience to 18m. That s Days 3 4 and Open Water PADI, Easy! The next dive was a night dive to start our Adventure Diver certification. I loved this - it was like something out of SeaQuest! But it really wasn t for everyone. The water is completely inky black and lit only in a narrow by your torch. We spotted a giant barracuda out night hunting as he flashed by. Very cool. Day 6 was Deep Diving (30m) which was the best dive of the trip. We expected to see sharks, but instead saw millions millions of tiny nemo s. Millions! Really amazing dive at an offshore pinnacle. Green Rock (a big green rock!) was our final dive site, this was navigation. By this stage we were wearing our own dive computers, compass and slate with map so after descending with the instructor in the group we were set off to complete a navigation course through the rocky arches of Green Rock. The last half of the dive was alone with our buddy to explore and try and surface using our new navigation ability beside the boat. We got it bang on - but the boat had moved (no really!). Could it get better? Yes! Our final day we hired a tandem surf kayak and headed off into the mid-morning sun to a nearby island with snorkelling gear and an underwater camera. What a view . savage island! And a Koh Toa story wouldn t be complete without the beach bars. A great trip and another TGU adventure! -Robin. (Image Credit: By Author).

UPDATE 2215hrs - Video of torch on summit via Reuters: SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - An incoming report on the news today started like this EVEREST BASE CAMP, China (Reuters) - The Olympic torch was lit at the top of Mount Everest on Thursday, the crowning moment of the Beijing Games torch relay which had been dogged by anti-Chinese protests on its world tour. Live reports from Everest Base Camp have such a historic ring to them it generates excitement before reading them. The Everest flame will be reunited with the main flame later in the relay, possibly when it passes through Lhasa in mid-June. Three months to the day before the Games open, the first batch of climbers from a 31-strong team set out at about 1.30 am (1:30 p.m. EDT) from a camp at 8,300 meters. The climbers trudged slowly to the summit, in the final stages, staging a mini-relay. They unfurled the Chinese national flag, a flag with the five Olympic rings and a flag bearing the Beijing Olympic logo. The real news here is that the Chinese authorities banned anybody else from stepping onto the mountain so far this season to insure themselves against having anybody get in their way to the summit. Now they ve summited the other teams can start moving above camp 2 where the army have been preventing them from moving. Is it right to close a mountain? -Robin

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Guide, Kenton Cool has begun posting photos of Ran Fiennes on Everest. They ve begun acclimatising and the latest photos come in from Camp 2. You can follow them on the Mountain Hardware Sessions flickr stream which is well worth subscribing to. Why is this expedition big news? Because as Guinness Book of Records - Worlds Greatest Explorer this is one of Ran s last uncompleted challenges - he s already tried three times as Eoin told us when he announced this expedition. Heart problems within 1000ft of the summit caused him to descend. They re not the only ones up there either, business is booming at the world s highest post office thanks to the Olympics The Mount Qomolangma (Everest) post office has been inundated with journalists, Olympic officials and engineers who ve moved into the area to prepare for the Everest torch ascent. Video from Reuters: -Robin (Image Credits: Mountain Hardware on Flickr)

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Olympic hopefuls, Dean Karnazes and a controversial torch aren t the only things making preparations for getting to China this Summer. A group of experienced Irish ultrarunners, I think I just might know one or two of them ;-) , have been making preparations for Racing the Planet s Gobi Challange. Long hours on the hills with heavy backpacks, long hours spent on the internet finding appropriate gear/ bags/ sleeping bags/ food and long hours spent racing every ultra available to them have meant that the gang are almost all set for the Irish assault on this 4deserts challenge. They recently launched their website, Endurance Racers, thanks to Rathfarnham WSAF s Mick Bolger (and fellow Rotterdam marathon competitior), and are looking for donations for the Harold s Cross Hospice. Some info on the race: It covers 257km/160 miles (in sections similar to 40, 42, 45, 40, 80, 10 km) run over 6 days (7 for some) - equivalent to 6 regular marathons. In addition to that, competitors have to carry everything they will need for the duration (apart from a tent) on their backs in a rucksack (food, clothes, medical kit, sleeping bag etc). Water is rationed and handed out at each checkpoint. The gang are Tony Kiernan (my husband!), Eugene Coppinger (my brother and coach!), Liam O Riain (Bestest Mate Ever!) and Paul Moran (crossed the line with me in the Connemara Ultra the year I won!). On the 5th day, you will set off across the barren wilderness to complete a 50 mile stage. Few people complete this before dark that evening and some will not come in till after dark the next night. Its tough, so don t say that nobody warned you in the strongest terms. Best of luck! -Aisling-

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - I watch Russell Davies blog for my interest in mobile technology and was pleased to see this little expedition of his. On his first (and last?) ascent of Ben Nevis he strapped Nokia N95 to his chest strap on his rucksack and set it to post live photos GPS location to the internet every minute. On the way up it worked for precisely three minutes. But, on the way down it worked for a bit longer, so this video is about an hour of descent from the top of Ben Nevis, compressed into a minute, down to about 1000m, where it stopped working. Not sure why. I like it though, it works as proof of concept. I m not sure what the concept is exactly, but it s proved. Watch Video: a bit of a descent of ben nevis from russelldavies on Vimeo. The Flickr set of photos is worth looking at too. Quirky, but a nice project. -Robin (Image Credit: Russell Davies Flickr Set)

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Team Geared Up are delighted to help out a regular reader over the last 7 months, Avril Copeland who with her team Hunky Dorys Adventure Racing will partake in the world famous Eco Primal Quest in 68 days. You can follow their preparations for the worlds toughest endurance race on their TGU microsite blog http://hunkydorys.teamgearedup.com/. Their team is spectacular, Avil Copeland, Peter Spagnoli Scott Pleban - Make sure to read their bios. To give you an idea of the experience Adventure Racing World Championships, Scotland Eco Primal Quest Utah Subaru Primal Quest Pacific Northwest Eco Challenge NAC with Team New Balance Primal Quest Adventure Race 2006 Eco Primal Quest Salomon X-adventure World Tour, Utah 13 time United States Champion - Ski Orienteering 7 World Ski-Orienteering Championships World Masters XC-Ski Championships AR World Championships, NZ Subaru Primal Quest AR World Championships, New Foundland Here s a great short video about the race Head to their team blog to continue reading hunkydorys.teamgearedup.com! Expect to hear updates on TGU - and don t hesitate to ask a training question on their blog. -Robin- (Image Credit: Avril ascending a rope section, Hunky Dorys Gallery.)

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Apologies to everyone who sent in all the excellent emails, tip-offs, press releases and links over the last 2 weeks. I ve been offline (adventuring - so I ve an excuse!) and missed posting them. Rather than post lots of old news - I thought I d do a round up. Starting on the 16th of June, Ireland will host The Turas , a six-day World Series Adventure Race. A global television programme will follow teams of athletes as they compete across Southwest Ireland for €100,000 in prize money. Close TGU contact Vanessa Lawrenson, publisher of Outsider magazine and an experienced international adventure racer and founder of ARI the organising company says: “I’ve competed in a lot of these events before, including world championships, but this will raise the standard to a whole new level. Not only are we offering the biggest prize in Adventure Racing history, but the athletes will love the buzz of the festivals and will appreciate the community support.” Forty mixed teams of four will travel from all over the world to compete over a 400-mile course spanning the 5 peninsulas of Kerry and West Cork. It looks huge great! If anyone wants contact details for the PR Team - leave a comment below and I ll mail you the direct phone number that I was sent. Ian Taylor emailed to say the Everest2008.ie team are now leaving Namche Bazaar and trekking to Deboche. Their official permit has been granted and their expedition freight arrived. Our bags that had been in freight finally arrived this morning as they were fast tracked, or should that be fast yak d up the valley. Good luck in the acclimatisation boys! Sean Murray organiser of the Total Experience Adventure Race on April 19th 10am in Blessington, Co. Wicklow, mailed to announce the race to TGU. Please contact Total experience if you would like to have some time in a sea kayak or open boat previous to the race. Leave a comment below if you d like contact numbers mailed to you. The race looks great with Sport and Extreme classes. Get it on your calendar! Via press release, the Irish Coast Guard have launched a Automatic Information System (AIS) and encourages small leisure boat users and small fishing vessels to install AIS and other safety equipment onboard their craft. Small craft fitted with AIS will therefore be electronically visible to commercial traffic in poor visibility. The boats current position and historical track will also be visible as a live picture in the Coast Guards rescue Coordination Centres in Dublin, Malin and Valentia. if an alarm is raised as to the whereabouts of a vessel the AIS system can be queried to look for the missing or overdue boat and draw a picture on the electronic chart of where it was last visible to the system and what track it had followed over the preceding hours. The Coast Guard considers that this will greatly improve their ability to find missing and overdue boats fitted with AIS once the 999 call is received. Alan Masterson paratiger.co.uk mailed to point out Dave MacLeod s has become the first person to climb the notorious Don t Die of Ignorance route on Ben Nevis without the use of aids. It wasn t Dave without ropes that was at risk, it was the roped cameraman who had an incident midway! The hairiest moment the pair experienced was when Mr French slipped on one of the most difficult sections of the climb and was left hanging by a piece of rope known as a wrist loop above a 300ft drop. It took two hours before he was able to drag himself back up the rope to join Mr MacLeod, who by then was shivering with extreme cold after shedding several layers of clothing to make himself lighter for the climb. Read it in the Herald and on Daves blog. Thanks Alan! An email from Fearghal O`Nuallain from RevolutionCycle.ie met Ben Saunders last year at the Explore conference at the Royal Geographical Society in London. Ben is now going for the North Pole Speed Record! We previously posted a profile of Ben in October as the youngest person to ski to the North Pole. Check out this great teaser video! Ben Saunders from Ben Saunders on Vimeo. (Image Credit: The Turas, Valerie O Sullivan)

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) I ve blogged before about how some of our gang are heading to China for the Gobi March. It s not long to go now and training with their heavily laden backpacks has been going surpisingly well, it doesn t seem to have sapped their speed at all! This stage race is just one of the 4deserts races in the Racing the Planet series, which includes races on some of the driest, hottest, windiest and coldest places on Earth . One of the series is starting tomorrow:the Atacama Crossing in Chile is a seven-day, six-stage, 250-kilometer footrace across the Atacama Desert of Chile. Check out the list of competitors here. It includes three people who intend doing all 4 of the series in one calender year; South African Paul H. Liebenberg, Dane Jimmi Olsen, and American Dean N. Karnazes. Bets of luck to the Irish on the list, James Mc Quillan, Rossa O Donnell and Shane O Rourke. We ll be keeping an eye on their progress! -Aisling- Image from Royal Engineers and sign is from Racing the Planet.

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Planet Ultramarathon brings us this story about the Irish 24 hour running champion Dara O Kearney: Dara O’Kearney has made a good start to the year by beating a high quality field in the European Deep Stack Championship held in Drogheda over the weekend. A deal was done when five players were left and Dara, with a dominating chip stack, took the lion’s share of the prize money and the trophy. Congratulations Dara! 1st Dara O’Kearney €47,200 2nd Gary Clarke €34,100 3rd Fran Egan €28,600 4th Lloyd O’Farrell €26,700 5th Barry Hand €23,400 You d have to run a lot of ultras to earn that kinda cash! Dara was third in last years Connemara Ultra. -Aisling- Image from BBC.

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (Team Geared Up) - This first one is probably one of the strangest hybrid devices I ve ever seen. It s called the SkidScooter and its an amphibious scooter . The idea is that its a device that can help you get across two different environments. It is a kick scooter that will get you acros (paved) land and has built in motors and propellers in the wheels to propell you through the water. Could you imagine this thing being pitched, I m sure it would have gone a little like this: Have you ever been in a situation where you were scooting along a road but were suddenly stopped by a large body of water and only wish you had someway of getting across it? That is where the SkidScooter comes in! Other than people who live near beaches where they might find use for this, don t expect this to ever leave concept. All bikers when biking on streets have one common fear. Cars. One thing that drivers hate and bikers have a hard time protraiting is the direction the biker is going to turn. We ve all been taught when we learned how to ride that we put our arm out to signal the direction we are going. However that often leaves us unstable and prone to a possible accident as our control of the bike may become hindered when we only have one hand on the handles. This is where this clever device comes in. Designed by Leah Buechley, the jacket has blinking LED lights on the back to show which direction you are turning. Although only a conceptual project now I can see this becoming a reality sometime in the future. The real product will most likely be a thin vest that can go over ones jacket and have a small bluetooth enabled control that sits on the handle bar. Ideally I cool function would be some kinda of modual that could detect when the bike was slowing down and then a red LED will flash on the back to signal the biker is slowing down or stopping. Plus this would be an awesome accessory at raves! (via DVice) In the comments of a post I did on the Cube foldable bike Robin gripped about the fact that we have amazing colapsable bikes but no colapsable wheels. Reader pointed us to this video. Its a prototype design for a wheel that can be fitted on any bike or wheelchair that pretty much folds in on itself. This along with a Cube bike and you ll pretty much be able to carry a bike in a backpack in the future. Last I have the The Ride by Ellsworth Handcrafted Bicycles. This is quite a stylish looking bike with a sleek aluminum frame and suspension. But is most exciting about this bike is the NuVinci CVP gear system. Its both a gearless and multigeared system. It is silent, will not skip and allows for a much more fluid change in intensity when pedaling. Check out the video to see what I m talking about, its really quite amazing! -Alx-

I was going to write up a brief entry on this myself considering I was doing the route-setting for the roped part of the competition but Stephen McGowan and Ailish Grennan put together a top quality write-up so I ll leave it to them! Consider this my first arrangement of a guest post :) From my own point of view, great to hear that everyone enjoyed my few routes - I tried to make them as interesting as possible. Apologies to all the females however, I know I (unintentionally) stumped quite a few of you with a reach move on one of the lead routes. 12 hours doing the setting and I still missed it .Ooops! :) - Neal :) DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Last weekend saw an invasion, not from those Welsh rugger types, but in the form of 100+ climbers who descended on Dublin for the Irish Climbing Intervarsities. This year the competition was hosted by DCU, with the bouldering element taking place at their college wall and the leading section in Westwood Sports Centre in Clontarf. The route setters certainly made things interesting for the first day by putting together some tough problems. The competition followed the format of the Irish Bouldering League but one problem broke from this by allowing as many tries as the competitors desired. This longer problem proved very popular, only seeing one clean ascent on the easier beginners version and another close miss on the advanced version. The day ended with good point separation between the females and with the points very close for the males with the leaders in Male A, Female A, Male B and Female B being John Orr, Joan Mulloy, Jason Slevin and Deirdre Cormican respectively. The leading competition started a bit behind schedule, partly due to everyone feeling a little ropey (yes I did just say that!) after the mandatory night out in the Turks Head the night before. John Orr started the second day off with an impressive clean ascent of what turned out to be the hardest route for the day, a feat no one else would manage to achieve. Jane Gallwey missed the first day but after a great performance on her two leads pulled herself up into 3rd place in Female A. The four routes for the day were enjoyed by all, with many people eager for a second try once the competition finished. The two advanced categories top three were left with comfortable leads once the final scores were added up, with the beginners categories still being close. After the first day QUBC were ahead in the overall club scores and on the second day they managed to slightly increase their lead to win the Irish Climbing Intervasities for the second year running. They received the first prize of a boulder mat along with the trophy/gravestone which I m sure they ll enjoy having to carry back up to Belfast, although there was some complaints from the members that had to carry it down on Friday. Overall the competition was a success and everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves. We re all looking forward to next year in Limerick! Of course none of this would have been possible without our sponsors Berghaus, Patagonia, Specsavers, Great Outdoors, 53 Degrees North and Brennan s Bread. We would also like to thank all our route setters and our volunteers from Westwood Fitness Club who put in a lot of their own time to make this competition possible. Of course no report would be complete without the results so I ve added them below. The complete results are available here. For anyone who was involved and wants to get involved in a discussion on the event, don t forget TGU boards, or else hit the forum on said topic on climbing.ie! Male A - 1. John Orr (QUBC), Damien O Sullivan (TCD), 3. Richie Sandes (DIT) Female A - 1. Joan Molloy (NUIG), 2. Mary Moloney (GMIT Castlebar), 3. Jane Gallwey (TCD) Male B - 1. Jason Slevin (QUBC), 2. Colm Shannon (UL), 3. Owen Largey (QUBC) Female B - 1. Deirdre Cormican (GMIT), 2. Jade O Mahony (NUIG), 3.Barbara Bracko (DCU) - Stephen McGowan Ailish Grennan - (Image Credit: Jonathon Mullen Nicole Quinn)

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Yesterday, I headed to Launch 2002 in Punggol, Singapore s largest wakeboarding area. Joined up on a boat with 4 others through the invite from a friend of a friend - we had had all-types on-board from never done-it , done it a few times to local pro! . Here s a short TGU video from the trip: TGU Wakeboarding, Singapore from Robin Blandford on Vimeo. We headed out to the lee of one of the islands on the Malaysian border into (at times) total flat calm. It was great to have a proper boat and tow line as the wake was fantastically formed for jumps for some big air. The hired driver was only ok, good at the driving - but didn t give much instruction for the new starters. Apparently some of the instructors at this school are fantastic, so there is credit due. I got a few wake-to-wakes and we snapped some great pics! I took out my new Olympus m790 waterproof camera and it worked well enough although many photos were missed due to shutter-lag. It s certainly not the Canon EOS D-SLR I ve got used to! Cost: We got a taxi from Orchard road to Punggol Marina Country Club costing S$14 (20mins costing £5 split between 3). The wake-boarding boat hire, all equipment and a driver was S$110 an hour (£35), we had it for 3 hours (S$330 split by 5). Full flickr Set here. -Robin (Image Credits: Author friends at Launch 2002 Wakeboarding, Ponggal.)

KILDARE, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - I ve been holding out on this post for as long as I could, mainly so that the final news would be of a completed wall! UPDATE: If anyone is interested in the development of a new, large wall here in Dublin, Ireland, do let me know in the comments below, or comment in this forum on climbing.ie . In short, an post and email was sent out in early January by Michael Duffy. I could write it myself but the words themselves say it all: As you already know the lack of decent indoor bouldering facilities in Ireland is appalling. Until decent training facilities exist it will be impossible for people to achieve the high climbing standards seen in other countries. In Wicklow alone there are countless high calibre problems still to go, and to be blunt, we do not have the standard of climbers (as there are no facilities) to climb them. Over the years numerous home boards have come and gone, with the only reliable facilities being the universities, and these are a joke. As is our weather. I did more indoor training last summer than I climbed outside. Training is a year round thing. A space has become available in South Dublin which is ideal for housing a bouldering venue. Taking the School Room in Sheffield as an example, a group of people share responsibility for what is essentially their wall. A co-op, where everyone has an input. With the aim to achieve the high climbing standards seen in other countries , this venue would be open to 25 climbers (first-come-first-served basis) to join and use. Well, since then, all I can say is a) thankfully I m one of the original members, and b) the wall has exceeded all expectations in setup! Wall info and setup: Just to give an idea of the setup and organisation, this is just a piece of the design plans. Yep, architect s drawings of what, even on paper, looked like a serious bouldering wall. The troops were mobilised with arranging donations of spare holds, matting, stereos, and of course the tools to the build the wall. As of this week, all members will have a key and the wall is basically up and running. To give info for anyone considering do it themselves, with the help of almost all the members it took 4 days to build the actual wall, and another full weekend just to set the holds (still not finished). To give an idea of the setup, the wall currently (more on this later) four different (all overhanging) angled walls: a 10-degree, 20-degree, 45-degree and a 20-to-60-degree curved barrel. The wall is about 4.3 metres high and each wall is two panels wide (almost 5 metres wide). Two photos that might help give an idea of size (it s big!): I mentioned the current setup. Future plans also include a campus board and the addition of a a roof. This will be about 70-80-degrees overhanging and about 5 metres tall. It basically runs the length of the roof up in the loft at the end of a room (can t be seen in the photos). Wow. For anyone with time and interested to see photos of the build, here s a great time-lapse video of the construction by Tony Rooney: Also, check out photos here (by Fatboy) here (by post author, Neal), and here (photos by Steve McMullen). Costs: Steve McMullen puts it well Yeah we had holds donated for use from a few folk and we bought some really nice stuff off Pat Nolan/King Kong Climbing Walls. The budget for this little project for the first year of operation between rent on the building and materials is approx €17500 so that gives you an indication of what level of commitment the members have and that doesn t do justice to the innovation of the couple of folk who came up with the ideas and momentum in the first place or the bloody hard work of the folk who spent the long hours building it. Finally My own thoughts on this? Honestly, this is one of the best things to happen in Dublin regarding climbing in years. Fair enough, it s only a wall but it s a serious location for training and inspired by the Schoolroom (link to Moonclimbing - Ben Moon being one of the climbers that seems to have benefited hugely from the facility) bouldering wall of Sheffield which also seems to have played a part in the increase in standards in the UK. It can only push the boundaries and standards of Irish climbing levels. I personally, am expecting to see big improvements from the use of this! From the group of people turning up also, I know I m in for a serious ass-kicking as my primary focus in route climbing so am well off the strength levels of the boulderers! On a side note, having seen the interest in this wall, any arguments about the room for a full-scale private wall in Dublin have been negated. To say that there were only 25 people interested would be seriously wide of the mark! UPDATE: If anyone is interested in the development of a new, large wall here in Dublin, Ireland, do let me know in the comments below, or comment in this forum on climbing.ie . Image Credit: Upper photo by Tony Rooney, copyrighted. Collection from here. Photo of architect s drawings taken by post author. - Neal :) -

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (Team Geared Up) - Cube Urban Street Concept. This is the Natalie Portman of folding bikes. Cute and curvacious and can fit in a small car but still smart and sofisticated. Too often do you see fold ups that look like they were either made of spare parts from Terminator or looks like it belongs in a circus because of its tiny wheels. Well inventor and Coburg University of Applied Sciences student Gregor Dauth decided he wanted his cake and eat it too. Looking to one-up the Canondale On project this bare bones concept claims that when in its compact form it can fit inside a Smart car. It doesn t sacrifice wheel size and has a few extra neat features like a generator to power front and back LED lights that turn on automatically when it gets dark. No price, no date but just take a look at the video of it in action and you WILL want one. It s maker talks about the bike: -Alx-

SINGAPORE - Well it s a bit warmer in Singapore today than it was in Vail, Colorado, USA last December. Part cold, part wanting a camera-mounting, part I was about to throw myself off a few black diamond runs I decided to buy a ski helmet. In the USA its different - everyone has helmets. Everyone. Helmet = cool . Helmet with camera on-top seemed to = ultra cool or so the comments I got suggested. I bought a Boeri Vortex (own one? click [Add To My Gear] above if signed-in) The helmet is in the low-mid range, I think I paid close to US$89 + tax for it. It s very comfy. Nice and padded. Very warm ears (important in CO!). I can t tell you how it performed on impact as I didn t have any - but it felt very secure, nicely fitting and snug. My goggles sat over it perfectly and had no loss of ventilation affecting de-misting. I wore a Rat Race Buff underneath it to protect my neck chin as the temperatures were hitting -12C. So cold the Buff would come off frozen in one solid piece the shape of my face! So the interesting bit is the camera. It s a small security camera with an A/V output. It s attached to my helmet with a large elastic band (so it can break off if in a fall) through the vent hole. Three leads come from it (audio, video, power) which run down under the padding on the inside through the vent and out a vent at the back where the small 9V battery to power the camera sits under my goggle strap. The Audio video leads run down my outer jacket collar and under my right arm into the chest pocket on my smock where the AV Recorder (very simple video recorder I bought in Bangkok) sits in the warmth to preserver batter power. Here I can easily pull it out to watch playback while on the lifts. It really works well. Video quality is pretty rubbish - but it s only an experiment for the web. Here s 2 embedded videos take on the first day of the trip. Part 1. Team Geared Up: Vail, CO. (Part 1) from Robin Blandford on Vimeo. Part 2. Team Geared Up: Vail, CO. (Part 2) from Robin Blandford on Vimeo. Homemade video camera work well. But what I really want is the O Neill Backpack Alx reviewed. -Robin. (Image Video Credits: Vail, Colorado in December. By author with thanks to Aoife for the shots of me!)

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) If you don t fancy going cold turkey on your multi day event then this could be just the thing for you! Freeze dried wine from Raidlight! €6 gets you powder to make 200ml of red wine, 9 per cent alcohol. It makes a change from High 5 powder sachets but could make your next day s adventures a little sluggish .. Well, they do say moderate amounts of red wine reduce your risk of heart disease. :-) (BTW we ordered some of this freeze dried loveliness to try and it just arrived hope it s good ..) -Aisling-

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Keep an eye on The Short Span for details of the Irish Bouldering Meet 2008. The Fifth Annual Irish Bouldering Meet will be on the weekend of Friday 29th Febuary to Sunday 2th March based in the I.M.C Hut in Glendasan Country Wicklow. This is a fantastic weekend for new international climbers to meet the regulars in the Irish scene. I always look forward to the photography after these meets. Excellent photos always seem to keep coming from Dave Flanagan. Also see Beardown Productions video of their visit from the UK to the 2005 meet and The Short Span s Bouldering Guide to Ireland (PDF). -Robin. (Image Credit: Three Sponge Bob Square pants walk in on a dinger of a day. Photo by Dave Flanagan.)

KILDARE, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Found this through B3Bouldering this morning in my feed. It s a an interesting way of solo-ing routes. I won t give away the main surprise of the footage, but it definitely gave me a surprise(!) when the guy decided to do what you can see in the snapshot from the movie above. No ropes involved Check out the full video here - Neal :) -

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) I know for sure there s athletics on Irish TV tomorrow but for the life of me I can t find it in the TV listings anyway if you re looking for it you ll find it. But if you re a runner and you re in Dublin there s a good chance you re heading to Raheny for the annual Raheny 5 mile road race. It s one of the biggest events in the Irish running calender. The goody bags alone are worth the entry fee and the prizes are great! I m going to give it a miss as we re heading to Belfast to check out some outdoorsy shops up there will let you know how I get on -Aisling- Image from St. Francis Hospice website.

SINGAPORE - The first scheduled passenger flight to Antarctica landed yesterday. The Australia/Hobart to the Australian Casey Station will fly weekly transporting public and scientists to the base. The first scheduled Australian passenger flight, Airbus A319, left the Australian city of Hobart the previous evening, destined for the newly built Wilkins ice runway, 70 kilometres from the Australian Antarctic Division s Casey Station. Video on Reuters.com I like the air-stewardess announcement 15 mins to landing - please put on your survival suits. . yes there s no nice warm airport terminal to step into here! -Robin- (Image Credit: Reuters video still.)

NEWBRIDGE, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - The 2nd round of the Irish Bouldering League took place last weekend at St. Colmans Secondary School (Google Maps), Midleton, Co. Cork. With about an estimated 120 climbers competing, in one very cramped room, you can guarantee it made for a social and friendly encounter. Other than some vague route grading - not my words! - from the route-setters, it seems no one could really find anything to complain about (unless you count being stiff and sore the next day as something to complain about :). Still though, with a decent spread of points at the top of each group, it meant that obviously the routes were difficult enough to challenge everybody. Unfortunately, I m only getting over a shoulder injury so wasn t competing but it looked like a great comp. the full results can be found on climbing.ie here, but in short congrats to Harry Fogg in the Males, Joan Mulloy in the Females, and Ciaran Rogers in the Juniors. Solid climbing from it all from what I saw! More photos can be found in my gallery here (or the slide-show below), and even more through the climbing.ie forums

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Woohoo! Big black tie event in the Crowne Plaza last night as the first ever Athletics Ireland National Athletic Awards took place. (And no, before you ask the mountain runners didn t attend with mud on their faces!) Really great night, lots of well known faces from Irish Athletics, past and present, were there. (Photo of me and Karen with Eamonn Coughlan!) But the event was clearly not just about medal winners with the the first two categories being Official of the Year, which went to the inimitable Harry Gorman, (known to just about anyone who ever toed the line in a road race in this country) and Coach of the Year which went to Adam Jones of Rathfarnham WSAF. In the other categories: Junior Athlete of the Year: Long Jumper Kelly Proper Master Athlete of the Year: Niamh O Sullivan Performance of the Year: David Gillick Track Athlete of the Year: Paul Hession and Athlete of the Year: Hammer Thrower Eileen O Keefe Lifetime Achievement Award went to Sean and Maeve Kyle and there was a special Hall of Fame award for Olympic Champion Ronnie Delaney. Of course Club of the year went to my own club Clonliffe Harriers (Bronagh with trophy here)! The event was genuinely great fun, full of positive atmosphere about the future and I think having categories like Official of the Year made it an awards ceremony that wasn t just about the big names in track athletics. The most difficult thing about this post was choosing a photo: not sure that me in a dress is very Geared Up eh? But anyway that s me with Frank Greally, Editor of the Irish Runner Magazine and part of the organizing committee for last night! Being up that late is my excuse for a bad Duathlon but more about that tomorrow .. -Aisling- More photos from my flickr set here.

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - A film crew joined us at EC2K7 last April to film a promotional video for Scouting Ireland s 2008 Jamboree. I was asked to get their camera women up a very big tree and rig her the camera up there ~ 25m high! They then did takes of some of the Scouts climbing, myself tying them in, and a bit of chat too. The whole video is actually excellent and I suggest you watch at least the first few mins of it to get a great idea of what outdoor adventure in Ireland means to youngsters. It is very professionally made. I ve embedded the video below, but to watch yours truly waffle about the challenge of scaling a 25m giant tree using the bark as handholds you should jump to 7m 57s (click). You can watch the full Scouting Ireland Jamboree 2008 video here. Thanks to ex-TGU blogger Darran for arranging the online version. -Robin- (Video Credit: Scouting Ireland)

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Part 2 For part 1 if this report see this To the Costa Daurada. Leaving Rodellar behind we made or way back to the N240 and headed for the Costa Daurada. We had already reserved a bungalow in Camping Prades, in Prades. 6Km before the town of Montblanc there is a turn-off for Prades, however, before heading up into the mountains re-supply at the supermarket in Montblanc. I’ve pinned it on the Google Map. Then, retrace your steps for 6km and get onto that Prades turn-off (T700). Prades itself is situated at 1000m and the views become more spectacular as you gain height. Camping Prades is about 1Km west of the town centre. There are a few shops in the village and 2 ATMs. Bread, milk, cheese and sausage can be easily found but all else is best found in Montblanc. View Larger Map On arrival there was a decidedly eerie feel to the campsite and there wasn’t a soul around, even though the reception was open from 4pm to 11pm and it was now 5.30pm. Eventually after some driving about we found a member of staff. He only spoke Spanish and French and without a Spanish speaker among us it was up to Mick and I and our faltering French to get us checked in. The words I did understand like mauvais and bof didn’t bode well with me and I was getting a sinking feeling in my stomach as he struggled to find our reservation. After a few phone calls he finally gave us a bon! and I breathed a sigh of relief. With enough beds, a stove and a shower our new cabin filled all of our basic needs but it also had a TV! Mick, in an act of brilliance had brought along an Archos AV500 and all the cables to hook it up to the TV. After much South Park and food it was time to explore! We met a few guys in Portland, Dorset in the months leading up to our Spanish trip and the TV Crags at La Mussara had been highly recommended by them. We decided to scope out that area for the next day and prayed that the weather would improve. By this stage it had clouded over and looked certain to pour. On our way to the TV Crags we had gone the wrong way and instead saw a sign for Siurana. You can’t get upset when you see a sign for one of Europe’s most renouned crags only a few Ks away and we headed for a look. WOW! Perched at 1000m on a rock fin with a sheer drop around it sits a tiny Moorish village with breathtaking views over the valleys below. We only managed a glimpse of these, however, as cloud cover and darkness settled in. Day 1 On our first full day we awoke to a drizzly morning and began questioning our decision to move away from Rodellar. We decided that we could best use this time to locate all the crags we were interested in seeing so that when the weather did clear we could get onto the rock as quickly as possible. Being up in the mountains the weather can be very localised and better conditions can be found by driving around. We firstly headed to Siurana to see what it was like. Dismal! Arboli was next and it too was dismal. TV crags were next and after that it was La Riba, a good bit away but hopefully with better weather. By the time we found the TV crags and had a bite to eat, the rock there was in great condition and we decided to stay. We climber mainly in Sector Roure and between us all we did a good few routes. Namely Roure 6b, Aigua Viva 6b, Shargamanta 6c, El Gat 6a, Climber Up 6a+. Day 2 The weather was a lot better today and the sun was splitting the trees so Siurana was the destination of choice. Unfortunately before we managed to leave the cabin the receptionist informed us that we had been put in the wrong cabin (we were in a higher priced one than we had booked) and asked if we wouldn’t mind moving to the cabin next door. This was a bit of a bummer and ate into our crag time but with that resolved we hit the road. The parking area outside the village was wedged with cars and for a moment we were thinking the worst. Thankfully the majority of the cars were not owned by climbers and the crags were pretty clear. We started in Sector Melafots and warmed up on some routes there. After lunch we headed down to have a look at Anabolica but there were people on it so we had to go elsewhere! The day was finished off at Sector Can Marges Lower where Extremoduro 6b+, Pixapins 6a+ and Can Fange 5+ were all dispatched. Pixapins stands out in particular and is well worth doing. On the way down from the crag we stopped off to take a look at La Rambla, the 9a+ of the area. Savage line and looks a lot harder than it does in the video (as if 9a+ ever looks easy!) Day 3 On day 3 we decided to return to the TV Crags and go to a different sector. Also as it was our last day it would give us an opportunity to have another go at some of the routes we were on the first day. We headed to Sector Diedres Del Mig and got on Xènia 6b+, Sis de Deu 6a+, Jarto D’estar Harto 6a+ and El Canto del Gallo 6c+. Jarto D’estar Harto is a lovely line on one of the stand out features of the sector and is pretty strenuous. El Canto del Gallo is not to be missed (even if I did) and it has to be said it looks like an amazing line. Be sure to brush up on bridging and laybacking before getting on this one. After this we headed back to Sector Roure for me to try and get Aigua Viva clean. This is a total power-house of a route and reminded me of some stuff I did in Fairhead with hand a fist jams all the way. We also got back on Shargamanta 6c and did the 7b+ finish. It hurts. That night we ate in one of the restaurants in Prades, Casa Grisso if my memory serves me correctly. With menus in Catalan and Spanish we were rightly screwed but after a few phone calls home to get some help from google translate we ended up having a great feed and finshed our trip on a good oak note. Trip Costs Flight €125.00 Insurance €39.00 Accomodation Rodellar and Siurana etc. are excellent places to climb, that s not going to be news to anybody. They do have totally different atmospheres though. Rodellar is harder to get to, in that its further away, but once there all the crags are within walking distance. The crags in the Costa Daurada are much more spread out and a car is pretty necessary to access them all. If I were coming out again I think I d have to decide on one area and stay there for the whole week but I would certainly reccommend seeing both areas on your first visit to get a feel for both of them. I think I prefered Rodellar if I m honest with myself. The crags were all beside eachother and there is a great range from slabs to uber-overhangs to satisfy any need. The campsite was also a little better and the bar provided a good place to chill out and have a beer in the evening. That s not to say that Costa Daurada isn t a world class area either and if I was forced to stay here for a week I certainly wouldn t be complaining.

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Geared Up Blog) - Last week i bought a new insulated jacket after i lost my North Face Redpoint Optimus. I decided on the Rab Belay Jacket which is slightly warmer that my previous one and has a water resistant pertex outer. The Summit 900 was on sale so i couldn t pass up the opportunity to buy it. I have planned to possibly do the haute route next February/March time so i will convinced myself that i needed a new bag. -Eoinod-

NEWBRIDGE, KILDARE (Team Geared Up) - O.k., so I was meant to be doing some proper work and then this ended up in my Google Reader feed. Shred or Die, a new video site that s been promoted by skater Tony Hawk, is live and kicking with a pile of extreme sports videos, mainly skateboarding and biking. I m avoiding the urge to spend the next hour watching random people land on their head, perform ridiculous stunts, and general adsurdity like above. Can you avoid it? ;) let me know in the comments! Note: from the couple of videos I ve watched, if you re squeamish about blood ..you have been warned! Courtesy of Mashable - Neal :) -

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - I m not sure what you call this form of base jumping, but it s about as extreme as it gets. We ve written about these wing suits before and their ability to direct the jumper out away from the rock first Base Jump from the Grand Jorasses in the Alps. But this next video you are going to see is sick that s sick in a I feel physically sick way rather than the R B that s sick dawg sick. Just how close can you go? Thanks to AllClimbing who picked this up Twitter. -Robin-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - I m not sure what you call this form of base jumping, but it s about as extreme as it gets. We ve written about these wing suits before and their ability to direct the jumper out away from the rock first Base Jump from the Grand Jorasses in the Alps. But this next video you are going to see is sick that s sick in a I feel physically sick way rather than the R B that s sick dawg sick. Just how close can you go? Thanks to AllClimbing who picked this up Twitter. -Robin-