Epic fail.

Was so psyched to climb in Ayton's Cave today, met Chris at Sutton Dart Station and drove to his parking spot near the walk in and set off -

Yesterday was a miserable day of relentless rain that just got heavier and heavier as the day went on. This morning Dublin was covered in the usual canopy of clouds, but unusually it was really hot and humid.

Almost unbearably so.

As we walked in to get to the cave, the heat and humidity started me thinking that conditions there might not be great, but I remained optimistic, because after all - what do I know?!

We turned the corner around to the cave and saw two dejected looking figures sitting on boulder pads - Barry and James had got there before us and the whole cave was wet and dripping wet.

Disaster.

Plan B was quickly suggested and put into action -

We all hopped in the cars and headed off to Portrane,

The walk in, followed by a 5 minute discussion at the cave, followed by the walk out had me pouring sweat and totally dehydrated - Chris' car read 20 degrees or so on the dash board and any breeze that was in the air was dead with warmth - air-con on! NICE!

We hit traffic on the way to our second bouldering destination of the day and the convoy had to do an about turn and take an alternate route.

When we finally reached Portrane it was just too warm and the holds were either wet or greasy.

We met James' friend Rhys in the carpark and headed down to try some problems around the Arch area of Portrane. Psyche and patience were spent and after half hearted attempts on a few lines, we headed over to Ground Zero -

We may have spent 10 minutes there before Barry called it a day.

Barry calling it a day.

The Summer bouldering venues around Dublin that promise good conditions despite high temperatures took the piss out of us today and soon after Barry left we all packed up and headed off.

The day was a laugh, but it would have been nice to do some bouldering...

What to do tomorrow... Hmmm