What do our staff get up to over the winter - Kevin

Over the winter, a member of the Outdoor Concepts staff team, Kevin Kilroy, journeyed from his beloved Mourne Mountains to a mountainous region of Turkey, north of Antalya called Dedegol, along with three other climbers from the UK.  The team spent a relaxing two weeks developing a new multi-pitch rock climb on a 300 meter limestone tower which they named Crazy Diamonds.

The team spent 11 days bolting a line from the ground right up the middle of the tower and produced 10 pitches of superb, sustained sport climbing on immaculate limestone.  The team camped in a meadow by the base of the wall and met with the local shepherd, Memet, who was very welcoming to the team.

Each day the team would rise at dawn, have a quick breakfast, then hike 30 minutes uphill to the base of the wall and ascend their ropes to the previous day’s highpoint. From here, two climbers would glue in the bolts from the previous day and two would push the rope up the wall, trying to find a nice continuous line of holds to climb on. 

There were of course some real life setbacks to the holiday…on day one the glue dispenser parted company with the wall and fell a long way to the ground…then, when two climbers left for the night to try and source a replacement, Kevin and his friend Jamie returned to camp after a long day’s climbing to find Memet’s dogs had made themselves dinner with our food! With the rental car away to town for the night and all our food scattered across camp, the team discussed options…after a lengthy brainstorming session, fuelled by several cups of tea, Operation Bear-Box was deployed (aka empty out Conor’s suitcase, fill it with the remaining food and tie it up in a big tree). Operation Bear-Box was a huge success and we soon learned to forgive our hungry four legged friends and climbed our new route successfully.

Kevin is looking forward to the coming season working with Outdoor Concepts and would remind folk that if he is joined by a four legged friend (Meg) on the hill this year, please check that your rucksacks and lunch boxes are certified Meg proof!