Year of publication 1960 - Fell and Rock Climbing Club

26 THE MOUNTAINS OF MOURNEthe Spelga Pass lie Pigeon Rock and Eagle Mountains, whichshould be included in this group; then the High Mournes losethemselves in the Low Mournes which run on down toRostrevor.The rock is granite or, more accurately, the rocks aregranites, a number of variations being present in the climbingarea: from the point of view of the climber they are allcoarsely crystalline with a tendency to monolithic blocks andslabs giving holds which are either the juggiest of jug-handles,or an exercise in imagination. The tiny incut holds profuselyprovided in the Lakes are almost unknown in Mourne. Thejunctions of the blocks and slabs tend to weather into shallowgrooves with rounded edges which, together with the factthat most of the buttresses are summit tors or outcrops between60 and 200 feet high, gives a remarkable resemblance,seen from a distance, to gritstone. This resemblance iscompletely spurious and has resulted in stretched nylonbefore now. The rounded cracks mentioned above are ofteninsufficiently incut to provide any conventional hold, notdeep enough to allow jamming of appendages or the otherlow stratagems of the V.S. man, and without enough thincrack at the bottom to accept a piton with any conviction ofsecurity. Finally, the hard glassy granite is very unsympatheticto the frictional approach of the gritstone artist.Accordingly, many of the steeper faces have yielded onlyalong very positive lines of weakness, and the classical routesoften break through steep portions by traverses or slab movesof great elegance and delicacy. Usually, the steeper the face,the greater the tendency to absence of holds; while the shallowslabs have weathered to great jug-handled plaques and flakesand the junctions of their blocks have been worn by waterinto deep cracks, the steeper slabs remain monolithic andshallowly grooved. The slabs of Slieve Lamagan and SlieveBearnagh offer hundreds of feet of both sorts and have slabroutes of most entertaining variety.Most types of rock have a key which, when found, opens theway to hard routes. In Mourne it is the presence in thegranite of small cavities lined with quartz crystals. Thesecavities, mainly an inch or two in size, have a tendency to liein definite lines. They often weather to provide smallfingerholds, but, more important, the rock weathers along