We went to Ballykeefe today, Emma – Tony – Conor W and me, and had a fantastic day and the weather was just perfect. I did a few seconds and leads, Tony did a multi pitch that all four of us climbed.

We started doing a bit of Seconding. I started with Tony and we did Rugrats – 13m VD – and the move ‘laid back in the crack’ was interesting, there were a few other nice moves on the climb and I managed to get all the gear out. Emma and Conor started doing First Corner – 15m VD – and then we switched, there was a bit of jammed gear from when Emma and Conor climbed it but I had a chance to use the gear key to get it out. It was a bit freaky feeling some of the rocks being loose but that just added to the buzz. We all came together to do Oggy and the Cockroaches – 10m VS 4c – Tony set up a top rope and I climbed first. The chimney was interesting and I used a few moves I picked up in Gravity. That got me to the first ledge, two more hard moves up the crack and the rest was pretty OK.

I asked Emma and Tony if they though I was ready to do a Lead Climb? I started with Crooked Crack – 15m VD – after tying myself in that is. I started by placing a cam and used a few wires, another cam and a sling around the small tree at the top. When I got up to the top I anchored myself to two trees, under Tony’s supervision and settled down and belayed Emma to the top. We then moved to Sylvester – 9m VD – and we did it all over again, two leads under my belt in one day and I was thrilled. It was great to get to use the different gear, offset & wall nuts and cam. I didn’t get to use the hexs but there is always next time.

Tony wanted to do a multi pitch climb so we went over to Sally Crack – 20m S 4a – and Tony led the first section with Emma belaying him on two ropes. It was interesting to see the two rope belay, I had never seen it before. When he passed the mid section he set up a belay point and I climbed up to him. I was tied off to the belay point and Conor climbed up to us. Then Tony said put this sling on a larks foot on your harness and take off the rope. It was a daunting task standing on a small ledge and untying your rope but I did it, then Emma climbed up and joined us. Tony then finished the Climb and Conor followed him. Then he through down the rope and I tied on and finished the Climb. Emma then dismantled the the belay point and followed us up.

All in all we had a great day despite the puncture on the way home. Thanks to Emma and Tony for taking us down.

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Here are a selection of the photos of me: