Irish Invasion

A week or so ago we had the all too rare chance to entertain some guests and show some people round our local crag, Dinbren. Sean Marnane, Kev Marnane and Tricia Fox got the ferry over from Dublin and Mr McQuaid (he’s old now so we have to call him that) came by train from Sheffield. Right then, 6 Paddys vs Dinbren…. This was gonna be epic! Haa! After the Marnane morning bakery stop we got to the crag in blue skies and perfect conditions. Everyone went up the 6b warm-up to get a feel for the rock and then we split up and the routes were attacked. Tricia’s lead of the 6b was also her first ever lead outdoors, deadly stuff! Caroline got stuck into her 7b+ and I pointed Sean and Neal towards Fat Boys 7a+ while Kev and Tricia played on Resist and Exist 6b+. Knowing all too well how difficult route reading here can be on first acquaintance I was offering beta out left, right and centre but you know yourself – it’s one thing someone shouting up how to do a move and quite another to actually make sense of it when you’re up there. The day went by and routes were jumped on all over the place. I ended up playing on Gwennan, an 8a+ that had apparently never been repeated. A vicious and stretched sequence through a low roof got you to … Blah, blah, blah! This post has been a stop start thing for two weeks now! I give up... Heres what’s still stuck in my head about it all;

Neal onsighted Technicolour Yawn, 7a+
Tricia lead her first 6c
Kev lead his first ever 7a+, Fat Boys
Sean lead Bandits, 7b+, Full respect after putting in two days of siege redpointing
Caroline made 6 solid redpoint attempts of her 7b+, falling at the top of the crux and then leading straight to the top
Myself and Neal played on two 8a+’s and an 8a on top of all the 7’s
The cakes were great!

By Sunday evening I was wiped out!!!

Awesome weekend!

Thanks to Tricia for the use of the pics!!!