I arranged to meet Gaby and George in Ballycastle but, as usual, I was late and told them I'd meet them at The Prow. Then I parked at the wrong carpark, tramped over a fair bit of Fairhead and scrambled down the wrong gully. My cries of "Hellooooooo!" went unanswered in the wind and I realised on scrambling back up that I wasn't near enough to the small lake. Eventually found them finishing off Black Thief (VS 4b), which they (and everyone else I met that day) enthused about.
Abbed down and warmed up on Bramble (S), an old favourite and aptly named for its overgrown exit. All the scrambling and trekking earlier had left me hungry so Gaby and I stopped for lunch and were slightly amused to find George come looking for us, worried that he hadn't seen us in a while. Abbed down again with the intention of leading Black Thief only I bleddy forgot to bring the rope. Gaby and I watched George lead Dave Millar up an E1 (no name for you), with George putting in a heroic effort to gain the last 10%. Scrambled back up to get my rope, abbed down again to find Gaby dozing off despite the chill wind which was quite gusty at this stage. I led Thief and enjoyed it as much as everyone said I would. Poor Gaby was feeling the cold by this stage and tired out half way up the route. Lowered her down but got my rope stuck and couldn't abseil down for the gear. Faffed about getting Gaby's rope and getting George to help set up an abseil. Went down on it to collect the gear and free up my rope. Bren Whelan's abseil teaching paid dividends, locking off with the prussik knot etc. It was getting dark as we trudged off to the carpark talking about Dave Millar's E3 lead which George seconded, and the fact that Gaby and I had been at Fairhead for almost 10 hours and had only managed 2 routes. :)
Note to self: Bring the rope down with you.
