Bunagee, Culdaff, Co Donegal

Pete Smith Climbing is supposed to be quite an exciting sport, but you don't know what you are missing if you go without James "_Psyclone" Boyle. Every trip is a venture into the unknown. The presence of _Psyclone adds the flavour of an African safari even to a humdrum excursion to Culdaff. This man is as brave as a lion and twice as dangerous. Fear is not a word in his vocabulary; terror is not an emotion he has ever experienced. His nerves are fashioned from the strongest steel and his courage rivals that of Hercules. I'm worried that he might grace us with his company for only a limited period; like a Roman Candle, his flame fizzling and waning after lighting our sky in a blaze of glorious flashes.

Andy McInroy, _Psyclone and I set off to Bunagee on one of the finest evenings of the Summer so far. I suggested to Andy that he might want to lead the classic Bawg in till the Oxters, Sor VS 4c [Picture of Bawg into the oxters sor] but before he could voice his agreement, _Psyke was in there claiming first attempt. Who were we to argue?

We abseiled down to the foot of the climb and stood marvelling at the unstinting fearlessness of _Psyclone as he geared up for one of his hardest leads so far. This, don't forget, follows hard on the heels of his stylish ascent of Pattoned at Kinnego (V. Diff) and a report about his not-so-stylish nose-dive on Cruit Island. Andy and I were speechless in awe - it's not every day you witness genius like this. _Psyclone's (unarguable) talent for climbing is exceeded only by his talent for falling, but this does nothing to dent his boundless confidence - and it is this confidence we will all remember long after _psyke has left us (left the club/City/Ireland/mortal coil).

He started well. Well, he started. He continued well. Well..........he continued. He got past the middle (indubitably) and headed for the top. Had he reached the top all would have been well, but things have a habit of being more exciting than that when James gets to work leading. He looked as if he was struggling about three moves from the top and then it happened.

When I say "it happened", I understate things. This was the most spectacular, gut-swooping, stomach-churning, buttock-clenching, rip-swaggling fall I have ever seen. I'm only grateful that James hadn't eaten anything because no-one had a spare pair of trousers. This all happened in 0.2 seconds: he ripped out three friends, tore his gear loops on the rock, ripped out another friend and came to a sudden stop three feet above the ground after falling about 25 feet. He took another 0.3 seconds to regain his sang-froid and said "have I got my bandana on straight?"

It's such an honour to climb with this tiger of a man (I know that every one of you feels the same).

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