The planned trip to Belshade was shelved because no-one was able to take the complete day, so four of us headed to Lough Barra instead. There were the Brothers Millar, Donna Ryan and me. We arrived at lunchtime and geared up in beautiful hot sunshine. Donna and Al went off to climb Ploughshare VS 4c, 4a, 4a, while Dave and I tackled Surplomb Grise VS _, 4c, 4a, _, 4b.

We scrambled up the gully and tried to figure out the guidebook suggestion that we "step right" to the highest point in the heather. Easier said than done. We roped up and Dave ended up doing the traverse across heather growing at an angle of about 75° off the horizontal. This was enough to start my imagination running wild and by the time I seconded the first rock pitch I was a gibbering wreck with fear gnawing at (what was left of) my guts. The crux move is 4c, very delicate and frighteningly exposed. Dave made it look easy, but I took about 10 minutes to attempt it despite having two stout ropes above me.

Next was my pitch - 4a. Except it wasn't because I begged David to lead this too. I was glad I did, as the technical grade turned out to be a bit of a sandbag - 4c would be more indicative of its true difficulty. David ran the short 4th pitch onto the top of this one and we sat on a superb belay ledge to admire the view and examine what we could see of the next pitch. To my shame, I allowed the crawling fear in my yellow liver get the better of me and I pushed David into leading again. He was generously forgiving of my craven nature and merrily set off on the demanding 4b last leg. Meanwhile I resolved to give up for good and take up crochet.

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