Due to the Easter break, only a small number returned to the ritual Monday night climb: The Duke, Irish, The Repsol Scooter and myself. Two South African girls came with Irish and The Duke, but decided to watch and cheer instead of climbing the cliffs.

We setup on Brisbane Bitter (24) and Anonymous (14).

Irish cleaned Anonymous twice. The second climb was made more difficult by resisting the arete and climbing the faces where possible. Irish decided to take on his nemesis: BB. Saw some strange moves going over the mantle and layback ledge, but his endurance ran out just above it.

The Duke cleaned Anonymous too and like Irish decided to give BB a go. A good effort saw him reach the crux where the sequence could not be mastered. He could see the hands and foot holds required but the delivery in placing the holds was out of sequence.

The Repsol Scooter was raised from the drunken dead and staggered up Anonymous. Jesus would have been proud. Only a couple of problems encountered but once his confidence in rope safety was assured, Repsol continued on to the top. His first 20m climb up to the top was cheered on by the crew. Later Repsol celebrated his achievements at the Normandy and at a house party – shall rename Repsol to the Drunken Climber.

I went up BB via the variant start (24). Lots of grunting saw me clean it, but not without the climb claiming skin and blood. Brutal.