Got this email off my brother in Dublin. Sounds like these lads done it a really traditional way, make it all the more impressive


I was speaking to Richard Nugent (Presisdent of IMRA)

Richard was actually with the two Irish guys that did the Bob Graham recently i.e. Greg Byrne and Bill Reed. Billy had an an unsuccesful attempt before that was the only expereince they had on the round.

They were weather watching for ages and on the Tuesday before decided to go for it. Four of them (with Billy's wife) drove over and the three lads headed on to do the BG with no support bar Billy's wife driving all over Cumbria meeting them at each transition point.

Richard was saying with no reccing they were going solely on map and compass. Richard pulled out after 36 summits with a thorn ligament while descending on a scree slope..[Great Gable?] The other two laps completed it in 23' 49"

Total height gain was well over 7000m since they did not know and so didn't take the best lines. They also had loads of scrambling which I suppose lots of that could have been avoided

I know Richard is a very extreme adventure racer all over Europe and I would suspect the other two are as well..

Richard was saying they were running really hard on the BG since they were loosing so much time because of the navigation..