Emma told me the news and there was a flood of memories dormant for decades. He had been a friend, if one I’d lost contact with.
 
“Your too cheeky you”
My heels touched the ground as the tanned, bearded, chiselled and rather intimidating man lowered me back to earth by my neck. He had on his usual skimpy running shorts and a bright vest and minded me of the Greek God, Zeus. I remember feeling shocked and embarrassed, pretty sure Hock and Wez were smirking nervously nearby outside the Keswick climbing wall.

It was my first ‘run in’ with Colin Downer, aka ‘the Sherrif of Nottingham. Dad had warned me about his temper and it was a good early lesson that not everyone likes sarcasm.
Originally from Nottingham he worked in the coal mines before moving to the Lakes and becoming an excellent outdoor instructor by all accounts, particularly with people who have special needs.

​It’s fair to say at this point I didn’t think we’d be friends or regular climbing partners over the most important developmental years of my climbing or that he’d be belaying on what might well be the most dangerous piece of onsight climbing I’d make.
 
In the early 80s he’d come round for a fight with dad over competition for some new routes on Grange crag in Borrowdale. He got Chris Bacon to cover the back door incase dad tried to get away. I presume once he saw dad had kids things had de-escalated, or perhaps he was intimidated by mum. They ended up becoming friends and if you look in the Borrowdale guidebook you’ll see that they started doing a load of climbs together for many years.

Between Shepherds café and the climbing wall I got to know and climb with Colin. Dad, aka ‘Mac’ loved sitting at the café drinking tea, eating the Carrot cake or cream scones. Martin Weir, the farmer who owned it gave him free brews and Barbara, a lovely woman who worked there for years often gave me free cakes too. To say we became regulars would be an understatement, it felt like paradise. Downer would often arrive and would be revved up to go and do a good climb he had on his mind.
He drove everywhere very fast.

I was nervous about climbing with him at first, after our altercation and dads stories. Someone had pissed him off when he was leading once, he got his partner to take him on the rope and swung across and punched the fellow climber. There were endless ones related to road rage. I was finding climbing challenging enough without wanting to throw martial arts into the mix.
 Another story dad had gave a different side of Colin.  After climbing with Downer on Eagle crag they got back down to near Colins car and dad realised he’d left a rope at the crag, an hours slog away. He was worried about telling Colin but when he did Colin was kind about it and even ran back up to get it.

A flick through my Lakeland guidebooks show doing a ton of climbs, often esoteric, all over the Lakes with Colin, different parts of paradise. He seemed to me to epitomise vitality and keenness for adventure.

He belayed me on one of my first E4s, Dry Grasp, on Upper Falcon crag, possibly our first climbing outing together. High above Derwentwater the smooth diamond buttress the crux pitch tackles looks stunning and the views back across Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite Lake are incredibly beautiful. A Pete Livesey route that I’d stared up at for years it felt a massive deal to me at the time.
I was slow, finding my feet with the mindset you need to develop for pushing it on trad. I looked down nervously at Colin as I went up and down, struggling to commit, wondering if he’d go berserk if I took much longer. As his impatient noises grew so did my impetus to create space between us and I finally launched upwards to gain the top. He watched from the road when I returned a few years later to solo it in a few minutes when it felt like a breeze.
I found the conversations we had when I was young challenging but looking back it was his way of offering life advice.

Between 1997 and 2003 were the most important years in my climbing, nearly dying on several dozen occasions, always a risk when regularly soloing on dank agricultural crags and when you are keen on high risk trad climbing. Colin definitely helped me stay alive. He encouraged me to go for qualifications such as the RCI, which I did with his friend Guy Lee. He gave me a bollocking on many occasions when he didn’t like how I’d protected climbs or over trusted in-situ pro. He had kindly words to say about me and dad in an article Tony Greenbank wrote for a local newspaper. After getting to know him a little he lost that intimidating, quicksilver feel I had of him at first and he became a trusted friend.

On the second to last day of the best weeks climbing I had in the Lakes in the 90s we did Mirage and Altered images together on Goat crag before the usual tea and cakes at Shepherds café for a debrief.

A trip to Wales with him and Wez in 1999 gave the best week I had in Wales up to that point. We stayed at Ken Thoms house in Deiniolen, an old friend of Colins who became my friend and who I’d bike out to visit every week when I moved to Wales. He would tell me an Wez we shouldn’t smoke, given more emphasis from him as he had Emphysema and needed Oxygen. He’s survived by his sons, Matt and Jamie who are lovely men.
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We went to North Stack on Gogarth the first day and Colin told Wez we needed a ladder for the start of the Cad and sent Wez looking for one nearby. On Sexual Salami I cursed him quietly when I heard him whisper to Wez “Caff might be too short for this one” before I worked it out. I remember being taken with the atmosphere of Central Sadness on the slate, the area was quiet back then, nobody around, although Ken came out and tried to scare us from a tunnel. Edge of time, Comes the dervish, the Moon, Rimsky, Resurrection and on the last day Lord of the Flies, which Colin seemed as made up as me at doing. It was after this trip that decided I wanted to move to Wales, the most fortunate decision I ever made.

​On a wknd in 2001, we headed up to Suicide wall in Ogwen. I remember feeling good and we did most of the tricky routes on the crag and had one left in the guide, Zero. Late in the day I got on it and getting fairly high the climb gave me flashbacks to Masters wall and I downclimbed to the ground. For some reason or other we headed back up the following day. Downer said he’d abseil Zero to check the gear. He did so thinking he was abseiling an E6 and that I’d be fine, this wouldn’t be the first time a poor guidebook description and ‘smoky history’ nearly got me killed. He found a microcam low down and said just above my highpoint was a good wire. 

Buoyed by his findings I set off up. I couldn’t find the microcam but was unconcerned so carried on and committed above to where the pocket that took the wire was. It was a strenuous position and after a minute of trying different positions it was clear it wouldn’t go in. I threw it down the crag and a nervousness descended on everyone at the crag. I was beyond two thirds height and my last gear was below one third height. I couldn’t reverse and it was clear to all where I’d end up if I fell. You might think this is standard on E6s and E7s but having had many more years in the game I can tell you it’s rare that you’ll face a crux section high on a mountain crag with nothing to stop you from hitting the ground. Although I liked onsighting risky climbs at the time, this one was definitely going too far.
 
There is a particular connection between belayer and climber on dangerous routes and me and Colin certainly had it here. The climbing above was clearly well beyond my comfort zone for onsight soloing. My body was well used to weekly adrenaline surges but the one that developed in that grim few seconds was quite something. I went quickly on green sidepulls and smears, I don’t think I’ve been on a tough sequence where the outcome was so certain for failure on any move.
I can’t remember what me, Colin and Wez said to each other afterwards but we definitely ended up in the pub, all feeling mentally nuked.
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Glenda Huxter cleared the air on this route in the recent Extreme Rock, with Pete Robins onsighting this ‘Zero direct’ line the week before me and it being a hair raising experience for him. It will certainly have been the hardest  onsight first ascent in North Wales. Pete went back at a later date and failed to top rope it! Hats off to Professor Robins. 

After moving to Wales I still climbed with Colin at first, last entry I can find was from 2003 where we did Mythical Kings and Overhanging Grooves direct on the East Buttress of Scafell when he had the flu but came out anyway.
Around this time Colin would often berate dad for overcooking it. He was correct, dad could hardly walk with his duff hip but would be biking down Borrowdale to climb all the time. It seemed ludicrous. Dad and Dick Patey called a climb, ‘Downers delight’ after him and I cant recall wether he was pissed about this or not.

At dads funeral Colin said to Greg: “I’ll see you at the next funeral” with dark humour before joining me, my sisters, Hock, Wez and co on a rather raucous pub crawl in Keswick, fairly sure some arm wrestling was involved.

I made it to his 60th some years afterwards and it was great to see him. That was probably the last time.
I kept abreast of his developments in Bramcrag and had a good laugh when a friend from Wales, Jon Ratcliffe mentioned he had a ‘run in’ with a bad tempered bloke in this quarry. It always sounded like Colin was having a blast.
After a busy work shift in Wales Christmas day I headed up to the Lakes to catch up with family and had a run over the tops around Derwentwater on Boxing day, dropping down from Catbells in the twilight near where Colin had worked at Derwent Hill.

I’d lost contact with him enough I didn’t think of getting in touch, a mix of laziness and not wanting to intrude as he then lived in a very big house and I’ll always feel a scruff. I regret not doing so. I would have loved to have seen him again and he always seemed delighted to see me in the past. I hope he knew that a ton of people felt the same.  He didn’t want to stick around any longer, dad didn’t like getting old either.

He was a great partner for adventure. He was a friend of dads, mine, Wez, Hock, Emma and a ton of other people i know.

His routes such as Banzai Pipeline, Aphasia, Inquisition and Red Neck are all well worth seeking out along with many of his other ones.
 
My main memory of him is him patting my arm after one of innumerable great climbs we did together, smiling widely: “What a route youth, let’s go for a pint”

   Before I got into climbing dad would mention how he’d done a climb called Troutdale Pinnacle over 1000 times. At the time I thought he was insane and boring to have done this, having no foresight that I’d be drawn into climbing too.

After the first couple of years of getting into climbing the Classic rock climbs were rarely on my radar, opting for the more difficult climbs whilst my body allowed it, but the classic rock routes are by and large some of the most pleasurable.
How would you describe many of the routes from the 3 books?
Extreme Rock: A brave lead, soul searching, brutal, eliminate in nature, bold.
Hard Rock: Strenuous, very exposed, pumpy, intimidating, old peg for protection.
Classic rock: Delightful, obvious line, great holds, good gear.
Don’t get me wrong, the climbs in hard and extreme rock are awesome, but if you are out for pure enjoyment the classic rock climbs are probably the best. They follow the most obvious lines up great pieces of rock, such as Main wall on Cyrn Las and Doorpost on Bosigran. If you explained to a none climber about doing these routes they probably understand whereas if you explained about the harder ones, “if you go 3 metres left, 9 metres up very dangerous terrain you get to say you’ve done this climb, of this grade…” they’ll be less likely to understand.
The classic rock climbs should still be taken seriously, I imagine many more accidents are had on them, by both the amount of people doing them compared to the harder ones, and lack of experience.
I’ve been fortunate to have some great times doing these routes, going to beautiful parts of the UK I wouldn’t normally have gone out of my way to go. From the early days of soloing a lot of them with friends in the 90s, it was 20 years later I started to take an interest again. During the pandemic, it felt great to be out in the hills again after being lockdown and the North Wales Classics I’d not done offered new terrain to explore. Great Gully with its endless lilly pulling to gain the great cave, Lliwedd, with its endless jugs, micro-gem slab and stunning sunset, immaculate rock on grey slab, high above idwal, the grooved arête of Tryfan and its horror offwidth ‘diff’ Gashed crag.
Having the idea to do all the climbs in a book always takes me a lot more time than I expect. Years and years when you take your eye off the ball around life and work.
Working at Glenmore Lodge in August 2023 on some of the best 10 days of work I’ve had, climbing with a young lad, Lewis for 5 of the days, whose granddad had put up some hard routes in the Cairngorms in the 1960s. After work I’d head out alone on missions to do Talisman, Needle, Clean Sweep and Savage Slit, with the golden evening light making Loch Avon look magical. The day after the work finished I went into Carnmore to do Dragon and Gob (~4 hr hike in), stopping at some services a few hours drive south I could hardly walk with legs stiff as fuck from the trudging.

The same summer with a crap forecast in Llanberis but a great one for Arran led to an impromptu trip to the island. The great ferry to Brodick and a stomp up Glen Rosa found me eating some quiche mum had made me halfway up SE ridge. Then the steep line of Labrynth (tough) and the super classic South Westerly slabs followed by the photogenic Rosetta Stone before a meal and beers in Bordick. The last time I was there was with a strong team in 2016 which had finished with a pub crawl and whisky finish.

​  On a trip North with Ryan Pasquill the same year we’d talked big, do this that and the other E7 etc, then we came into contact with reality; hot, sweaty fear, holds snapping, gross amounts of moss, something about RPs and takes, Cubby whispering sandbags. Our attention soon moved towards some of the classic rock routes and the haze of fear subsided and we started to have a real good time. Agags groove, Archers rib, Long climb on the Ben topping out to t-shirts weather and a brochenspectre, pints in Clachaig and firepit beneath the Buchaille with no midges. Good crack with Cubby too who’d just hooked up with ‘just a little tease’ which was a lovely tale.

​In May 2024 I was lucky enough to have a months work with Climb Torridon, the first day of which, climbing with a lovely retired chap called Chris was climbing the Nose on Applecross, which is a sure contender for the best severe in the UK, a huge blunt nose of granite with exposed climbing and lots of up and down scrambling across strange geography to get off. The last weekend of that work I went in to climb the Cumming-crofton route on Mitre Ridge and Squareface, it’s a fair journey in to access the remote crags here and it was almost too cold to do them, wrapped in every possible pieve of clothing I had a strong icy wind bit the fingers making it hard to feel anything. The day after Eagle Ridge on Lochnagar felt warm by comparison and I thought a 3 star climb.

​In 2025 there weren’t many left and towards the end of the good weather we had in the spring I had a day and a half in Scotland for the final Scottish ones.
I stopped at mums in Appleby on the way North. Often smiling with glasses she was now 80 years old. Although I rib her on social media about her raving and dropping acid she actually spends most of her time looking after her grandkids and gardening. It’s always lovely to see her. She’s been a Jehovahs witness since before I was born. I was worried as the years wore on and it became apparent I’m the opposite of a jehovahs witness it might have effected our relationship but it never did.
After leaving mums I arrived at the Buchaille a bit after 14.00, Christ it felt warm, perfect conditions for the Chasm. As I entered and started to make my up I could see it was aptly named, like making your way through several cathedrals, with the odd bit of techy route finding and lots of atmosphere. Low down it a steep, incredible looking rockface came into view, looking ripe for new routes I thought of Ian Small and soon after Niall Mcnair told me Ian had done a load of new 1s on it up to E8. It must have been as dry as it ever got in the Chasm but the routefinding isn’t always obvious and it would be easy to have an epic. One section of the climb, involving climbing the left wall of a chimney to a small shelf then bridging wide to the other side to continue feels pretty nuts.
A walk around to do North Face route left a particularly pointy silhouette of the Buchaille below.

​The following day had an early start for Long crack in Glen Coe. Jesus my body felt tired that morning, the feeling of old age catching up. I walled over the top of Unicorn and Scansor before scuttling down and around to a snow gully which I still had to kick steps up and across another to gain the base of what is surely one of the best and most unique Vdiffs in the UK, The Crypt Route. Mental chimneying to amazing rock architecture high up. “Take a headtorch” my housemate, Gemma Roberston had said. You get 3 different options to climb it in the guide, some involving ‘chambers’. After following the descriptions a little way into the bowels I felt claustrophobic and opted to chimney direct.
I headed down and drove round to Tower Ridge which is more of a scramble than a climb but very imposing from below, a great effort by the first ascentionists. I was last on it via Glovers Chimney with Sophie in 2008.
I trotted back down via number 4 gully and feeling slightly baked drove back to Clachaig for the last 1, Clachaig gully. I didn’t take the guides advice about the rockfall, and went in direct, being worried about not finding the way in the guide describes. Agricultural is how best to describe the lower sections, clinging on reeds and veg, sometimes sliding down a few metres and jumping for ‘off ledges’, it felt like a proper adventure and took me right back to being a teen in the Lakes.
The upper sections felt very techy and comparable to the Chasm, even though it had been dry for ages I still got soaked. It felt a little claustrophobic and that it might be hard to escape, as well as something of a race against the dark, but it was immersive, engaged all the time, always moving, an escape of itself.  

As the Ukcraine war was kicking off I was sat at home one evening, really wanting to escape reality. I bought a ticket on a whim and headed to Hendre Hall, promising myself I’d stay dry and go home at midnight. Some friends were there, Ella, Gwion et al and the music soon swept me up with the curfew forgotten. It was Lisa Oaks playing at first, then Ben Simms. There was someone there who seemed to be on the exact same wavelength (I think they call it synchronicity) and we danced together a lot of the night. I’ve no idea who she was, but I just know her as ‘the dancer’. The evening did help me evade reality for a few hours, a similar immersive experience.

I was thinking about this when my trainer slipped high in the gully. I locked in on 2 good handholds and looked down at the fall zone, cursing my stupidity and negligence.
I eventually escaped the gully as darkness was starting to take hold and the views were stunning with the lights of Clachaig beckoning.

​A month later I was attending my friends, Emma and Harrys wedding. I told myself I'd take it easy there but it didn’t end up that way, started drinking before I'd even arrived. Emma is one of my longest term friends, having some great days out together in the 90s and for nearly 30 years now. Harrys lovely family from Canada were over and one of them was a terrific DJ, Theo. It was a great day with perfect weather.
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A few days later at Kilnsey with Ryan I was still feeling ropey. Ryan made lite work of my last Hard Rock route, Mandela, and I did it with 2 rests which I was happy enough with my gammy finger.
The eve was too stunning to go home straight away so I drove round to Pen Y Ghent. Asking a DofE group if it was the right way I set off walking fast. There was a ton of cotton grass everywhere, a sea of it. Although sunny there was a chill wind. Dropping over the top and down to the base of the climb the wind stopped and it felt warm, with amazing views across the Yorkshire plain below. My friend Tony Greenback wrote of this routes position: “It is a wild, lonely and beautiful setting”.
There was a red pencil someone had placed in the rock at the base, a thoughtful touch. The line of the climb, following a corner, wall and further corner looked great. I slipped rock shoes and chalkbag on and enjoyed the suns heat and the feel of the grit. I thought it was a great route, for position, view and line.

  Returning home I looked at the Classic rock book and the routes in it, specifically the 3 at the top of the Lake District section caught my eye. Little Chamonix, Troutdale Pinnacle and Gillercombe Buttress. These were the 3 that helped capture me into climbing, I climbed them in a month in winter 95/96 with dad. All in Borrowdale.

The memories of the days get more vague by the year. Of the day on troutdale I just remember sliding on snow in the rock shoes on the way down. And for the others riding next to dad on our bikes in the valley to get to the climbs and him chatting as we climbed. Although the memories are growing vague they still have a powerful feeling to them. I'll never do Troutdale Pinnacle as many times as dad did but I've a great understanding now of why he got such enjoyment from that climb.

​   When I was younger I had some near misses both in personal climbing and when taking more novice climbers than myself out because of being a bit thoughtless and cavalier. Something you can’t afford to be when you start working as a climbing instructor or if you are organising events with multiple teams out on different crags. You want to be at the top end of competence for the safety of the clients you work with and the instructors and volunteers you have on courses with you. It’s ironic how safe I like everything to be nowadays when I’d be sure to be one of the more dangerous climbers around for the first few years building experience.  
    On first getting into climbing I can hold my hand up and say I did a great deal of clueless and dangerous things. I tried to lead climb too quickly, on a VS, Brown slab corner, I was overambitious, dad said I shouldn’t, I fell off, cats clawed down before landing on footholds and managing to scamper back up, bricking it, with dad who was belaying justifiably pissed off with me.
 I remember being on top of Shepherds crag belaying my dad up another route. An instructor came over to me, looking disgustedly at my set up, and said I should get input on what I was doing and my belays. Dad taught me to tie an overhand knot straight into any anchor, rather than having multiple anchors, equalised and isolated as is the norm nowadays.
    When I was 17 I took out Emma Twyford when she was 12 yrs old. She said she wanted to lead an extreme. I said great and got her straight on the sharp end on The Grasp at Shepherds. She took a fall, came down and then did it. It gets E2 now and is a little knarly, with the hard bit being fairly near the ground.
On the BMC youth climbing weekends I used to go on them as an Under 18, later helped on them and may years later eventually organised many. On one I helped on when young I got given 2 kids. Walking up to Pavey Ark in the Lakes one of them said they’d led E1. Great, I thought.
“Jump on this VS”.                                                                                            
The lad who said he’d done E1 set off up a left slanting groove and it quickly became apparent he didn’t know how to place gear, was pretty wobbly and I stood watching, ineffectually at the bottom wondering what I could do. He somehow made it to the belay and I soloed up and got the lads to second me on the upper pitches. That’s how the BMC youth meets used to roll and that’s partly why they stopped running for a decade or so. 
 

​   When I was passed my daft younger days I worked for The National Mountain Centre in Wales, Plas Y Brenin for a few years. Jesus, there were a lot of courses on all the time. In the staff room all the climbers would sit on the right side and all the kayakers on the left, a natural segregation. When the weather was good the climbers would be smiling and kayakers miserable, when it rained it was vice versa. You got to work with some great instructors and the odd one not so great but by and large next to people who were near the top of their game and knew how to deliver excellent courses.
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   It’s worth mentioning that Mountain Training qualifications, RCI, RCDI and MCI are all well worth getting, giving basic crag competence and skills for looking after novices on single or multi pitch crags. It’s also worth mentioning that these are minimum standard awards designed to reduce risk of serious accidents by sharing and assessing good practice.
    Some of the most incompetent people I’ve worked with (stories too long for this article, perhaps I'll throw this into another piece) or have heard poor reports about have been highly qualified so I’d take a measure of an instructor by more than just qualification. The level for MCI, WMCI and IFMGA guide range is only to have to climb HVS-E1 which means the bar is relatively low, with some well qualified people being relative novices in terms of their climbing ability and knowledge whereas others, such as Dave Rudkin and Esther Foster are experts and passionate climbers.
   The personal climbing level for any UK climbing award is relatively low but if you are guiding then having a high personal ability on the climbs is likely to give a higher level of safety and if running sport courses you can be of much more help to your clients if you can climb the routes they are wanting to do and offer advice on the moves.
On any course it’s worth having a group shelter as well as a 1st Aid kit, few instructors carry one on rock courses but if there is an incident it could come in handy.
 

                                                         
                                                         ​Beginner courses
A good thing about beginners’ courses is that you can give them everything, from zero to hero, there is plenty they need to know. Effectively a taster to climbing, you want to be careful to give everyone a great time and not scare anyone off. If you are in North Wales you’ll likely get to know the routes on Idwal Slabs, Milestone Buttress, Tremadog, Clogwyn yr Oen, Holyhead and Carreg Wastad pretty well.
Most Plas Y Brenin 5 day rock courses for beginners follow a similar structure which makes plenty of sense:

Day 1: Intros, backgrounds, reasons for coming. Bottom roping, fig 8s, belaying, anchors. Single pitch crag.

Day 2: Top roping, clove hitches, equalising and isolating anchors, belaying from above, lowering, abseils. It’s worth taking plenty of care on this day, many newbies struggle to belay from above at first, worth backing up the tail ropes here. Single pitch crag.

Day 3: Multi pitching, seconding safely, belayer position, abseiling, protecting belays. Normally climbing in series, rather than parallel, better for teaching). When you have inexperienced seconds its worth doing shorter pitches if possible so you can keep an eye on them and keep good communications with them. It’s also worth saying twice+ not to unclip from each belay until they hear ‘climb when ready’ and their name, many people start doing it as soon as you shout safe. Very importantly, novices can belay shit, so don’t lead up anything you might fall off. 

Day 4: More multi pitching and possible lead opportunity (with instructor on rope nearby). When you have people leading its worth keeping a close eye on the belayer as well as the climber. Getting the climber to get 2 bits of protection between them and the ground asap is always a good idea.

Day 5: More multi pitching, possibly more lead opportunities and a briefing to be careful when they lead on their own as they won’t have a guardian angel checking over their protection and set ups.
 
   Most beginners will be happy on V.diffs, probably a lot of severes and may get up some VSs but HVS+ will often shut down newbies although I did have someone who could second E1s straight off, he was a scaffolder by trade though.
If you are teaching newbies to climb in North Wales you’ll likely get to know routes on Tryfan Bach, and the easier ones on Tremadog like Booboo and Oberon. The weather is often better at Holyhead Mountain so routes like Hat, Elephant and New boots and panties are also good shouts. Llanberis Pass is actually a trickier venue than places like Ogwen to find suitably easy angled routes for newbies to lead on.
 
If people are already leading indoors a two day course might be suitable to get them leading on trad outdoors.
 
For me to have someone on the lead who is a newby I want them to be able to build a belay on the ground (low stress environment) and seem comfortable seconding. If they can’t build a good belay whilst on the ground they won’t be able to place good protection whilst leading and therefore aren’t ready to do so. There is no need to have anyone on the lead too soon, who may not be ready, by seconding an experienced leader people can learn a lot of good practice and see how protection is placed as well as getting adept at how to climb outdoors.  

​   The standard practice nowadays is for the instructor to be on a rope next to the client leading. The instructor rigs a rope down the climb, redirecting it over the top edge and maybe again a bit lower. It’s best to use reasonable length overhand knots for this. I’ve heard of the some people teaching RCDI to use clove hitches but this seems a naff idea as they tighten up loads and the instructors load would be on that single point making it more likely to rip.

   It’s easy doing this on easy angled, slabby terrain, but on steeper climbs and performance end coaching you’ll have to think about the best place for your rope to be and the redirection points you are using. I normally clip in direct into redirection points with a quickdraw, clip a jumar above and clip into this then undo the overhand redirection knot. You need to make sure the client is comfortable and out of the way of you when you are doing this. It’s worth getting adept at doing this quickly.

   I say this method of managing clients leading is standard but not always. For very experienced clients or 1:1 coaching you may end up belaying but your knowledge of the client ability and route choice are very important if this is the case as if they get into trouble with you belaying at the bottom you can be of little help. That said I have had a client who onsighted three E4s over a wknd with me who had an experience level to allow this to happen, steepish climbs with clean fallout zones.
 
 

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                              Rock improver courses
   On ‘performance’ rock courses there will be more variety in what you’ll be covering than on beginners courses and likely more options for venues you can head to and climbs you can do. This can be particularly useful if the weather isn’t great. For instance if clients can do VS or HVS-E2 then Striptease, the Carreg Hyll Drem girdle, and Hardd around Tremadog can be done even if the weather is horrendous, they should stay dry. Clogwyn Y Grochan is also pretty good in the light rain and only a 10 minute walk from the car, it’s very quick drying.
    It goes without saying that finding a dry crag is a key element on any rock course. I used to enjoy going out in the pissing rain to do routes when I was younger, but as I’ve aged I’ve realised it was by and large a crap idea, especially if you are directing a rock course, the likelihood of an instructor slipping on somewhere they shouldn’t fall off goes up massively and you can get some daft sods allowed to direct courses.
    Get OCD about checking forecasts and knowing areas and crags that stay dry or sheltered. As mentioned earlier, Holyhead is often good when the mountains can be in the rain, the limestone around Llandudno is in a rainshadow from the prevailing South Westerlies and the slate quarries dry super fast. There are not many days in a year where you can’t find dry rock if you try in North Wales.
 
When you get people coming on courses who can already lead trad climbs but want to improve there are plenty of reasons people have for coming. Some examples of these are:

• They want input on pushing themselves as safely as possible (Beginner courses normally focus on the basic skills and getting people to stay well within their comfort zone when leading).
• Want someone to check their gear and what they are doing is ok, to improve confidence.
• They want to achieve a new grade or a dream climb.
• They suffer from anxiety, particularly on the lead.
• They’ve taken some knarly falls and want input to reduce the likelihood of this happening.
• They are afraid of falling.
• Never used double ropes.
• Want to learn some rescue techniques.
• They don’t get much opportunity to climb except on these courses.
• They’ve been climbing forever and don’t really know why they are there (beware that longevity in an activity is only very loosely linked to performance)
• Their parents sent them.

​The more experienced the client the more input they will have on the structure of the course. That said a fairly standard performance trad climbing day would look like:

• Intros, backgrounds and aspirations.
• Rack check (beyond newbies kit offset wires, micro wires, more slings, larger selection of cams and micro-cams are all useful for tackling harder climbs).
• Get them to second a climb or 2, one similar to their top lead level they wish to try during the course, once suitably warmed up obviously. There will be more verbalising what you are doing than if you were just guiding. How you are protecting the cruxes, assessing fall zones, warning the belayer if nervous, placing a cam near a wire to reduce rope drag on wire etc. I normally climb in series on this if possible too, often climbing it on a single with the client unclipping the single rope and clipping 1 of their double ropes through each runner, like a mock lead.
• After this then they can get a lead each (if you have 2 clients). For everyones benefit I choose routes that have ok to good protection. An example of good E1s would be Seams the Same and Bella Legosi is dead, on the slate, cracks which people can take their time on. Equinox and Seams the same are similar for first VS leads. The better your knowledge of climbs in an area the more you can guide your clients to appropriate routes for them to try.
• Occasionally I’ll put protection in for people either before they lead or during if I’m concerned about a fall zone or if they are struggling a fair bit on the climb.
• Review of the day and make a plan for the next.

 
The above is roughly what I go through on the Teaching performance trad courses, principally as CPD for AMI members. And get someone to give coaching to another member on a route which they are going to find tricky, unlike the lead climb coaching people do with newbies.
  A key take away from a performance course is managing areas that they might fall off to minimise the risk. Newbies starting out should want to stay well within their climbing limit, so they can focus on placing good protection and develop their general crag competence.
Once people are pushing their grade as those coming on performance courses are, going for routes from VS-E2+ they are highly likely to take a fall at some point. When they leave your course you want them to have a good idea of managing this:

• Making a nest of gear around a crux area.
• Warning belayer when you are ready to commit.
• Focusing on long deep breaths.
• Remembering to shake out and keep a track on footholds on cruxes+bulges.  
• If the fall area is clear they can commit, if it’s not it’s down to their recent climbing exploits and self awareness to decide if they want to commit or back off and come back another day.
• Rapid climbing on cruxes.

 
 
   It’s worth mentioning that although I drill into people to risk assess falls and get into good pre-fall procedures I try to avoid people falling or if they are that they are not going very far at all. Some friends have taken falls on trad that have looked innocuous but have led to injury.
 

   It was a standout point, one of the highlights, sometimes hard to find when you've done thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of climbs. It felt better than Salathe, better than climbing hard routes, better than doing any new route. It was unreal how good it felt.

Arriving on the ledge beneath the penultimate pitch things weren't looking good. I listened to Lewis giving himself a deep torrent of negative self talk.
"I cant do it, it looks well knarly"
"I'm not feeling good"
"Ohh man"
"You might have to do it"

Shite, I thought, eyeballing the bold traverse line. E6 with a very exposed and large fall potential which the first ascent team, Dawes and Pritchard had managed to core a rope on in a fall. I eyeballed where I'd extend kit to minimise this risk and listened to Lewis continue his torment, feeling slightly sorry for him, having brought him on this adventure. I felt a little like captain Ahab as there was no way I was retreating when we were near to the top of the trickiest route to do from the Hard Rock book.

   I'd seen a few friends fall briefly into this short lived negative mindset a few times over the years, remarkably by some of the top UK trad climbers, telling themselves they are shit before struggling on moves I knew they could piss up. This was the first time I'd seen it in Lewis who normally oozed that confidence of youth, which is why I was hoping for a ropegun on this bold pitch.

   I'd first met him when he was 12, a runt of a kid, my ex partner Sophie had given him a bouldering pad of mine before I even knew him which I was slightly pissed about. He came on many of the youth climbing meets I'd organised over the years. Gwawr, his very caring mum brought him to ones in Wales, the Peak, Devon and Cornwall where he learned about climbing, trance and techno.
   He went from strength to strength in his climbing and clearly loved it. He later helped on the meets as an adult volunteer and guided me up A Midsummer nights dream on Clogwyn Ddu'r Arddu, leading every pitch on the Summer Solstice 2022, a fantastic lead where going slightly off route on pitch 2 he managed to regain composure facing a very big fall. He was extraordinary on slabs, onsighting UK 6c moves, but def had some work to do on pumpy terrain such as that found in Pembroke. More recently he's one of the 2 stars of the film 'Adra', which has Lewis and Zoe Wood showing some of the climbs, history and scenes of North Wales.

I'd just left my dream job with the BMC and Lewis was psyched for a Scottish trip and the weather Gods did bless us for the first part. Endless blue skies we sailed up to Glencoe and parked beneath the Buchaille in the evening light before meandering our way across Carnivore on Tunnel Walls, a fantastic route with a relatively bold traverse for leader and second and a steep top pitch.
The next day we brewed up and did the rather longer walk up to Shibolleth. The majority of the main pitch was damp and it felt more like E4 but it was a top quality climb and on the top we got a spectacular view of the Ben and Mamores.

We went to the Ben the next day and after doing the Bat went up the truly brilliant corner system of Centurion before meeting a queue where Torro and several other climbs meet, all finishing at the final pitch. 
We went Northwards again to Skye and climbed on the slabs above Glen Brittle in Sron na Ciche, climbing Arrow route and Cioch Direct before Lewis went for the imposing arete of Highlander, an E6 on the Cioch Nose. 
I'd told him it was piss for the grade, having done it 20 years earlier with Ben Bransby and Adam Long after we'd done the Nose on Eigg. I'd been labouring for Cumbria Stonework, soloing a ton and remember we climbed it with waterproofs on and socks under boots and it feeling e4. Seconding Lewis up it the crux was dismally harder than I remembered which didnt bode well for our objective on Harris.
We continued up the spectacular VS above, Integrity on the magically sticky Gabbro and returning to Glen Brittle drive round to Uig ready for the ferry to Tarbert on Harris the following day.

Arriving on Harris we drove Westward along the South Coast to where you can make a nice camp where the track leads off towards Sron Ulladale, a cliff which a few people have said is the best in the UK and a truly impressive crag. 
We walked in, finding it the easiest of the walks we'd done the last few days and surveyed the incredible crag with deer roaming its lower slopes. The Scoop tackles the left side of the prow of the whole crag and is 8 pitches long, with 7 of the pitches being pretty hard ones. The aid version of the Scoop was put up by Doug Scott and team in 1969 but the free version we were aiming for was put up by Jonny Dawes and Paul Pritchard in 1987. The guidebook description for it starts with "One of the most prestigious lines on British rock". Looking up at it you know they arent kidding as the crag looks like Carreg Hyll-drem on steroids.

​  

the 
Ian Small had sent me pictures of him and Tony Stone on the Scoop and the Chisel a decade before telling me how great they were and one of the picture of Tony on pitch 5 of the Scoop was on the cover of the new Outer Hebrides guidebook. 

As me and Lewis pondered at the bottom an arctic wind hardly let up and it became clear we wouldn't be able to feel our finger on the rock so we stashed kit and bailed back to our tents. This was the 3rd visit I'd made to Harris and Lewis to try to climb the Scoop. The first 2 were with Dave Rudkin and involved sitting above the Uig sea cliffs in the cloud and heavy rain for a few days before heading back to the mainland empty handed.  I'd even had a ferry booked for another visit before but my partner bailed as he'd got a girlfriend. I felt luck was running against me getting on this climb, let alone up it.
We were back at camp early and I festered, stressed about leaving my job and a host of other things on my mind I'd caved and brought rollies, hiding them from Lewis at first he eventually had twigged and the bastard poached some, reducing what was my holiday vice stash.

The following day the wind had calmed and walking back in we had hatched a plan between us. I was to lead the 6b pitches so that Lewis could save his arms for the bold 7th Pitch and we'd share a rollie on the top. Having had the 2nd to last one that morning I had the last 1 stashed in my thigh pocket. 

We knew the first pitch was going to be tricky as a few very good climbers I knew had took a bit of a kicking on it and Ian Small was the only person I knew who'd onsighted the whole route. After a moderate start I went up and down a few times cursing on the too blank and too slopey crux, feeling super hot I had to chuck a downy off and eventually found a crimp allowing a slappy move up to easier moves, it had felt more on the 6c side to me. The next pitch was like a stunning E4 6b corner you'd find on tremadog.
Lewis led the next pitch which was lead us to one of the more famous pitches on the climb I'd first heard of in the 1990s, The Flying Groove. 
Whilst belaying Lewis I had one of the most profound whole body cravings I'd ever had and it was a close run thing that the rollie stayed in my pocket. 
Arriving at Lewis's belay I surveyed the Flying Groove, 6b pitch with delight. An undercling groove leading leftwards. It looked piss.
"It looks e3 Lewis"
Two moves in it became apparent it wasn't E3 and breathing hard and much thrutching ensued.
"Not fucking E3 Lewis" I bellowed down after the rock slabbed off giving a breather.

The belay ledge was spectacular and it felt like being on El Cap as Lewis seconded. After reviving from the Flying Groove Lewis took the lead on the pitch 5 'cover shot', he didn't make it look easy and after a bit of going back and forth and techy route finding he eventually shouted down safe and that the belay wasn't that good. He'd linked pitches 5 and 6 leaving the last hard, serious pitch. 
Arriving at his ledge listening to his dark musings I backed the belay up with some good cams a bit lower.

The next pitch traversed almost horizontally rightwards and slightly upwards for about ten metres to what was clearly easy ground and a chilled top pitch. But I could see it wasn't Lewis' natural habitat such as slate. This pitch was steep at first, slightly gymnastic looking, clearly pretty strenuous and very much on your arms. The steepness of the traverse gives you a good amount of exposure with 100s of feet of air beneath you and a sizeable lob into it if you fell. The fact Dawes and Pritchard had damaged a rope falling on it lent weight to the seriousness of the climb.

After a few minutes of dark mutterings and a pep talk Lewis said:
"I'll give it a look"

He clipped a peg and carefully extended it before moving right and putting in some clearly shit wobbly RPs. Balancing right again he gained the start of the steep and intimidating rock. I expected a bit of upping and downing before a retreat to the belay. What I didnt expect was for him to commit fast and fully into the crux. Stretching out he grabbed a guppy and now a bit out from his shit kit he cut loose and started scrappling to get his feet back on before trying to latch something useful above. I felt a small adrenaline surge watching him, readying myself to catch his possible big air lob.


It all seemed to happen so fast, he blasted through the crux onto the more vertical wall leading rightwards, clipping some in-situ thing, keeping solid composure. He was climbing like the opposite of his grim self-talk earlier on the ledge. Hitting better holds after a few metres he crowed with delight, as did I. Watching this kid pull out a blinding lead on a relatively remote crag after being harassed by demons of doubt was just fantastic. 

I seconded and was also pretty glad not to fall off which would have involved a sizeable pendulum and having not fallen off the prior pitches i was keen not to have a return visit. The in-situ thing felt out as I climbed past and was totally shit. It would have been a big lob.
After giving  Lewis a big pat on the back for a great lead I led us up the mellow 5a top pitch, enjoying terrain I could move fast on. 
When Lewis arrived we sucked in the views and the last rollie. What a fucking route, place and partner.
We went for celebratory drinks in Tarbert and as the weather deteriorated we spent more days drinking above the sea cliffs at Uig, doing a bit of writing and cards. The rest of the trip was damp but we were buzzing about this climb for weeks and months afterwards. Amazing that one route, not particularly hard by modern standards can feel priceless.

 I once got picked up by an artist when hitching between Ambleside and Keswick, we got chatting about the Borrowdale valley and she said many artists were intimidated to paint it because of its complex nature. There is so much going on there, the greenest valley in the Lake District with Derwentwater beneath and scattered crags lying all over the place. 
   Dad used to bike or walk down the valley all the time, usually to climb and before I got into climbing I thought he was mad to do so. Just seemed such a waste of time. After an ascent of Troutdale Pinnacle with Dad, slipping about on the snow on the way down I became much like him and couldn't get enough time down this beautiful valley. Almost every cliff here holds an assortment of fond memories, of friends, family, solitude and youth.

   Shepherds crag was rightly the most popular crag, having easy access, loads of good climbs and with the wonderful cafe at Yew tree farm giving a focal point for people to meet up, where Martin Weir, the farmer who owned it would offer cream scones, good cakes, fantastic quiche and fry ups, along with people like Barbara who was always very friendly and good crack. Dad rarely left this cafe, and tbf I spent a good deal of my late teens sat here scoffing between crags. Regulars like Pete Lockey, George Ray would often be found here. The paradise cafe.
   The crag itself offers good easier climbs on Brown Slabs as well as the likes of Donkeys Ears and the famous classic rock route, Little Chamonix. There is a good assortment of HS/VS such as Ardus, Eve and Fishers Folly and around HVS/E1s my favourites were Aaros (lovely wall climb), Finale, Grasp, Black Icicle and the intimidating Bludgeon which feels ludicrously exposed for the grade, abit like Barbarian at Tremadog, it will have seen loads of epics, as the wall when stepping off the top of the spike, is steep.
   Took my first lead fall here with Hock and Wez off Wild Side and didnt sleep that night due to the adrenaline. Wild side, Porcupine and inclination give some of te better tricky climbs on the crag. Gouther crag just to the left of Shepherds has a great VS, Fools Paradise, HVS, Kaleidoscope and E1, Gosh. 
   
   Upon entering Borrowdale the 1st crag on the left, Walla, is one nobody goes to!. But the next, Lower and upper Falcon crags are fantastic and highly underrated, giving a lot of great climbs with truly stunning views across Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite Lake (the only lake in the Lakes) and catches the evening sun. Think I first climbed on here seconding dad up Illusion (big fucking traverse-scary when your a beginner). When my friend Hock didnt turn up to meet me here I did my first solo, the VS, Spin Up on the left, the the HVSs Stretch and Funeral Way, opened up a totally different world of possibilities and climbing style, very different than when you have a rack and rope. 
   Dad put up one of his best routes here in 1962 with Adrian Liddel, the very good E2 called The Niche. Incidentally my first E2 with Hock, gave him the strenuous pitch 2 on it. Other great routes here are Hedera Grooves (HS), Plagarism (esp direct finish), Kidnapped, Usurper and Dedication. Last time i climbed with dad was on here, with my sister jennifer on Hedera (means Ivy) grooves.
​

   Upper Falcon crag has a wild, exposed feel to it, having a big, sheer, diamond face at its top. The right side of this gives the brilliant E3 corner of route 1, having good protection. Through the middle of the diamond face goes Pete Liveseys high quality wall climb, Dry Grasp. This was one of my first E4s and I remember being a bit scared of my belayer, Colin Downer, who had a reputation for having a bad temper, the odd story of violence here and there, backed up with having been grabbed by the throat by him before. It did take me a bit of time to commit, looking down hoping he wasnt getting too worked up, soloing some years later it felt breezy. Me and Bransby climbed the pink groove down right of this face, called JP rules, didnt get put in the guide for some reason but will probs be the hardest new route done in Borrowdale without inspection. Cant remember if it was any good though.

   If you take a left just after this crag and go past Ashness bridge you eventually arrive at the premier hard crag in the valley, Reecastle. Exceptional for E2s, 3s, 6s and 7s. The central E3 crack, White Noise was put up by Jeff Lamb and dad and relates to dads constant talking. The Rack finger flake, Guillotine, Thumbscrew, Inquisition, Penal Servitude and Daylight Robbery are all cracking whilst Paul Cornforths route Burnt at the Stake is still a contender for giving the hardest pitch in the valley, if you place gear on the lead. Great in the evening sun but watch out for midges. Vaguely remember decking out here, whilst soloing low on Executioner, cartwheeled 20 or 30 feet and landed next to a block. Was a busy day on the crag and everyone went silent, someone found my glasses and wez carried my rucksack and I limped over the top to Shepherds cafe for a brew, hands shaking. Ended up just being a bruised strap muscle in back but couldnt lift legs very high for months. 

Back to the main valley and beyone Shepherds crag on the left you have Black Crag, dads favourite, which was clearly obvious from him doing Troutdale Pinnacle over 1000 times. Think he may have helped build the path up to it. The Shroud and Jubliee climb are great routes on the left, Mortician (did this in torrential rain with Wez) and Raindrop great routes on the right. Prana, Grans Alliance and Vertigo are 3 of the great tricky climbs of Borrowdale and are comparable to a lot of the Welsh Classics. Dick Patey used to solo MGC and other Shepherds routes regularly in the 90s, dad reckoned he was ex SAS and me and Dick used to chat about one of us soloing Prana, when i hit 17 i went for it and felt elated as fuck at the time, think Mandy and Ad Wilde were topping out on Troutdale as I bimbled up.

   Next up is another big crag (for Borrowdale), Greatend crag, a short walk from Black cag if somewhat agricultural. A contender for the best E1 in the Lakes lies here, Banzai Pipeline. It follows a weakness up the middle of the crag with very varied pitches, the first 2 giving the cruxes but with a cool 'step across the void' finale to cross a bottomless groove. The other classic line here is Pete Liveseys E4, Nagasaki Grooves which gives a testing mantle type crux in a groove, an essential Borrowdale classic and miles too hard for Hock or Twyford (she was rather tiny when she tried it). The E2 on the right, No Holds Barred is well worth doing if clean too. The small crag nearer the road, Grange crag is rather dirty but Red Neck, Rough Justice and Desmond Decker are worth seeking out for a quick hit.  

   Just beyond, the quickest to access crag is Quayfoot buttress, right above where you can park for the Bowderstone. The HVS here Mandrake is one of the best, having a great finish up a finger crack and the Go between gives one of the better techy E2s. Irony is another good HVS here. Quick drying but slippery as fuck when wet, some smeary moves on the routes.

   Bowderstone crag itself has the classic diff, Bowderstone Pinnacle but the steeper area of cliff has an incredible array of hard routes, with probs best E6 and E8 in the valley. Hells wall, well pegged, desperate start into pumpy climbing. The arete to the left, Bleed in Hell is outstanding and very safe at the grade. The Birkett route to their right, Hellish might be the most dangerous route in the valley, having 7c climbing and deckout potential on most of it. Wheels of fire gives a great E4 and Bulger and Lucifer used to get E4! 

   Opposite this lies what for many years was my favourite crag. Goat. I'd skive school on many days to come soloing up here on Tumbleweed Connection, Preying Mantis, Bitter Oasis and see the school in the distance across the lake, a good education to some, a prison to others. Mirage and Footless Crow (yet another Livesey masterpiece) are all time for E5s in the Lakes even, really great routes. The quarry beneath, Dalt has some sport routes in and was the first time I climbed with Hock, we biked down in the pissing rain and did some of them, soaking, WTF we were thinking I'll never know. 

   On Castle Crag, the small hill in the middle of Borrowdale there is a good HVS, RIP and E3, a Face in the crowd. The best route on here might be beneath Millican Daltons cave, an E6 called Sherrif of Nottingham, named after Colin Downer. Millican Dalton used to live in the nearby cave in Summer months for 50 years from around 1920,  Guiding and known as the professor of adventure, well worth looking up on his life. Some of the worst routes I've ever done have been on this side of Castle Crag, with dad, green and vegetated as fuck. Castle Crag is a great little walk to its summit, from Rosthwaite, giving stunning views back across Derwentwater to Keswick and Skiddaw.
   
   Further down the valley is one of the many Raven Crags of the Lake District, with this one having the classic diff, Corvus on it, giving steep climbing for the grade. High above Seathwaite Farm (the wettest inhabited place in England) lies a classic rock route, Gillercomble buttress, and on the right side of this crag Dave Birketts route, Caution is another contender for the most serious route in the valley at possible e9. 
​

   Delving into the last offshoot valleys on the left out of Borrowdale you have Green up ghyll and Langstrath (the long valley). Bleak How is the first crag low on the rib between the 2 valleys and has a great E1, Bleak How Buttress, giving a techy crux slab into easier and steeper moves above. 

  The big crag above, Eagle crag is impressive and has one of the best E2s, Where eagles dare, and one of the best E3s, Daedalus. There are 3 very good e5s here too, Restraint of beasts, Flying Circus and Dead on Arrival. Took my first fall on a skyhook here on Fall of eagles, not far thankfully. The wall left of Flying Circus gives one of the more dangerous routes in the valley, The ego has landed (Woody and Nick Wharton supplied the name) offers a deckout from the crux moves, with a low peg too low to do much in a fall. Longband crag opposite is a great place to escape the crowds too, but starts at a stiff grade of E4 with routes like the Professional and steep Technician (seconded Planky up that i think).

  Down Langstrath itself you've got a lovely swimming area, Black Moss pot and up on the hillside to the right the raped by affection bivvy spot Woof Hole, which was a great effort by whoever made it before it became too busy, you pulled a leaver and a hard to see door swung open into a cabin with a wood burning stove and small sleeping quarters. It was quite special.

   Above this lies Cam crag with the 2 best hard bold wall climbs in Borrowdale, Kamikaze and Camouflage. Hocks put up some modern horrors up here too. The crag beyond again is a hike, Black wall, with a good E7 in the middle of the face, Satans Little Helper. Hocks route, Codebreaker near it is named after something I did (said), after telling Hock you wouldnt want to fall off on the crux onto the sideways rock 2, i promptly went up and lobbed onto it.

   Opposite this and the final crag in the Borrowdale list (that I can be bothered to write about, there's loads more col things here) is Seargant crag slabs. Dad discovered this crag in the 90s whilst working opposite and it gives exquisite slab climbing on perfect rock with mainly great protection. Particularly good for easy HVS and E1s. Did my first HVS on here Lakeland Cragsman and dad told me to space the gear as we didnt have much. The E2 Aphasia is lovely pitch too. 
    There was a few of us at the crag in the 90s and Hock and Dewhurst started throwing mud down on Wez. some women shouted "stop that pillocks" which didnt go down well with them. I didnt like the scene and made my way down. Near the base of the valley Hock came running down to say that Carter (a school friend who never normally came out) had pissed in a boot, total dickhead. We did 1. 
   At Shepherds cafe the day after, Carter was their again, and we got a lot of glares from some club members who were sat outside before the women from the crag arrived and rightly started laying into us. I shrank down in shame, Ad Wilde started arguing with them and Carter the fucking bastard, sat smirking. I got the blame for everything.

   I loved this valley, trekking between the crags and wasting days at Shepherds cafe. I was slightly amused at my own feelings when I'd clocked that the cafe was fully closed, made into an air bnb and the parking shut to climbers. I felt a little heartbroken, which rest assured is a very rare for me. It felt like the end of an era, a closing of a chapter in your life and the lives of your friends that was mainly golden. Thankfully, the reality is that all the climbs and beautiful places I've mentioned are still there, but you'll have to take your own quiche and cream scones. 

     The 2 valleys I love most in the world and 2 of the most beautiful. Borrowdale and the Llanberis Pass. It’s been a real privilege to spend a shit ton of time in both these places, Borrowdale in my youth and Llaneris pass in the latter part of my life. I’d be surprised if anyones done as many routes in Borrowdale and there cant be many contenders for the Pass, maybe big Tim. I’ve soloed a lot of routes on pretty much every crag in them as well as having great times with friends over the last 27 years. Many a time in both of these places have I felt huge contentment, joy, excitement, fear, calm, solitude and comraderie in great weather and in shitty rain and snow. Clambering around on the existing routes and blocs, exploring for new ones, seeing how many long extremes I can solo in a few hours or sat on a pad for weeks on end trying to unlock a 3 move sequence. As a super fit and healthy mofo and as a wreck, these valleys have had me sat in them at my best and worst and I feel incredibly grateful that I’ve managed to toss off so much time in them.  
    I like to think the time spent in these places offset time as a kid when terrified of going into school for years, when not spending months skiving, with the shame of being poor having been drilled in by chants of tramp and the like. I should thank that time as it has made me into the tough little bastard I am now and my book, Eleri, which is out imminently will have various stories and themes around inequality and being fuck poor. It was a real cathartic pleasure to write and the artist Maisy Lovatt has made a killer cover and Sophie Eleri James some serious editing on it.
   The Llanberis Pass is something of a central point for climbers and if you’ve lived in the area for a few years and park at Cromlech roadside you’ll often see people you know. I first climbed here on a trip down from the Lakes with Wez Hunter and Adam Wilde, climbing in a 3 and soloing we had a cracking time, Spiral Staircase, Diagonal and Cemetery Gates were 3 of the highlights if memory serves and if you’ve not done these I would highly recommend them, timeless classics. 

​My favourite spot for bouldering in the Pass is up by Big Smile, Willy 2 goes and King of drunks where in the evening light you get a stunning view down the Llanberis Pass to both Llyn Peris and Llyn Padarn with the slate quarries on the right towering up the side of Elidir Fawr. The slate quarries guard the Pass and offer fantastic climbing and smashing view of the Pass and Crib Goch.
On either side of the Llanberis Pass many cliffs and outcrops are scattered. One of the first major ones on the left as you drive up is one of my least favourite, Craig Ddu. It has black rock that hearts up in the sun and has a lot of sloping holds and not as striking lines as many of the other crags. That said Canol, Yellow Groove and Bog of eternal stench are worth seeking out and Mabinogion, just left of this crag, a micro route or highball is brilliant.
The next crag along Clogwyn Y Grochan is the quickest to dry and fastest to get to, perfect for a quick after work hit or if you are short on time. It’s a real sun trap too. The 2 VSs on the left, Phantom Rob and Nea will ever be popular as will in-situ climbers trying to workout which way to face on the classic HVS here, Brant Direct. Redheads masterpiece to the right, Cockblock sees off many would be onsight wads but was soloed back in the day by Phil Davidson so cant be that hard? I enjoyed watching Emma Twyford piss up it onsight. Go try it. Alex Masons direct on it, Rising sun deserves to become a modern classic, giving a brilliant grit arete boulder quality sequence above good kit and a clean fall out zone well tested by Ferdia. Up and right of here the E3 cracks of Stroll on and Quasar offer high quality e3 struggles, both hard for the grade, the former sustained and the latter cruxy.
Just down Left of the Grochan is a lovely short E1 called Little Groover, a soft E1 with good pro but techy start, and the Redhead micro testpiece that rarely gets done now, Ryley Bosvil.
Above the Grochan lies Drws Y Gwynt where there are 2 excellent E1s, A touch of class and Too hard for Jim Perrin that gives a great short finger crack in a wall. Lying out the way these will be ideal if you want a quiet crag on a bank holiday, if you can get parked of course.
  Carreg Y Wastad is the next crag up the Pass and for many on here there is only one route, Crackstone Rib, ultra classic but best done mid week when quieter, climbing with people above you is generally a dull idea unless you have to, many a time have I seen people pull rocks off onto people below. The harder ones on here such as Erosion Groove Direct (E2) and Zangorilla (E4) are also brilliant but rarely get done now which can give them a bit of an esoteric, ‘Lakes’ type feel. There is a great pic somewhere of Pete Crew doing Erosion with little pro and rope around his waste, really out there days.

 Next crag along is the crowning jewel of the Llanberis pass, Dinas Cromlech. Christ, what a mega crag, full of classics for any climber, giving pockets, cracks and crimpy moves. I don’t know of any other  ‘open book’ corners quite like it in the UK, certainly not with so many historic routes pushed into its 2 pages. Cenotaph Corner, put up by Joe Brown in his purple patch where he did so many great new routes is justifiably coveted. The Right Wall, put up by Pete Livesey and soloed not long after by Phil Davidson is an awe inspiring climb that deserves plenty of respect, I have witnessed the biggest falls I’ve ever seen off it and I’ve seen a lot of big lobs in my time. Ron Fawcetts Lord of the flies, lying between Cenotaph and Right wall is a world class pitch. I first did it at the end of an amazing week with Wez and Downer in the 90s but I’ve since done it many times, and having done a lot more climbing worldwide when I last did it I realised how good it is. Great rock, concentration needed all the way and the groove to aim for at the end has been known to spit off some great climbers. A hell of a solo by Dave Thomas many years ago and a top effort by Leo doing it in the dark by headtorch when he was 15 year old. The direct on this, Steve Mayers’ ‘Nightmayer’ is one of the few I’ve not done in the Pass and was an exceptional onsight/flash by Ste Mac, from friends who have done it they rate it as upper end of E8, which means as things settle and grades workout, it might be E9? Think he may have even missed a good runner which probs made it that anyhow.
Cemetery Gates up the right arete is again a timeless classic by A-team, Joe Brown and Don Whillans, you are treading in their footsteps when going up it. Left of Cenotaph lies the stunning wall climb Resurrection, possibly better than Right Wall and a very good stepping stone towards Right Wall if you are building up to E5.
My favourite ones on here are Left Wall and Memory Lane. Left Wall would be a classic wherever you put them in the world. Reckon I’ve done each of these in sub 2 mins in my early 20s.
On the upper tier are 2 great aretes, Overlord (7c and poky) put up by the understated Steve Mayers again and Rumblefish, a Craig Smith E7 which is balancy and committing on the finish but easyish for the grade. Grond gives a fantastic corner crack above, a Whillans and co masterpiece which gives great entertainment to watch when climbers are on it who cant jam. The Monster to the right is well worth doing to enchain from the bottom routes. The crack of Atomic hot rod just round the corner was given E5 7a by big ron and tbh in those shit old boots it probably would feel 7a as the crux is off knuckle jamming and reliant on a very small foothold on the right to feel ok. Take a couple of cam 0s, .5s and 1s.  

​Next major crag along is Esgair Maen Gwyn, aka Scimitar ridge. A tough crag that starts at E4 for the better climbs, no offence to Troy and Chreon. King Wad, Tufty Club Rebellion and Killerkranky are essential ticks for people after a hard Pass apprenticeship. Pritchards Surgical Lust has a bold, e6 6a start to good pro then excellent pumpy climbing above. Built Jack G a tombstone beneath it before he set off. The top arete on King Wad really is outstanding, on perfect rock good gear but exposed, front cover of an 90s OTE. Think I did this with reeves after an international meet party where we were up till 5am getting pissed. Still felt easy, the joy of youth.
Beyond this is Clogwyn Blaen Coed, only 15 minutes easy walk from Cromlech boulders but nobody goes here. The E4, Marlene on the wall is good and Youtopia, named after a very good party, is a modern classic for those who like burly roofs with pretty good pro.
Shifting to the other side (right as you look up the Pass) you have very different rock types, some of which many people think are the best here.
Clogwyn Gafr (crag of the goat) has 2 great well protected E3s, Pulsar and Sacred Idol and the super E5, The Nectarine Run. This crag gets a lot of shade and nobody goes there so again its great if you are seeking a quiet crag. I remember Will Perrin talking me into staying at his house even though I was keen to camp. His housemate came in from a party, bent as sin, and gurning started yacking at me for hous in the ungodly hours. We went to this crag the day after and did Outspan, feeling very tired. I never found out if Will had set me up for that.

 Between here and Dinas Mot lies Dinas Bach and a 3 star E5 called Felony, it only gets 1 star in the guide but is brilliant, a good wire, a peg then techy crux. Nearby is Nick Dixons micro route, Vlad the arete, E4 7a! Both are excellent quality and if you are local I’d point them out as giving a good evening of fun. 
 Dinas Mot, directly opposite and lower than Dinas Cromlech is renowned for top quality routes and the route that gets most mentioned for its rock quality is an E2 called Ten Degrees North. The E1s on this right buttress, Nexus and Plexus are great on an evening, catching the sun. Many a time I’ve wondered how Cliff Phillips survived a fall from the top overhang section on Plexus whilst soloing and survived, the guy is like Rincewind from a Terry Pratchett book, where death is always trying to catch him. The Red Ring to the left gives an ace, well protected burly roof E5 and the Nexus Direct and Shining path give great techy E5s. 
The main buttress of the Mot is quick to dry. The cracks, Diagonal and Superdirect are ones you want to do again and again and the last one, Superdirect was for many years my favourite in the valley, I’l never forget belaying Wiz Fineron leading the top pitch when he was 11 years old having to body bridge to gain the roof then jumping above it, a mega lead. For those after more difficulty the E3s Stairway to heaven and Zeta are excellent. Think on first moving to wales I soloed Stairway, some stuff on the cromlech than had a fun scrap with Patch at the roadside when he nabbed his Minidisc back from my shit fiesta. Ray Woods pic of Leo Houlding on the upper left side of this crag on the first E9 in the Pass, Trauma, really captured that era. 
A small buttress along called Ettws Isaf has Christian Klemmows arete called The Dark Side which still hasn’t been repeated and there is rumour of it also being E9, which would have been a great effort if it is as it was done the same month, possibly even the same week as Trauma. Need to check it out.
Above and right of here there is a large black looking cliff called Craig y Rhaedr, crag of the waterfall. Tim Neill, one of the more experienced winter climbers I know, thinks the ice routes on here such as Cascade and Centrall Ice fall are the best in the UK. I’m no winter devotee but even I’ve done these ones. I remember me and Jim Mccormack sending pillars of ice down onto Andy Scott and Ratcliff when pulling onto the Final Pillar of Central ice fall on the king of the pass challenge and Andy crowing, looking forward to getting up there. The thought of the top ice fall coming away with Terry Taylor still attached to it via his axes and leashes does make me shiver. There are 2 excellent rock routes on this crag that very, very rarely get climbed. I think Chris Wentworth first recommended them to me, Ghosts, E3 and the Wall E1, wall climbs with rock that reminds me of marble, quite compact, smooth and pale.
Just up right of this is Cyrn Las, aka Diffwys Ddu (I know I’ve missed Clogwyn y ddysgyl out, but nobody goes there except for Parsons nose-the walk puts most climbers off). Cyrn Las feels high and has longer routes than any on the other side. Used to be my favourite crag on first moving to Wales, remember being a cocky little shit and spinning round to stand looking outwards on the end of the trav on Lubyanka whilst soloing. The Grooves on the right is a mega Pass E1, again a Joe Brown route from 53, great corner pitches. Lubyanka, Skull and Long Kesh give stellar techy outings at e3 to e5 with the start of the Skulls middle pitch giving the pokiest section on any of them. Just right of these and finishing up Skulls groove is Dai Lampards Wrath of Kahn that gives a great and pretty low in the grade E6 with good pro.

​Just along from Cyrn Las is Craig chwarennog, aka Equator Walls. This is some wall that rarely, if ever sees anyone on it as its all pretty hard. Pat Littlejohns E6, Alchemy might be the best e6 in the Pass behind Lord of the flies though, and New Era, a touch easier is also one of the best. Both have some marvellous deep pockets right where you need them. Alchemy tackles a thin crack seam all the way and you can fiddle in a fair bit of kit if memory serves.
Dropping down from here you have the Cwmglas area. The most popular E6 in the Pass is first up, Pretty girls make graves, with good pro a hard start into an e3 crack. Just right of this is Nick Dixons Melancholie, old school E7 6c it has a perfect landing so with pads gives the best highball font 7b+ in the Pass. Marble rock, great moves. The offwidth you can see up and right is Fear of Infection, E4 and the hardest offwidth in the Pass.
Just right of here is a crag called Craig cwm glas back with my favourite small climb in the Pass, Weasels rip my flesh, around E4, crux start and perfect solid pockets and crimpy techy climbing above via a thread, feels almost like gabbro. There is a very good E2 just out right called Stebbing, lesser travelled.
The Llechog ridge has little climbing on it but the highball, Mynedd Oer is worth seeking out and there is scope for some good new micro routes high on the left. The new gen of snowflakes like lewis and Jacob are probs too lazy so I might pick them off if I make it into my 60s.
Further down again lies the Nant Peris quarry, facing towards Pen Y Pass with Crac Yr Meistri now being a popular testpiece, a modern version of Comes the Dervish.
As for the blocs a bouldering session in the Pass is hard to beat. The Seam, Mouses toothpaste, Jerrys roof, Big Smile, Willy 2 goes, Black Mirror, Barrel Trav, Full roadside, King of drunks and the Witch are my favourites, but there is bound to be another classic waiting to be found. When I've been climbing at my best I've often come to the pass boulders as a training ground too. Favourite circuit was some laps on full roadside, laps on barrerl, some on big smile then onto Jerrys roof. 
 Anyway, that’s my boring ramblings about the Llanberis Pass. I think it’s a fucking fantastic place and if you get the opportunity to go and do a route or boulder problem there I don’t think you’ll regret it. 
 
 
 

​When Lorna Hargreaves from Vertebrate Publishing got in touch about reviewing the 4th edition of Hard Rock, compiled by Ian Parnell I jumped at the opportunity. When Ian had said that he was redoing Hard Rock I was worried it might be a flop, like the BMCs ill fated ‘Climb Britain’ rebrand which was taken as well as if radio 4 said they were going to change the name of the Archers. 

​  To say Ian was stepping into big shoes would be an understatement. Ken Wilsons love of UK climbing is shown in many of his publications and particularly the trilogy, Classic, Hard & Extreme Rock which have helped inspire generations of climbers. The list of routes which appear in each were chosen according to Ken:
“Certainly there are many qualities that contribute to a climbs reputation: history, singleness of line or, conversely, subtle complexity, good rock, good position, interesting technique, length, consistent difficulty, inescapability, commitment- all are qualities that one looks for, and each of the climbs in this book can lay claim to one or more of these merits”.
 
To be fair to Ian Parnell, he’s done a hell of a job.
   The front cover of Mary Jenner on Central Buttress, Scafell in atmospheric conditions is very apt, with the 1st ascent in 1914 by Herford and co being a testament to both youthful boldness and a precursor to the ‘abseil inspections’ that would become common for cutting edge routes many decades later. It is the earliest of the Hard Rock routes with most of the others done from 1930/40s onwards. The climb itself also has an element of tragedy with Herford dying only a few years after the first ascent in WW1, aged 24 and on the climb itself  when the critical chockstone fell out whilst climbers were on it in 1994, killing one of them.
    On a less serious note the front cover is also funny because Marys partner Dave Birkett will be gutted its not him on the cover, as he once mentioned to the climber on the front of the most recent Scafell guide, George Ullrich how he wanted it to be him. The back cover is another great shot with Heart of Darkness at Mowing Ward, highlighting the coming of age of sea cliffs in the UK with Pembroke being a contender for the best of its type in the world. 

​  The main content of the book is still there with gripping essays from the likes of Jimmy Marshall, Ed Drummond, Pete Crew, Royal Robbins, Chris Bonnington, Martin Boysen on some all time routes such as Carnivore, Old man of Hoy, Dream of white horses, Great wall (cloggy), Cenotaph Corner.
However, Ian has made some logical changes with some routes having fallen down and with routes such as Main Overhang at Kilnsey (now Mandela) and Scoop having free versions and which would now belong in the Extreme Rock genre. There are 13 new routes with pieces written about them. Some of the new ones are quite inspired. 
Prophecy of Drowning, on Pabbay is thought by Scottish guidebook writer, Gary Latter to have the best rock in Scotland on it. It is fitting that the piece about this climb is by Ellie Fuller, one of the 4 creators of the notorious and brilliant Women’s Trad Festival. The final paragraph of Ellies account sums up much of what can be great about climbing some of the routes in the book, and given from the perspective of someone who is a member of the next generation of climbers:
 “This is why you are here. Prophecy of Drowning is far more than the sum of its parts. In fact, the climbing is at times the least memorable aspect. It is about finishing up this imposing feature, with the sun on your back, the sea beneath your feet and seals playing in the waves far below. It is the satisfaction and glow of time shared with another, navigating a challenge in a remote and wildly beautiful location with no one but a handful of other climbers for miles and miles. It is time stretching on as you lose yourself in marbled gneiss walls jutting out over the waves, between the blue of the Hebridean sea and the sky”.
 
There are 2 more Scottish mainland additions. One is on the much acclaimed but tricky to get to, Beinn Eighe, with the route Angel Face given a great write up by the sadly recently deceased Martin Moran. The other is Vulcan wall on the Isle of Skye by another one of the most prolific Scottish pioneers, Kev Howett. Anyone who has been to Beinn Eighe or clung onto the Gabbro of skye in its amazing landscape will give these the thumbs up. 

​The Lakes additions are also safe choices, with Nimrod on Dow crag having some fantastic rock and Totalitarian on Raven Thirlmere also being well deserved of belonging in Hard Rock (if it’s not too dirty) and an appropriate substitute for North Crag Eliminate on the opposite side of the valley which has fallen down. Rigor Mortis, Hiddenite, The Niche and Bonzai Pipeline are great routes nearby which are of a similar level if you are making a trip of it. If Niall has been training hard during the Great Lockdown he might be able to free one of these Lakes routes, however much Bullocks been doing he’s no chance. It’s also worth noting that many of the Lakes routes will be found to be too tough for trustafarians.
A key addition and an area where I’ve often recommended it to people as the best sea cliff climbing areas in the world is Pembroke. Ian did well to get the input of Emma Alsford and Paul Donnithorne who wrote the excellent definitive guidebooks for Pembroke. Although I slagged off traverses at the start of this review I will be putting the Heart of Darkness and Plane Sailing on the ticklist and finishing a route at Stackpole or Mowing Ward with the evening sun on your back is hard to beat. Rock Idol and Zeppelin give 2 of the best wild sea cliff pump fests to be found in the UK too, with other great routes like Wraith and Airship nearby.  

​Paul Harrison has had a justifiable long love affair with Lundy, going there year after year and having produced the recent brilliant most recent guidebook to it. The 2 routes he’s chosen are exceptional routes in amazing rock architecture. Double Diamond sits next to the Cullinan as the front cover of the Lundy guidebook, it gives stunning technical crack and face climbing on a granite plinth on the attached arch of the Battery (see pic). Quatermass in Deep Zawn, gives 2 great pitches in forbidding surroundings. Lundy has much of the best granite in the South West and the small island is a wonderful place to stay. To get the most out of your trip be sure to try not to deck out during your stay.
   The new ones in the South, Mars and Soul Sacrifice at Swanage I don’t know too much about but as Dave Pickford has spent a good deal of his life doing classic routes all over the world you can bet these are high quality and his ability with the written word is 2nd only to Shakespeare. I’ll probably wait until one of the cave parties is back on and try to do them before that. 

​ The pictures in the book bring it into the modern era, although I do enjoy some of the atmospheric black and whites from back in the day. Ian has obviously put in a huge amount of work in getting pictures to do the climbs justice, as well as contacting other photographers and friends to use their images in the book. A personal favourite of mine is Will Birkett on page 93, normally found at the front of a dance floor with is shades on and top off I found it strange seeing him in a different setting but as you can see by the pic, Will still looks like he is dance floor.
Ians managed to give an old school book a new school makeover that makes you want to grab a friend or 2 and go and try some of them. The new pieces and pictures help highlight some of the best climbs to be found in the UK, combining the rich histories of prior generations with the new adventures to be found on sea cliffs like Pabbay and Pembroke. Hopefully the new book will help inspire people from the next generation to sample the marvellous delights of UK climbing. Its certainly made me keen for another trip to Pabbay, Pembroke, Swanage and Scotland, if any friends are keen for a trip once we are able drop me a line.
Top effort from Ian Parnell, Vertebrate, the contributors and of course to Ken Wilson.
  
 

  He was stocky, unsurprisingly really as he’d lugged rocks around for much of his life. He had a fairly wide face, curly dark and unruly hair which went grey to white with age. One of his eyes didn’t really work, the story he gave was that in the 1960s during a pub fight involving numerous people, he pushed a guy out of the back door when a few people banged against the door trapping his head in it, the guy he’d chucked out came and smashed a bottle across his head, which damaged his eye. His physical characteristics were considerably outweighed by is key defining feature, his ability to talk. On leaving the house in Keswick once to go climbing down Langstrath I remember returning home flabberghasted at his ability to talk, non stop, all day, some kind of circular breathing going on.   
Stories about friends who were climbing in Newlands valley in the 60s when one fell 100 feet and the belayer who was belaying with the rope around the waste was more injured than the climber. About pushing someones brain back into their skull who had taken a bad fall, about Pete Whillance being unbelievably bold and taking 100+ foot falls off Top gear and Life in the fast lane. Histories of Millican Dalton living in his cave in the side of Castle Crag, the Abraham brothers and their Victorian climbing photography and endless stories of the Lakeland mountains.

​   Every time we went to Carlisle he’d always have to tell us about the time he climbed Dixons chimney and left pyjamas on top for a bet and that it used to be 30 feet higher. He’d say how when he was first getting into climbing he soloed Kern Knotts crack, a VS and that some people in the Carlisle climbing club thought he’d be dead within 3 months.  
  He loved Borrowdale and would often be at Shepherds café when he wasn’t building footpaths for the National Trust. He said climbing had saved him from a life of trouble and from some of his stories it sounded probable. He used to be a ‘Teddy’ boy and when sat in the pub with some fiends once a guy wanted to have a fight called Erton Cole. It was rumoured that Erton had killed someone and Ray was bricking it. They left the pub and when walking down some steep steps to the area they meant to fight Ray kicked Erton in the back, down the stairs and beat him unconscious. A few weeks later they saw each other and Erton said it was lucky Ray had done it as he would have killed him otherwise.  Ray said that they became friends but I found this hard to believe.
   Back to the Borrowdale valley. Anyone who has been there can see why you’d fall in love with it. It must be the greenest valley in the Lakes. I hitched a ride from Ambleside to Keswick many times in the late 90s and one time an artist picked me up, they said that many artists struggled to paint the valley as there was just so much to take in. 

  ​   Ray did his first new climbs in Borrowdale in 1962. Voodoo, a HVS on Gowder crag with a guy called A Kew and Rays lifelong friend, Lez Kendall. That same year he climbed the Niche and Interloper with Adrian Liddell. The Niche is actually a great route and fairplay to them doing it in 62 as routes like this and Paul Ross’ and Pete Lockeys climb Post Mortem in 1956 would have been exceptional pushes with the kit they had back then. The Falcon crags (lower and upper) in Borrowdale are much under rated. The rock is normally good and it gets a lot of afternoon and evening sun and fantastic views over Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite Lake. Some great routes to do here are the Niche, Dedication, Plagiarism, Kidnapped, Illusion, Usurper, the Joke, Dry Grasp and Route 1.
From 1962 if you look in the back of the Borrowdale guidebook you’ll see his name on many first ascents with a good find of a now popular cliff in the early 90s which is well worth a visit, Sergeant Crag Slabs. He did quite a few first ascents on here, Lakeland Cragsmen, Endurance, Holly Tree crack and Death stroke are well worth a walk for. His partner for these was Joe Bosher who was one of the nicer guys I’ve bumped into and who also very generously gave me my first set of RPs as a gift.
   Ray worked in a wood factory in Carlisle before he moved to Keswick and soon after married Margaret (mum) and became known as ‘Mac’. Workwise he’d do everything from rock climbing guiding, labouring, building, working for the water board, slide shows to eventually working for the National Trust building footpaths for many years. After getting home from work my main memory of him was watching him stand with his back to the fire in the living room and often saying to me and my sisters, Jennifer and Heather “I’ve had a hard day on the hill” followed shortly by advice to get an office job when we grew up.
   He had his smelly ropes and climbing gear stashed under the stairs and mum would often tell him off for leaving a mess. He also had a fondness for fry ups and would use the same oil/fat in the frying pan for weeks, gammon, bacon, sausages, eggs, beans and a ton of butter were staples.
  He didn’t drive so his main transport was a push bike or else talking mum into dropping him off or friends picking him up. When I was a kid I thought he was weird biking down the valley all the time to go climbing, although some Sundays when my mum and sisters were at the Jehovahs Witness meetings he would sometimes take me for walks over hills like Walla crag I would really enjoy.
   To supplement his National Trust wage he’d do 3 slide shows a week in the Moot Hall (church like building in the main square in Keswick, used to be a market place back in the day). The 3 shows were; Walking the Lakeland fells, Climbs and fells of Lakeland and the last was Lakeland in Winter. For quite a few years I pressed the button on the projector for him and could probably recite the talks even now.
  A story which stuck with me in his climbing show was one regarding one of the UKs great climbers. The story went…
 
“I was at Shepherds crag one day when a guy came up to me and said”
“Hows it going? Do you fancy doing something hard?”
Dad wondered who this guy was and pointed him up a hard route.
He climbed up to a hard bit with dad belaying before shouting down
“Is it alright if I fall off?”
Dad couldn’t believe his ears, being from an era of ‘the leader never falls’
He shouted back “Pardon?”
The guy shouted with more urgency “Is it ok for me to fall off?”
He fell and lowered to dad saying “I don’t mind falling off”
He got back on and did it fine next go.
A week later dad was in the pub and a guy with long hair came up to him and said
“Eye, eye, I hear you’ve been climbing with Douggie”
Dad said “He fell off!”
The guy with long hair said “Douggie Hall is one of the best climbers in Britain, he falls off every week”
 
At this point the audience would normally laugh but for me I was just starting to get into climbing and the story seeded the idea of the importance of facing the fear of falling.
  His favourite climb which he did well over 1000 times was on Black crag in Borrowdale, Troutdale Pinnacle. It is a brilliant and varied climb and most times I’m in the valley I try and do it too although I doubt I’m into triple figures yet. He was also known for climbing the classic Shepherds route, Little Chamonix in boxing gloves and roller skates.
When developing new routes on Grange crag there was some competition from other climbers, Colin Downer and Chris Bacon. Apparently Colin had heard dad was keen on doing some new ones that he had wanted to do and was incensed, he found out where dad lived and got Chris to cover the back door incase ray tried to et away. As it turned out after they talked they became friends and ended up doing quite a few new routes together. 

​In 1989 I would have been 8 and he took me and my sisters, Heather and Jennifer to Wodens face where we did a new route (probs done before) called Family outing. I remember crying and not enjoying it much which may have disappointed him somewhat, it wasn’t for another 7 years when I asked him to take me up Troutdale Pinnacle when it clicked what climbing had to offer. I remember we were alone, and there was snow on the ground on the way down that was slippy as hell in rock shoes. Soon after I’d second him on other routes, often in shit weather, Mandrake on Quayfoot, Illusion on Falcon and could be heard shouting at him that the he’d put the damn wires in too hard as I struggled to get them out.
I remember being a pushy little sod on Shepherds telling him I wanted to lead. I set off up Brown slab corner, a VS and put in what is surely one of the most catastrophically shit performances on a first lead climb. Disco legging, slipping off and sliding down being caught on a foothold, scrappling back up in a flurry of fear and thoughtlessness. Although Ray couldn’t see too well he’d clocked well enough it had been a shitshow. Thankfully sometime later he let me lead again. We had 6 quickdraws and on my first HVS, Lakeland Cragsmen he said to space my kit to make it last. On a few Christmas days we’d bike out to do routes, like Overhanging bastion on Castle Rock and the Shroud.
 We did a few new routes together. On the left hand side of Shepherds I belayed him on a short rib, I remember I’d bought a micro wire and he tugged like hell on one of them to seat it firmly and I stupidly had a go at him, thinking he was wrecking my new wire. He informed me that your life was worth more than the cost of a runner, which was another good lesson and if the opportunity to back up an abseil by leaving a runner I’ve always taken it. I went looking for this climb 15- 20 years later and couldn’t really see where the climb went, there appeared no line and the rock that was there was plastered in thick moss. We did do some better new ones together at some point, up on Castle Crag, but looking back we mainly did a lot of climbing up grotty bits of rock, moss and heather.
We’d sometimes argue, unsurprisingly with me being a stroppy and ‘ambitious’ teenager. I remember having a hard time on an e2 on Goat Crag called Manpower, struggling to see exactly where to go. I shouted down to Ray who had done it before and expected him to tell me exactly how to do the move and couldn’t believe he couldn’t remember, I was incredulous you could forget a move. A couple of years later mum was concerned about my soloing and dad would give me a chat about being careful. Looking back it must have been awful as parents of a teenager who mainly climbed without a rope.

​ As we edged towards the late 90s and early 00s a lifetime of physical work began to catch up with Rays body, particularly his hip which made it difficult for him to walk normally and parkinsons crept into one side of his body giving him a shaky arm. Although he struggled to walk he would still bike down Borrowdale to climb and sometimes go for adventures with Yorky who was one of the nicest people I’ve met.
One of our last climbs together was an ascent of Interloper on Lower Falcon in 2002 that he’d done the first ascent with Adrian Liddel 40 years before. The very last one was with Ray and my sister Jennifer on Hedera grooves, also on Falcon crag, and again although he would struggle on the walking side his ability to talk never waivered. He would be down Shepherds cafe chatting to anyone he could at most opportunities.

​His physical deterioration was frustrating for him but he seemed to find peace with it and mum was always there as she’d always been. He always got out and had was immersed in climbing, always getting all the magazines. I’d moved to wales in 2002 and didn’t get to see him as much as I would have liked. In 2005 I climbed a route on the slate called The very big and the very small which with our unhealthy lifestyles at that point was something of a miracle but I remember having a chat with him on the phone and he sounded pleased. He passed away later that year, in Keswick with mum by his side.
Julie bailey was a star in organising his funeral and Yorky and Les Kendall gave lovely tributes. We scattered his ashes in a small hollow above Black Crag and his favourite climb, Troutdale Pinnacle. The jaws of Borrowdale, aka Mac, he was a hard git and a great dad. 

​A 100 good E7s list. I’ve been meaning to do one for years but held off because of not getting up to do Scoop, Chisel and Shadowdancer on Lewis/Harris nor the ones on Shelterstone such as Realms of the senses and Elise D’amor which also look like some of the best around. Dave Macleod also says Hard Drive on Creag Mo should be on the list (as should Sunburst). I guess this is a slightly more Welsh and Lakes based list but most are well worth an ascent and I’ve listed some of the more amenable ones with a minus (-) sign and the ones that are tough or bordering on E8 (or might feel it for an unchalked onsight) with a +, most of the tougher ones are big leads which are fine if you abseil inspect them but nails otherwise. For truly piss ones I’ve put 2 – signs where tons (100s) of E6s will feel a lot harder than these routes and they might well be E6 and I promise hand on heart i didnt do this specifically for the only ones Calum, Posh Tom and Angus have done. Some of the routes are rather small but nevertheless worthwhile, particularly routes like the recent Dispossessed and the old Beau Geste and Braille Trail. I’ve only thrown the Bells the Bells in there because it is a contender for the UKs first E7 but many of the other routes on the North Stack wall are much better (and safer), such as the Clown. I’ve been rather shameless and have thrown in a few of my climbs, but they are some of the best recent ones and most have good gear and deserve traffic. I’m not sorry to say that none of Calums routes in Tin Can Alley or elsewhere made it onto the list.

​ I remember the mental ‘push’ I had in 2000 when I first managed to onsight E7s, starting with Camouflage, De Quincy and The Bells the Bells in the summer before getting the kicking of my life on Masters Wall which I’m sure is E9. I was soloing a lot of the big lakes E4s and the odd e5 at the time and could solo 30 e2s-4s in a morning but onsighting serious e7s still felt ‘pushy’ as it meant climbing technical 6a/b moves where you were going to hurt yourself badly or die so confidence, competency and fatalism were pretty key. Part of the reason for this list is because at around this level often not a lot is known about the climbs, hence you can have the mother of all fuck ups such as Masters Wall getting a grade of E7 which was a key factor in me nearly disappearing age 19. All the routes on the list are around the E7 mark and are of good quality (beware the Craig Dorys ones for rock obvs), Cure for a sick Mind is soft E7 7a with a long sling on the 3rd bolt and would be E8 without this sling, and you go direct past the 3rd bolt!.

​    If you manage to onsight any of them when unchalked and without watching your friend climb it first then well done, many people who have climbed E9s haven’t onsighted at this level or have done very few because it’s hard to do, particularly when they are unchalked which can make route-finding miles harder on blankish rock which is I presume partly why the ‘cleans hands gang’ was once a thing. Of the 15 E9s I’ve done only 2 have felt as ‘difficult’ an experience as onsighting a route of E7 and they were 2 of the technically easiest E9s but which had the highest dose of danger!.  The hardest onsight ascent I know of in the UK might well have been Ian Vickers on Nothing to Fear (Pembroke) back in the 90s, pumpy, dangerous, insecure and importantly unchalked.
    Many of the ones listed are actually pretty well protected, the ones on Dove, Nesscliffe and Pembroke particularly which is why they have some of the better travelled E7s in the UK. Some on the list are on there to try and get more people on them, for instance 2 of the easier E7s are on the Lleyn, where you’d normally expect very serious routes you actually have 2 fun ones with good rock, Deep Sea Spex and the Apprentice. Most of the routes are pretty varied, some famous, some esoteric but all of the climbs are worth a trip for and some, such as Skye Wall, Great Escape, Always the Sun, Marksman, Kaya, Flying Dutchman and Spirit Guide are totally brilliant. Good luck

                     -Rumblefish (Cromlech)                         Violent Breed (painted walls, Rhoscolyn)
-Juggernaut (Glen Nevis)           Marksman (Bosigran)              -Romantic Reality (Craig y banchair)
                 - -Authentic Desire (cloggy)- probably E6 with lots of good small wires (brilliant and easiest on this list)
Flying Dutchman (lundy)              +Dawes Rides the shovelhead (raven, langdale)       -Fifth Ace (lundy)       
-Dalriada (cobbler)                          Intensive Scare(lundy)          Strawberries (tremadog)
Rocafella (fairhead)                   Masters Edge (millstone)
         -Way of the jive monkey (fairhead)                  -Great White (Pembroke)
            Eye of the Tiger (dovedale)              Charon/styx   (fairhead)              
    Raped by Affection (slate)           Monster in a box (Pembroke)
Primate   (mournes)                           Heart of Stone (gallt yr ogof)               Toploader (millstone)
                    -De quincy (bowderstone)                 Borderline   (scafell)                 
Camouflage      (Langstrath)                 Flattery (Langdale)               
Sex & Religion (Gogarth)             Remission (Reecastle)                +Zero direct (suicide wall)                
            Iron Man  (iron crag, lakes)                 Always the sun (Pembroke)                
Over the Beach  (Llanberis pass)                 Vlad the impailer  (dove, lakes)         
      Big softy (Pembroke)                    Mad Brown (wen zawn)
              -Bucket dynasty   (dove)            Dusk till dawn (dove)               
         Dusk till dawn (huntsmans)            Boat to naxos   (huntsmans)       
-On the rocks (back Bowden)        Fettish for fear (dove)           Terminal Twilight   (Huntsmans)                   
Good the bad and the ugly (gordale)
-Nightflight (Pembroke)                      Janus   (curbar)                      Dispossessed (ogwen)
-From a distance (Pembroke)              Beua geste   (Froggat)             Satans little helper (langstrath)       
--Big Boy  (Meirionydd)          -Hindenburg   (Pembroke)                          Clown (Gogarth)
-Wash Doubt ( Pembroke)             Kaya (ogwen)                The bells the bells    (gogarth)
      -Wolverine (Pembroke)              Braille Trail (Burbage)             -Demons of Bosch (gogarth)
             -Inferno (Bowderstone)                          -White Lines (Curbar)
-Wreath of deadly nightshade   (Gogarth)                         Black Lagoon (Pembroke)
    --Horizontal Pleasures  (Pembroke)                            -Broadchurch (gogarth)
Harmony (lleyn)             --Roof of the world (Pembroke)          -Isis is Angry   (gogarth)       
           Box of Blood (lleyn)            -I ran the bath (Vivian)           Yellow Shark (gogarth)
         -Apprentice (lleyn)                     Treacherous underfoot (Treaddur)            +Bam Bam  (lleyn)   
--Deep sea spex    (lleyn)          -Katies delight (Craig y Forwyn)                 -Surgical Lust (Llanberis pass)  
-Imminent departees (Craig Y Forwyn)       - -Balance it is (burbage)           +Peaceline (mournes)
         -We are all learning (mournes)
+The Great Escape (arran)           +Skye Wall  (coruisk)            -White House Wall (gogarth)
           -Divided Britain    (gogarth)               Stone Masonry   (gogarth)     
          +Combined energy (gogarth)
       Unfamiliar  (Stanage)                +Spirit Guide (lundy)
-Thug    (gogarth)                   -Road Rage (raven, thresthwaite)       
       Black Lagoon    (huntsmans)               Mercia wall  (Pembroke)         
  -Nesscliffe Monster (nesscliffe)                 Marlene Direct (nesscliffe)
       -Tombola (nesscliffe)             +Dawes of perception (Vivian)             
 +Cure for a sick mind (rainbow slab)              Flight of Ideas     (stanage)
      --Very big springs (Burren)                                Fuck the demagogues (Pembroke)
 
 

    We’d had 30/40 mph winds for 4/5 days, the worst run of weather I’ve had on a UK trip. Having tried and failed to get onto Promised Land that morning due to tides and dampness I was now strapped onto the first few metres of Controlled Burning hoping to reduce the Extreme Rock routes down to 6. Getting committed past my first runner a small flake snaps and when my weight comes onto the rope the rock the wire was in also broke. I hit the deck and arrived crunched up under some boulders a few metres back from the base of the climb. I manage to squirm out with help from Georgia. My back spasmed and it took a minute or 2 to realise it wasn’t broken. On assessing a head cut my hair started to come out in clumps where a granite block and tomahawked the top of my head. My wrist and hand were starting to go into bulk and I was disgusted at myself for taking my first deckout in more than 20 years and scaring my partner. It didn’t look good and indeed Georgia stepped over into the sun and started to meditate.
 It was a fitting end to an already unlucky week with my mood matching the bad weather and Georgia having implied my duff karma was the reason for mishaps with the weather, vehicles and obviously the fall. Although I disagreed about my somewhat dark soul having effected my vans water pump or of bringing storm Ali over to Lundy I did think its heavier than normal weight (from pints of Lundy Light perhaps) might have helped the 2 bits of rock to break, placing my sorry arse down hard.
   Karma is not meant to be a punishment but rather a lesson to people who need to learn. Leaving Georgia to meditate I stumbled my rather beaten body out of the zawn before it had time to stiffen up and contemplated some of the key lessons I’ve learned from trad climbing.
​

1.       Build it up slowly: I’ve seen a lot of accident over the years with people who haven’t got their eye in for placing gear well. Start on climbs you have NO chance of falling off. There is quite a lot of things you need to be able to do well, from placing gear, moving confidently, getting acquainted with the grades, not having the rope around the back of your leg etc. This advice is certainly rich coming from me as I nearly spooned it on my first lead. Halfway up the realisation I was on the sharp end set in and I went to pieces and slipped off cats clawing down a slab before my feet caught on a foothold and I stopped. Dad was belaying and justifiably cursing me for having been fool enough to jump on it without being ready for it.        On another occasion on Dinas Cromlech my friend Adam Hocking climbed Right Wall and having found it easy (he was onsighting 8a+ at the time) talked a chap into trying it who had climbed a few E3s. He put in a valiant effort, arriving at the jugs beyond the port hole unfortunately he lacked the energy to hold onto them. I was halfway up True Grip on the opposite face when his grip gave out. With a blood curdling scream he took flight, some gear unclipping from the rope and heading towards the scree. He was in the foetal position for much of the fall and just stopped before the ledges at the base of the climb.
 2.       Get 2 bits of pro between you and the deck asafp: You know what the f stands for there. I’ve seen afew people deck out who only have 1 piece in (don’t say it), sometimes from the belayer being too far out, giving a shit directional pull in a fall. Get the belayer close in but not underneath you if the start is poky/wire reliant low down. Try and keep at least 2 runners between you and the deck when above. I’ve seen people shove in microcams a long way apart then getting into difficulties above where they were reliant on them holding to stop them being on the deck from high up. Get some normal wires in if you can. I often place a cam next to a wire to try and make the cam stop the ropedrag from effecting the wire placement.
3.       Confidence and calm: Normally built up from experience on lots of climbs and having the knowledge of what you are letting yourself in for and of your own ability at that point. Confidence might be the biggest asset there is for trad climbing, along with keeping calm and making good decisions quickly. Most people will have at some point in their climbing ‘lack of confidence’, where they don’t want to climb into the unknown. Having climbed into the unknown a few times and not always liked what I’ve found there I can tell you backing off if you are not feeling ‘it’ is no bad thing. If you feel you just have ‘the fear’ though and are backing off when realistically it’s safe to carry on, just tell yourself you will find a good hold and gear not too far beyond, as usually you do. Don’t sue me if you go for it and you find neither. If you are tired or having a shit time of it in life I’d recommend saving the bolder leads for another day.

4.       Helmets: Wear 1. I was brought up in a culture of not wearing one, dad, friends and soloing. My friend Ryan doesn’t wear one because he likes people to be able to see his haircut, pure vanity. The best way of not having to test them is not to walk or climb under other climbers who can be the ones to pull off a loose rock or block. It seems pretty obvious that a small rock falling a few meters onto your helmeted head could mean you dust yourself off and head to the pub but the same rock landing on you without a helmet can be a life changing event or death. As well as protection against falling rocks they are also handy when you are bouncing backward through granite blocks having your head shaved by them. Should the worst case occur and you lose half your brain the only silver lining is you’ll still beat Georgia at scrabble (this will never grow old).
5.          Endurance: Jesus it can be slow on some trad routes. So slow. Build up as much endurance as you can and quit smoking. Like many endurance activities a lot of the battle will be mental rather than physical. The best possible mental training for endurance is to spend time with people who are both vegan and Buddhist, they are all killjoys.
6.       Aerobic: A big pitch on trad might take you an hour or more to lead, and on some of the bigger cliffs it could be 2 hours walk in with a heavy bag. Then you are bridging, recovering in shit rests, nearly always on your feet. Running and general fitness stuff can help out on trad climbs a ton. Quit smoking.
7.         The comfort zone: As mentioned in lesson 1, newbies should try and keep within the comfort zone for some time before exploring or expanding its edges. For very experienced climbers though it’s when you are well within the comfort zone that many and possibly most dangers lie. How many good climbers do you know of who have hurt themselves or died on routes that are very easy for them. It’s easy to switch off, not place enough gear, become too blasé. Much like people crashing on a road they know well near where they live. In some arenas they call this a Heuristic trap.  In fact I think my fall hits most elements of a heuristic trap; over-commitment to a goal, familiarity with the terrain, scarcity, social proof (tony stone had done it the week before).
   The best case if you have an accident and survive is that your climbing partner will pass you a Buddhist book of proverbs open on ‘Nowness’: An arrogant and proud woman was keen on seeking enlightenment and got told to climb a high mountain top to find the cave. On arriving in the cave she finds an old wise woman and gets down on her knees asking for enlightenment. The old woman asks if she is sure she wants enlightenment? After she is given the confirmation the old woman turns into a demon and starts to whack the woman with a stick shouting ‘now, now, now’.
 
You may find this patronising but being lame are left with the only option of trying to incinerate the patroniser with your gaze.
 
Don’t get caught out when you are well within your comfort zone.
 

8.       Young people: Have 3-4 times more road accidents than older drivers, some of the causation is over-confidence, feeling ‘invincible’, poor assessment of hazards, taking unnecessary risks (and right hand turns). With this in mind if you are a young person who trad climbs I recommend making sure your ego doesn’t write any cheques your body can’t handle, at least not on any bold routes.  
9.       Self rescue: Anybody going sea cliff climbing where your abseiling into cliffs its worth being able to do a few things. Principally ascending a rope using a couple of prussiks. If you’ve misjudged the tide or your partner hurts themselves getting back up the abseil rope to get help might be the only option. If you fall off into ‘space’ seconding it’s unlikely your partner will be able to hoist you so it might save your bacon there too. If you’re going to be in more remote areas then being able to escape the system with your harness is also worth knowing as is being able to do a tandem abseil.  If your partner gets injured on a sea cliff and you don’t know anything about what I’ve mentioned above your unlikely to be their hero, just shout for help, or meditate.

10.       Stiff boots!: You can smear in an edgy pair of boots but you can’t edge very well in a smeary pair! 2 is better than 1, even Hazel can do that sum. On trickier routes that you are on for more than 20 minutes that are a bit edgy if you’ve got your smeary boots on you better have a set of extremely well toned calves. If anyones heading for the slate this is imperative!
11.       Quick pro: God some people are slow as shite at placing kit. It looks like they just whack the wires against the wall expecting 1 to slot in somewhere. Get good at putting it in fast and well, practice on the deck a fair bit first. Aim for cams to be more over-cammed than under-cammed to stop them walking/flicking out as easily. It can often be the most stressful part of a climb and there may well be moments in your climbing where your life is very much reliant on the speed you can fire an ok runner into a rockface.
12.       Cutting it close: Or pushing the boat out, perhaps on a climb which is a harder grade than you’ve done before. People see unexpected gains as having twice the worth as gains they expect to get. So it can feel good having the uncertainty element thrown in there. I’ve seen a lot of climbers over the years going for their ‘big lead’ and quite often you can tell before they’ve set off how it’s going to go. It’s always great to watch when someone is throwing absolutely everything they have into a climb, wether or not they get up it. They’ve decided to Carpe Diem and when you are really keen and switched on it can make you into a different climber. Be sure you’ve assessed everything you can about the climb from the ground before setting off, and be ‘en guard’!. It’s often the first bits, when you are near the ground which are the most dangerous, same indoors incidentally with most deckouts around the 1st-3rd clip.
13.       Mental Health: I’ve lost more friends who climb to suicide than to climbing, they’ve often been climbing pretty well at the time but admittedly their behaviour showed some of the warning signs of depression in the months leading up to their deaths. It’s worth keeping an eye out for your friends if they start doing things they wouldn’t normally do.
    Will Perrin was one of the best rock climbers the UK has seen. I remember telling him that the first pitch of Conan the Librarian was tough before he proceeded to make it look piss. I’d been to Hendre Hall the night before and arriving at the crux groove wearing all our clothes the breeze had died and the sun baked me. He had put no runners in the traverse and said his belay wasn’t that good. Sweating profusely and with a dry hungover mouth I got the fear and remember shouting and swearing at him as he smiled back.
14.       Great places & people: It can take you to some really stunning places, sometimes not that far away. I’ve been to Yosemite, Madagascar, Patagonia but when I get back to Gogarth, Fairhead, Pembroke or Lundy it feels as good as anywhere really. Trips to Dubh Loch, Skye and Lewis are also hard to beat. As I’ve stated many times I think in many respects North Wales is a contender for the best or one of the best trad climbing venues in the world (for smaller clmibs obvs). By and large most climbers I’ve met have been pretty sound too, apart from Andy Kirkpatrick with him being both a Trump and Kavanagh supporter-chodes.


I’m sure there were loads of other lessons I could have thought of but I was kind of sick of the talk about karma and if anyone mentioned it to me in the near future I’d use what imagination I had to send them a suitable lesson when they least expected it, even after I got told off all week about the Buddhist teaching of causing no harm.
  I’d given the Extreme Rock routes priority one for the year and there were still 7 left: Revelations, Promised Land, Controlled burning, The Clearances, Megaton, Scansor and Unicorn. I actually felt pretty good, I’d broken the back of it and the Lundy fall might have been the luckiest I’d taken, it certainly appeared to be a life changer in the 1st few minutes. I tried to think of any good deeds I’d done to warrant such good luck..…I was certainly struggling. Perhaps it was that time we woke Niall in the middle of the night…I’d need to do some more research into this karma thing.
Thanks to anyone who climbed and put up with me this year. Next year, I’ll put it to bed, or die trying.
Trips for any friends next year are 3 days in the Burren then onto the Fairhead meet from there and 10 days on Lewis in early August, Sron Ulladale then the sea cliffs. There might be a free ticket to Lundy in late March if anyone is keen too!