Climbing

I enjoy most of the great variety of climbing we have in the UK. I love the local gritstone, the sea cliffs of Wales, the Scottish mountains. I try and get a few days of winter climbing in each season, and every few years I try to get away on a big trip - see the Patagonia, Yosemite and Cirque of the Unclimbables galleries.

I like to consider myself as a reasonable all rounder and tend to be more bothered about maintaining a good base level than pushing my grade. Nowadays I feel pretty comfortable up to E4/5 on just about any terrain, which I find is more than sufficient to get you into some pretty incredible situations. I've never had much stamina and prefer to rely on technique, so as a result generally hold it together better on slabby, bold or loose terrain whilst the pumpy pitches destroy me!

A few things of the things I've done on pennine gritstone I'm fairly proud of. In terms of the pure difficulty being achieved in bouldering and sport climbing they're miles off the pace, but occasionally I've got close to the forefront of what has been achieved in style; essentially climbing ground up routes that previously relied on top-rope pre-practice. A few are listed below:

Grit routes:

• The Angel's Share, E8 7a, Black Rocks - ground-up with pads and (big!) falls (first ascent of this route without pre-practice, repeated two years later first go)

• Braille Trail, E7 6b, Burbage North - flash (first time the route has been climbed without practice or falls)

• Kaluza-Klein, E7 6c, Robin-Hood's Stride - On-sight, no falls (again, a first for the route at the time)

• Eternal, E7 6b, Gorple - flash

• Thumbellina, E6 6b, Churnet - ground-up (2nd ascent, first without pre-practice)

• Art Nouveau, E6 6c, Roaches - On-sight, no falls

plus many other E6s, all ground up.

Bouldering:

• Help the young sit-start, Stanage, Font 8a, first ascent

• The Joker, Stanage, Font 8a

• 36.15 Power, Font 7c+, Rocher Canon, Fontainebleau - 2nd go

• King Cobra, Font 7b+, Camp 4, Yosemite - on-sight, no falls

Video Credits:

Grit Flick (Posing Productions - 2009) - slab climbing at The Roaches

Onsight (Posing Productions - 2008) - interview on ethics,

Committed (Hotaches - 2007) - Angel's Share ascent

Winter Sessions (Crabstix - 2006) - Peak grit bouldering & highballing,

Stick It (Slackjaw - 2002) - Earl Crag bouldering