Well, that was a funny old weekend. I've discovered a couple of things, some about me that I'm not going to share here, and some about climbing and outdoor pursuit centres.

On Friday it was off to Wales for a couple of hours of "you-may-want-to-drive-fast-in-the-dark-but-I-don't-know-these-roads" with some of the local "young people", followed by a visit to the National Mountain Centre for a two day Introduction to Rock Climbing.

This was mostly a lot of fun. Bouldering I found incredibly tough due to the lack of skin on my hands, but the actual climbing (single pitch on Saturday, multi-pitch on Sunday at Milestone Buttress) was great fun. I did have the misfortune to be roped to a young man who was more interested in "enthusiasm" than "accuracy" but he didn't drop me, luckily. For my part I overcame the temptation to drop him. Our instructor was most amusing - on a single-handed mission to pollute the clean Snowdonian air by lighting up at every opportunity - but he could belay and smoke at the same time...

I'd prepared myself for the worst - crap food and low-comfort lodgings - but actually it was pretty damn good.

So, Sea Kayaking next perhaps, or maybe a bit more climbing - once I get some more hands...

Now, unfortunately, back to the real world.

I did take a few pictures of varying quality (of course) linked below:

A unique belaying technique
Up she goes, ably supported by LD(WINOLJ), who is in turn being held on by our instructor Guy
sjh descends
LD descends on an abseil rope (1)
LD descends on an abseil rope (2)

Sunset from the bar (1)
Sunset from the bar (2)