The Yes/No Game

No but I would love to see Bocelli and Sarah Brightman perform in Italian live.

Have you embarrassed yourself in public?
 
Depends on what you mean by public. I made a (fortunately not dangerous) n00b climber mistake (I wasn't a n00b climber at the time) in front of half the members of the local MRT a year or so ago. I will admit to hoping the rock would open and swallow me up. They were kind about it the bastards. Taught me to check and check again though.

Have you?
 
What mistake did you make? Inquiring minds wish to know.

Yes.

Have you ever slept for 24 consecutive hours, only waking up to sip water or have a pee and go straight back to sleep?
 
I was seconding my mum's boyfriend on a pretty tricky climb and left my cleaning tool (used to nut/chock type protection out of cracks) at the bottom in my rucksack. Nothing dangerous but it meant I had to climb to belay, borrow his tool, abseil off and climb it again to reclaim the protection he'd placed. All to the cheers, applause and removal advice for each piece of the watching climbers...

No, never. The only time I've slept a long time was after a huge north face climb last year and an equally long walk off (Walker Spur of the Grandes Jorasses if you're interested). After we'd been picked up and taken back to Chamonix, I had a meal and something to drink and then went for a quick nap. 14 hours later...

Have you ever missed a night's sleep?
 
Thanks for describing all that. I'll share a spooky one in return. I was climbing this multi-tier pitch with two other people. Sort of a leap frog situation with three of us tied to one rope. Front of rope goes up, middle belays. Middle of rope goes up, bottom belays. Bottom of rope goes up and unclips out of the anchors while middle belays. It's a whole thing. Get to the top, have some lunch, self repel down. Anywhoo, second pitch, we're maybe a third way up the rock, all at the same level now, I was the last to climb. Front of the rope person is now leading, person is belaying from the middle of the rope, and I'm chilling. Leader is now part way up this climb, and belayer looks down and realizes his personals are just aren't clipped to an anchor. We had some good footing, kinda, but this ledge isn't the ground and he's just existing not tied to the wall at all. No one fell, no one got hurt, but it was a reminder of why we all check everything every time. A fall would have flung the belayer to the climber's first anchor up to the right where there was no ledge below. Or stepping off the ledge himself would have resulted in him falling a decent distance and yanking the climber pretty significantly as well. Spooky stuff.

Yes. There are sacrifices to be made sometimes, and sleep is one of the things that gets cut on a time crunch.

Do you sleep with more than one duvet / blanket / comforter on the bed?
 
I think the scariest mistake I've ever seen was this summer. We were climbing in Glencoe and the pair on the climb next to ours was clearly inexperienced and way out of their depth. They'd reached the crux pitch, were looking at a decent overhang needing some bold moves and sensibly decided to bail. We hung around in case they needed assistance as you do, and watched them set up an abseil anchor - all good so far. The second checked the anchor, tied his belay plate in and tossed the rope ends down the face except as he tossed them I noticed that the ends hadn't been knotted. I don't know if he realised how lucky he was I'd seen the mistake and shouted out, but if he'd abseiled on that it wouldn't have ended well. Properly scary.

I sleep with a single duvet.

Have you been climbing long?
 
More off than on for many years. I'll get into it for a good year or so, get decent, and then climbing partners fizzle out, and then so do I by default. It's hard to find people that you a) trust and are b) consistent. I have a lot I juggle... Work, uni, kids, pets, friends, chat, etc. and I'm currently on an off stretch. I'd like to get back into it again, but the reality is that I have no more room on my plate to take on yet another thing.

Do you ever climb indoors?
 
I'm lucky really, my mum climbs although not as much as she used to, her boyfriend is a really experienced climber, a member of the local MRT and a qualified mountain leader. I've had nothing but encouragement and support, plus plenty of partners although I mainly climb with him.

I go to three walls all with different characteristics and unfortunately a 50 mile train journey. I mainly use them to practice things like overhangs, campus moves and to build strength and stamina. I've tried speed climbing a couple of times but it's not my thing at all and neither is sport climbing. I'll stick to traditional. There's an indoor ice climbing centre reopening in Kinlochleven soon and I'll be taking advantage of that as well.

What grade do you climb to?
 
During my last six months run, I was comfortably climbing 5-11s. These days I'd be struggling up a 10 on a good day, ha. It's been a good year since I've been out unfortunately and I've lost all the necessary muscles to climb more than a run or two before I'm toast.

I'm glad you have so much support, that's a really awesome thing to have, especially at a young age. It's harder to develop those skills, muscles, and confidence as you get older. A fall really messes me up for several weeks now. I knocked a rib out of place climbing a chimney like two years ago, and I'm still super hesitant climbing them thinking it's going to happen again.

Do you have any other outdoor hobbies?
 
I'm edging into E4 territory myself and checking the Rockfax conversion chart that's about 5-11 equivalent. I'd imagine it wouldn't take long to lose a lot of the muscle tone needed to maintain standard which is why I use indoor walls. We've got a couple of basic workout sets in one of our outbuildings but it's just some holds mounted on a couple of sheets of plywood and a campus training wall. Plus crash mats of course. I've only injured myself twice so far, one was a fall where I didn't get my legs out fast enough to absorb a swing into a wall and ended up with a really swollen knee from the impact, and the other was a few weeks ago when a numpty at the top of a climb kicked a rock down and caught me on the side. I got either a cracked or badly bruised rib out of that. Didn't stop me from climbing though lol.

I hillwalk a lot as well. I really like ridge walks and we have some crackers in Scotland. I also cycle and swim although outdoor swimming is off the menu over the winter. I also like wild camping which fits in with hillwalking.

Do you hillwalk at all?
 
Only really when I visit the Lake District. But pretty active on my feet most days.

Have you got an outfit prepared for Hogmanay party? or still debating 😂
 
I'll be dressed as usual but probably a bit smarter. It's all about the dancing anyway 😛

Will you be dressing up?
 
I will have pyjamas on. I cancelled plans because of this pleurisy but now it’s gone- mostly. Plus with the stabbings in Liverpool recently, I’d rather not risk bumping into a coked up knife happy idiot.

Do you get winter depression?
 
Watching it yes. Participating, no. I don’t like that headbanger spin they do. Terrified I see someone’s head getting caved on live TV.

Do you have a favourite movie of all time?
 
Also answering the prior question here because frankly no one can stop me. I run on photosynthesis. It's not so much winter depression, but if I can't spend an adequate amount of time in the sun every day to recharge my bones, it really effects me. And it's harder to get sun time in when the days are short, dark, and cold. So I suppose that's a round about way of saying yes.

Yes, Requiem for a Dream.

Do you have a favourite song of all time?
 
No, Mondays are the best day. Tuesday’s can go f itself. Plus I was born on a Monday so maybe that’s why 😆

Do you have more than 1 Bootle of wine a week? ( or whatever your tipple of choice is!)
 
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