Geological timebomb

So a first - a climbing selfie.
The climb is the uber classic Jean Jeanie at Trowbarrow Quarry near Silverdale. Disused for over half a century it's become a spectacular nature reserve and together with some careful co-operation from the BMC is an excellent climbing venue. The rock type is limestone - and you can tell how special it can be from some of the climb names- Coral Sea, Barrier Reef (though to be fair the Bowie theme does outweigh those) - and large parts of the walls are covered in seabed fossils. The non vertical parts of the quarry are covered in little alpines and taller Valerian, the quarry floor with orchids, Eyebright and Vetch.

I first climbed Jean Jeanie what feels like a lifetime ago - back then it was a challenging finger width crack, but now, 25 years later - well its become (for me at least) a desperate , wider than my whole fist affair - a fight from ground to top. Slowly, to us mere humans, the front walls are basically falling off. In geological terms of course this is virtually a lightening strike - but climbers live in the moment & despite every old timer telling the tale of how they could only just squeeze in their bleeding fingertips, whilst now wedging in a thigh, climbers will continue to climb these iconic routes until one day, someone will head up the hill to the quarry and find Jean Jeanie lying down amongst the orchids and saplings.

But hey - then there could be some new routes to be had...