Almscliff, Yorkshire

Some say this is God's own rock. Sometimes I'm tempted to agree.

Sometimes....

If you don't pick a climb that's too hard for yourself.

Went climbing on the gritstone today for the first time in ages with my older brother. Took it easy, didn't push myself too hard, didn't scare myself and now I'm getting a pang of inspiration for the coming season. Something I haven't felt for a while - not even the whole of last summer, because I pushed myself too hard - I was impatient to get back on form after a long period of injury. That all resulted in shattering my confidence - by the end of the summer I'd scared myself too many times and so my mental stamina was at an all-time low and my technique had deteriorated.

This year I'm going to start from the ground up. Back to basics, start really easy and just let myself progress naturally. It's definitely what I need to do - I know that now.