A gorgeous day – perhaps the first real day of spring, and it’s cracking the flags. Jake is home and super keen after months of indoor climbing frustration, and chooses Malham.

This is perhaps the only British sports climbing venue to match the splendour of the big Continental crags and has grades to match. The warmups are a couple of 7as and then you have a handful of 7a+s before it gets harder still. I’m really only there on belay duty, with a dodgy back not helping the fact that it’s all a bit too short and brutal for me. “Covered the ground ” is a flattering description of the style of the 4 routes I ascended.

With outstanding conditions, the Cat Walk would normally be mobbed, but midweek there were only 3 teams there – rubbing shoulders with the greats as we watched James Macaffe working Rainshadow – 9a. Jake’s claim to fame is that he put the clips in for Caff 🙂