My first trip to climb outside of a climbing wall. A lovely time had in the gritstones of Derbyshire with Cormac, Steph, Duncan, Mike and Andy.

Julian and Keith's last big bash before they leave the 20s for the 30s. Off to Tenerife for the lot of us to have a good time in the sun, with sand, rocks to climb, drinks to drink (in excess) and food to munch upon.

Cormac, Steph and I headed north of Sheffield to climb on the gritstones, eat chinese and generally have a good time in the sun.

Elaine came to visit and we went to The Castle in London where we bought her her harness. We climbed a good few routes and then met up with Dunk and Liz, Andy and Meri (over from the US briefly and fitting us into their hectic schedule where they could) in Leicester Square for a good meal after climbing and then some essential catching up in the park.

The rain washed out any chance of climbing so we did a whole lot of outdoor clothes shopping, went to see some dams and visited a wildlife sanctuary to see otters and owls.

I've joined a climbing club in an effort to get some more outdoor explosure to rock. This was my second trip with them (the first being to Harrison's Rocks (sandstone)) and was on granite at Black Rocks on the south edge of the Peak District National Park. While there I lead my first decent VDiff ascent and did the second half of a Severe.

Headed up to Rylstone (just north and west of Skipton) climbing with some other people for the weekend. Drove up on Friday evening and arrived in the dark to find we thought we had two bits of different tents, met some gypsies who lent us a tent until the morning when we found we had all the right bits after all. Climbing on Saturday was pretty good, I think I climbed my first E1, seconded some HVS and VS routes and generally tore most of the skin from my limbs. Sunday was less busy but we headed over to the Cow and Calf area near Ilkley where I top-roped a fairly hard VS before we headed home.

More climbing with the club. This time to The Roaches in the Peak District. Those of us who've been with the club for a little while went up on Friday night and stayed in the Don Whillans Memorial Hut, did some excellent climbing on Saturday and then stayed in the hut again that night. On Sunday we split into teams and showed around forty new people the basics of bouldering, roped climbing and abseiling. This was a rather excellent weekend. Although I did no leading I climbed some good routes seconding (almost as hard... sometimes). Notable climbs were Delstree, K2, and almost all (not the bottom move) of Bulwark (an E1).

Every Wednesday we go climbing at Stowmarket. I've never remembered to take my camera (except once, I think). Naturally this time I forgot to get it out until we were getting ready to go to the bar afterwards. Still, here are a few shots.

The first week of my 30th birthday holiday party blowout thing in Spain. Seven of us travelled down from the UK to Spain by a variety of trains initially meeting up at Waterloo and all of us ending up safely in Moraira on the Costa Blanca. This week consisted of eating out, staying in, climbing, sea kayaking, snorkeling, reading in the sun, poi practice and, of course, drinking.

The second week of my 30th birthday holiday party blowout thing in Spain. Two more people arrived by plane (boo!) but were happily added to the throng. More climbing, more going out of an evening, some excellent walking, quality foodage, my birthday (including far too many cocktails and a feisty barmaid), time out in Barcelona and Paris and eventually, sadly, a journey home to the UK again.