My Climbing
Climbing is my drug - just like any other addict I need my regular fix and suffer withdrawal if I haven't been climbing lately. Based in Sheffield certainly has its advantages in that respect, with its close proximity to the Peak District and good selection of indoor climbing walls.
Why climb? For exercise, fresh air, personal challenge, and release from the stresses and strains of work. Most importantly though, its fun! Here's a couple of videos of me bouldering at Burbage North with a few friends. Both these videos are my first ascents of the problems, and both are V4 (6b). Thanks to Ned for the filming - her ankle's better now...
Download Remergence: 
(~2.2MB) 
(~1.6MB)
Download Hanging Rib: (~1.9MB) (~1.1MB)
Kalymnos!
Becky and I went on the last PlanetFear Coaching holiday to the idyllic Greek island of Kalymnos. Both hoping to push our grade, we had a great time under the critical eye of Steve McClure and Katherine Schirrmacher who were both fantastic. I cracked F7b+ on redpoint on my third try, but watch this space as there's definitely more to come where that one came from. There's a whole bunch of stuff on this site from the trip: be sure to take a look at my short article on Kalymnos itself as well as the photos in the Kalymnos and Climbing galleries.
Steve McClure has written a short report: planetFear Kalymnos SunRock Holiday. Its a recommended read; here's an excerpt:
Ben and Alan were obviously the big guns this week. Ben had 12 years indoor experience with steep plastic pulling but barely any outdoor routes to his name and no real foreign climbing at all. A Foundry regular he can be seen cranking out the most severe of problems most days of the week. Alan had already redpointed 8a. Need I say more? This was gonna be interesting...
...this was all too comfortable for him and we dragged him well out of the comfort zone scaring him plenty which was, in his words 'just what he needed'. He also wins 'lob of the week' after utterly fumbling a clip and taking a thirty footer. [NB: video to follow; watch this space!]
