Making the most of the fantastic weather at the end of March I headed over to Dartmoor on two separate occasions with Stephen and Rosie for a few days climbing. Firstly I headed to Haytor with Stephen where we climbed Honeymoon Corner (Severe), Levitation (VS 4b) which meant I learnt what bold climbing was and found it slightly scary due to there being no gear placements! Before finishing on Raven Gully (S 4a) and heading home for steak and ice cream! On Friday I headed back to Dartmoor but this time to Hound Tor with Rosie. It was her first time climbing outdoors so we started off on a nice VDiff and then progressed onto a few HVDs which were great. Mixed in with these I lead my first VS 4c called Suspension Flake which was absolutely fantastic. After we had done lots of climbing at Hound Tor we headed over to Haytor so Rosie could have a go at a Severe called Raven Gully and despite having lead it twice before I somehow managed to take a fall on it, which was also my first fall while trad climbing!

Over the past few weeks there has been some fantastic weather so I have taken a few days off university and headed out to Dartmoor for some trad climbing in the sun. Trad climbing is a very new sport for me so I am currently learning all the basics of placing my own gear on easy routes though they are still really great climbs. Sitting on a belay as the sun is setting and you are belaying your partner up the rock is just fantastic. Unsurprisingly my camera comes climbing with me as always and these photos are taken by a mixture of being sat at the top looking down or by hanging on an abseil rope to get into a position half way up the climb, there are even some photos of me leading my first trad routes as I gave my camera to a friend.