First "real rock" climbs

Katie and I have completed our first climbs on real rock. We went to Kingussie Crag with our friend and instructor Martin Middleton, who guided us through two routes: Little Crack and The Slab. Both are rated as difficult but provide a fairly easy introduction to real rock climbing, much less strenuous than the easy indoor routes we've been doing so far.

Arriving at the crag:


Martin preparing gear at the base of Little Crack:


Looking up at Little Crack, quite excited by this point that I was about to have my first experience of climbing in the wild:


Katie and Martin:


Mmm, lots of lovely gear!


Katie belaying Martin on Little Crack so he could top-rope us:


Me on the first few steps of Little Crack, which are perhaps the most challenging of the whole route:


About half way up:


At the top with Martin:


Katie making a start on Little Crack:


Making progress:



At the top with Martin:


Martin giving us an introduction to gear placement:


Katie belaying Martin as he leads on The Slab and tells us a bit more about gear placement:


Katie making a start on The Slab:


What a poser! She did this move especially for the camera. I didn't even ask her to!


Nearly there...


Sadly no pictures of me on The Slab because the camera battery died, but I did do it, honest! :-) And jolly good fun it was too. Here's the view over Kingussie from the base: