Burbage North was the location for an excursion on Saturday. G kindly agreed to spend the day helping me get back into the swing of leading on rock again. We started the day on Steptoe (M), moved onto Little Plumb (Diff) and then I stepped up to Monkey Corner, Slanting Crack and Triangle Buttress Arete (all VDiffs, *). There was a lot of faffing and much deliberation about gear placements; it became clear that my problem with leading is trusting my gear, rather than a physical inability to do the moves. Anyway, I got up them all in the end without any falls, although G did provide some beta regarding gear when required. A very useful exericse, and hopefully I won’t be so worried about getting back on something of similar difficulty next time I’m out.

We had a rather gear-tastic day too, finding a guidebook, a hat and five very dodgy-looking eastern European cams. We shamelessly used the guidebook instead of our own for the day (it being more detailed), and are now trying to track down some comrade willing to own up to owning the rusty, battered death-cams.

After spending a lot of time standing on ledges willing myself to move up a few inches, we decided some more rapid movement was required, and went for a run. We did an hour’s loop from Burbage bridge down the edges to the top of Padley Gorge and then back along the top of Millstone and over Higgar Tor. I’d not been out for three weeks, so it blew the cobwebs away and reminded me I really need to step up a gear if I manage to get a place on the Nine Edges (fingers crossed).

I’m not sure ice creams are touted as a recovery food, but there was a van at Burbage bridge and it would have been rude not to oblige. Suitably cooled down, we headed home. Possibly the last dry day out for a while, the way the weather forecast looks at the moment!