The site is now up and running smoothly (well almost, but UK2.net are to blame for that). Right now, I am revising hard for my exams that start on the 26th, but my training programme isn't going so well. Having gone for an 8 mile run with James Hooper when he came to stay last weekend, I have done virtually nothing since. In less than 3 weeks, however, I'll be back in "sunny" Sussex, where I'll have ample time, motivation and free food to be able to get into a decent routine.

Wow it's been a while since I wrote a blog. Now I'm stuck with both arms in plaster I don't have much excuse!
Falling is an interesting part of climbing. Everyone falls sometimes and if you're pushing yourself, you fall a lot. I'm not alone in having no fear of falling when on bolts and I see the falls as a necessary part of the progress. It's also quite fun taking the odd flying lesson when you know you're in as safe an environment as you're going to get. Conversely I do a lot of soloing where you absolutely cannot fall and the fear returns in a fairly insistent fashion. Trad tends to sit somewhere inbetween the two: theoretically you can fall safely but it's probably better not to risk it!
For reasons unknown to me I slipped off an E4 6b at Limekilns and my one piece of gear blew out. It's more than a little disconcerting to feel no resistance on the rope and have a cam fly past your head in a cloud of limestone. It's also remarkable how hard the impact is when you hit the floor. I was only six or seven metres off the floor but that was clearly enough.
Tom was an absolute star though. As soon as I hit the floor he was there: "Don't move! What hurts?" Having discovered I could wiggle my toes I did a quick self diagnosis (adrenaline means nothing hurts to begin with).
"I've broken both wrists.."
"Ah. Better get an ambulance"
I broke my radius in my right wrist although it looked much worse at the time! My left fared rather worse and there are fractures in my radius and lunate, my scaphoid snapped clean in half and my triquetrum shattered. Medically speaking this means it's f*@^ed.
Fortunately I've been expertly reconstructed by an orthopaedic surgeon named Sophie Phillips, a woman who has my profound gratitude. But even with titanium enhancements my left wrist is still going to need a lot of work before it's back to normal. So in future I think I'm going to be rather more careful with my gear placements!

As a lot of you may have heard/seen I took a rather nasty tumble recently and broke both my wrists.... Not the best move in terms of training I know but these things happen and I'm lucky the ground was soft and it was only my wrists that broke!
I'm still set on my goal of the Nose despite the multitude of obstacles that have fallen in my way recently. Unfortunately the big climb is going to be delayed even further as it's going to take me a while to get my forearms back in shape. My left wrist is in a fairly bad way so it's going to be a long road to recovery. But as a friend of mine once said "if you just keep on putting one foot in front of the other, you're going to get to where you need to be".
I'm absolutely determined to do just that and I'm discovering that determination goes a lot further than you might think. I'm also going to be salvaging what I can of the big trip planned for the summer. I should be out of plaster in early June and so I should be able to travel and I want to use the trip to stay motivated and get back into shape.
Just in case there were any doubts: it'll take more than five broken bones to stop me!

The work on the new site is well under way and it will soon be replacing the dilapidated black and orange one.

Hope you like it!