| It ended up being the best July of weather I can | | | | myself each day and make some good progress. |
| remember and I was living in the wettest part of | | | | Shortly before the summer was over I took a |
| England working a summer job in a hostel perched | | | | trip down to the boulder which had defeated me.. |
| on a mountain, with more free time than I knew | | | | Hands dipped in chalk primed and calloused I |
| what to do with I set about becoming an expert | | | | grabbed at the rock face and with ease began to |
| climber.. | | | | make my way around the huge boulder, I traced |
| Each day I would spend a couple of hours in the | | | | the chalk marks of previous climber's hands and |
| indoor climbing centre, my job at the hostel | | | | followed the routes that they had established, |
| meant I mainly did breakfasts and dinner and | | | | then I deviated stretched out to a ledge and |
| between I had upto 6 hous to do whatever I | | | | pulled myself up to the top of the boulder. |
| wanted.. So began my introduction to climbing. | | | | You never get time in normal every day life to |
| My first attempt was to do some low level | | | | dedicate yourself to one task with no real |
| bouldering, with no safety crash pads and little | | | | distractions and it amazed me just how emersed |
| skill I soon realised it certainly wasn't as easy as it | | | | and focused I became. But if I had only had the |
| looked. After a frustrating couple of hours of | | | | chance to train on real rock features inside I think |
| struggling to complete the most basic of moves.. I | | | | I would have progressed even faster. So ayear |
| resigned myself to the fact that I was not ready | | | | later I returned to the boulder took some casts |
| for real rock. Luckily in Keswick there was an | | | | and copied the real rock features.. This was the |
| indoor wall, with only half an hour journey from | | | | birth of Mock Rock climbing holds. A summer job |
| the hostel I had plenty of time to get there and | | | | that evolved into a part-time business and now |
| back.. So I did, just about every day without fail | | | | a career. I wish I had discovered climbing when I |
| for 3 months.. It bacame my saviour fom the | | | | was younger, so it is my mission to get a |
| general boredom of the job, I managed to push | | | | climbing wall in every school in the UK. |