After my last post I had a couple more days in Spain before returning to Sheffield. By far the best thing to happen was climbing Espolon Centrale on the Puig, though only 4+, it’s a mega route, and a proper day out. Climbing with Helen Dudley, we managed to simul-climb a fair bit allowing us to do the whole route in only four pitches, which meant climbing for hundreds of metres without stopping - brilliant fun, and a great antedote to hanging around steep shady crags!

Back in the UK I spent Christmas with my family in South Wales, the first time in two years I’ve done that. Wanting to take a good break from climbing, I had just the one day at Dynamic Rock with my cousin’s daughters Martha and Sophie, who I hadn’t taken climbing for far too long. Both had a good day, with Sophie doing her first lead. Sophie has decided she wants to be professional climber now that she has her photo in ‘Trad Climbing+’. I was also really pleased to meet up with John Bullock, my very own climbing mentor. When I first met John Bullock back in the late 1980s, I was 16 and keen, and he had his photo on the cover of the Gower & South East Wales guidebook, needless to say I followed every word of advice he gave! John recently retired and is now more active than ever.

In the new year I packed my car and headed off to Switzerland where I am currently staying at Chalet Martin, in Gryon. I was very keen to try out my new satnav for this trip, and was quite impressed by the the efficient way it took me to my destination. Unfortunately I typed in Gruyere by mistake, and I can vouch it is a nice place, though not one I would otherwise have visited. It’s a good job Switzerland isn’t a terribly big country.

This very pleasant and remarkably inexpensive hostel is run by Matt Tomlin, who I had met each October in Kalymnos. So far I’ve had a go at skiing (up-hill as well as down – actually, I find it easier to go up), and had my first go at ice climbing. Ice climbing felt oddly familiar considering I’d never done it before, though I have to confess that this is probably because I’ve spent so much time last year laying out Neil Gresham’s words and Ian Parnell’s photos for Winter Climbing+. The day didn’t get off to the best start as the area we headed to had a large group in place, fortunately we’d driven past an icefall not far from the road, so went back to that. Soon we were plodding up a snow slope, we consisted of Matt, who has done a fair bit of ice climbing, and the other three of us, who hadn’t. Matt lead on up a snow-filled gulley, and we duly followed. As it steepened, we found ourselves kicking steps into the snow, and then it steepened further and turned into ice. I forget to say that everyone was wearing mountaineering boots, apart from me, I was wearing approach shoes, but they fared quite well. Eventually it got to the point where ice tools had to be lowered, and I got my first taste of ice climbing: un-roped and in approach shoes. When we’d all reached the safety of easy-angled ground, Matt lead the route, and set up a top-rope, and we all had a play. Fortunately, twenty years of climbing has made hanging onto ice tools a pump-free zone, but I did get a taste of the dreaded hot-aches! After we’d all done there, we returned to the road, and checked out a free-hanging column of ice that was formed by the concrete structure that protected the road from rock and ice fall. It was only about five metres long, but a lot of fun, the only thing to belay from were ice-screws, so were all got a taste of trusting them too.

I’ve not lead anything on ice yet, but later this month I’ve been promised some lessons by Louise Alexander out in Chamonix. I first met Louise on a women-only coaching holiday that I had organised in Sardinia, then bumped into her again at the Extreme Film school. The last time I saw Louise was in Sardinia where she helped me film Steve McClure and Gaz Parry climb Hotel Surpramonte. Louise now runs ‘MountainGirl’, a company providing women-only guiding and workshops from Chamonix. I’ve always been a bit of a girl when it comes to the cold, so I guess I’ll be in the right place.