Classic Rock - a 30 year adventure

I’m midway through a months-long journey back to Scotland. Beds are booked in the CIC hut for February, hopeful that decent winter conditions will align with a school holiday, but will the leg be up to it? This trip to Scotland began back in November, with the first physio intervention after being knocked off my bike by a car 2 weeks previously.  I’ve been caught off guard by the different phases of coming back from an injury like this; even though in the scheme of things it’s turning out ok. Day 0 -That hurts, this is an intense situation. Is it serious? Not broken? Phew. Day 1 - Feeling lucky, could’ve been far worse. Day 2 - Feeling unlucky, takes 20 minutes to get downstairs to make a cuppa. Day 3 - Novelty of being off work and resting. TV on demand, books, time to myself. Day 4 - Away for a week in N. Yorks. Should be easy to rest up. Holiday cottage with hot tub. A week of relaxing but tinged throughout with getting to grips with crutches, not being able to walk more than 50...

So we did it! We climbed K2 and the other 5 Staffordshire Classics on one windy, bitter March day. Rain beckoned as we tentatively set off up the final route of the day but held off long enough to balance up technical slab, probably the worst of these routes to find yourself rained on. The day began over at Hen Cloud; none of us had climbed there before; the book had brought us here. After the dry winter it didn't live up to it's damp and green reputation and gave a good morning's climbing. K2 - not as tall as it's name sake but a great start to the day with a couple of challenging moves to warm up on; unfortunately the wind was so biting that it felt like the real K2 on pitch 2 where not being able to feel your hands made the crux feel quite tenuous pulling through a rounded break. Modern - one of 2 single pitch climbs today, a few sustained moves to enjoy. Central Climb - what to say about pitch 1; have you ever wrestled a rockface? We've no idea what techniques w...