Up up and away

I looked at the rock face and followed the ropes all the way to the top. 25m high.

"How hard can this really be?" I thought in an attempt to surpress my fear of heights with mindless positivity.

I harnessed up, made sure the others had my ropes properly belayed, and found my first footing.

"It's like climbing a ladder" shouted Boyo, the welsh instructor. "Easy, you see" [Insert welsh accent here].

Up I went, one foothold after another.

"Good job I bit my nails", I thought as the rocks ripped my fingers to shit.

Up I went some more, focussing entirely on the rock face in front of me.

"This is actually fun", I thought with some considerable surprise.

"You're doing really well, Laura. A natural!" [Insert welsh accent here, too]

Up, up and up I went, skimming up those rocks like a... well, like a rock skimming thing.

"Now you just need to touch the crab and you can come back down" [And here]

I touched the crab (I think, not really sure what a crab is you see) and then prepared to descend.

But I made a mistake. I looked down.

Never, EVER look down.