In late October taking full opportunity of a break in our university schedules and the weather, two friends and myself leaped into a Saxo and headed for Dartmoor. The plan was to warm up with a little bouldering at Bone Hill, then head for Haytor so that I could second and then lead 'The Zig Zag'. Some hours later, having belayed Luke up the route I was stood on the shelf, just before the crux. I had cleaned the pro, and placed it myself for practice. I gripped the flakes above me and pulled, bringing my feet up to the good holds. I placed one foot...it slipped. It was then that I decided, perhaps today I wasn't going to get my first lead. Disappointed, I trudged back down the hill into the setting sun.

A month later, and still no lead, I made myself a promise, the next time I went climbing outside, I would look at the rock, check the grade, then onsight it, no seconding, no thinking. It just so happened that the coming weekend was Exeter Universities Climbing Club Peak trip. I was looking forward to some classic gritstone.

The first day of the trip was a washout though we did drive up to Stanage from our lodgings in Hathersage, only to look longingly at it through squalls of rain. We scurried to the Foundry in Sheffield where, to my delight I found I was climbing strongly, though I didn't push overly hard, wanting to maintain my strength for the possibility of climbing the next day.

Amazingly, the next day, we woke to sunshine! Well not exactly, but at least it was dry. We made our way up to the rock face at Stanage popular, our first climb of the day was narrow crack, a nice warm-up and a chance for me to use my favourite jamming techniques. As I was belaying, I noticed a solid looking flake just to the left that looked eminently lay-back worthy. It just so happened that this was the start of Mantelpiece Crack (Diff 4a) On the descent, I turned to James who had just led, and told him I may need some of his rack. I looked up at the route, selected a few cams that looked about right, a set of hexes and one of nuts, then off.

Lay-back flake, hands up, feet onto ledge, pull over, upright again. Protect! Cam behind flake, upwards, jamming crack, feet in break, try to place hex, in crack, slips, grab a cam, size three. Into horizontal break, test, onwards. Thread nut behind flake, upwards, one last cam loaded, pull on big holds, up and over!

Was that it?

I built my belay, textbook, with three anchors all solid flakes, and settled myself into a comfortable belay spot, and then brought both my seconds up. They even said all my gear is good.

As I write, I am packing to go back to 'The Zig Zag Tommorrow.'

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Write approximately 500 words about your first outdoor lead and supply an image of you climbing (not necessarily your first lead) and submit to: http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/send.html

The competition will be judged by us here at DMM and the winner announced on Monday 24th December and will win a complete DMM rack worth £500.

But more than that, everyone who submits an essay will receive a spot prize.

More details HERE