Set up the belay. Set up the belay. SET UP THE BELAY. Oh my God - how do you set up a belay? My mind had gone completely blank!

I'd finally made it to the slabby ledge on the Gutter on Pine Wall, and stood by a wispy little pine poking out of the ledge. Bloody hell! What did I do now?

Worried that I would bottle another first 'lead' attempt I'd launched myself up The Gutter with very little style and no grace whatsoever. Concentrating too hard, I desperately lurched from tenuous flake to non-existent hold, missing obvious jugs and handy ledges to rest on as I progressed. Putting in my first piece of gear, I used a small cam, rather than an obvious nut that would have been better for the crack. Typically this obvious gear placement only 'showed' itself once the cam and rope and been placed and clipped!

Doggedly I carried on in much the same fashion, up with wall in front of me, shutting my mind off every-time I moved up beyond each piece of placed gear until I eventually made it to the safety and comforting security of the prominent ledge. I peered down to Tony below. Looking up at me, wearing a slightly exasperated expression, he shouted up, “Everything OK.”

“Yeah. Fine.” I replied, flashing him a slightly hysterical smile. Yeah, fine, right! Good one Fiona! I thought momentarily about shouting down and asking how to set up the belay. As a confidence boosting gesture to my climbing partner, I decided that it probably was not the best idea in the world! So I kept my mouth shut.

Out of nowhere, 'Clove hitch'! flew into my mind. Woohoooooo I'd remembered something! Ok. Where? I stared at the rock in front of me. I rapidly searched around for somewhere to place a nut. For a moment all I could see was smooth surfaces and unhelpful outwardly flaring cracks. I used up all of my cams further down the wall. Damn. There had to be something, I thought to myself. This is only a Diff, you idiot! Frantically I searched around some more, and finally, after what seemed like an age, above me, I found a nice nut sized crack and rammed in one of the nice shiny green ones from the bundle clipped together from my harness.

What next? I stared at the ropes in my hands. Which one did I tie in? BOTH, FIONA, BOTH! I shouted back to myself. This wasn't going well.

I thought again for a moment. A couple of climbers were shooting up Resurection to my right. Definitley couldn't shout down 'How do you set up a belay?' now. I'd look a complete dick! Another thought wandered into my head. 'Two points of protection OK. Three good!' I looked for another couple of placements and after a while I managed to put in another couple of nuts, equalised them with a sling and tied a knot in the end and clove hitched into the krab on my harness. I looked down at my 'handywork'. What a bloody mess! On the bright side, it was attached to the rock and attached to me. It would do.

Something was nagging at me though. Something was wrong with the set up. I looked over the belay I'd made again. I checked the messy tangle of ropes and the set up. I ran through it, in my mind. A-B-C. It seemed OK. I was just being paranoid. I breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Safe.” I shout down, rather belatedley. “Climb when ready.”

“Are you going take this in?” Tony was helpfully waving around the excess of rope piled at his feet.

Talk about bloody useless! I'd forgotton to bring up the slack on the ropes. Hurriedly I took Tony off the 'belay' I'd just put him on and hauled the ropes into a messy heap. I'd tried to loop them back and over my ropes, but they had a mind of their own and were determined to get away from me. It just about summed up the day.

“Sorry!” I yelled back down rather apologetically. “Climb when ready.”

“You sure?” He didn't sound overly confident. “Set up OK.”

“Of course I'm bloody sure.” I felt rather indignant at his 'question'. Didn't he trust me?

Quickly he began to climb up, with his usual speed, and apparent effortless ability. Not fair, I thought to myself. Watching him, I wondered why it had taken me so long to move up the same pitch. I glanced at my watch. I'd left the ground 40 minutes earlier!

Within a couple minutes Tony was up beside me. He clipped in and glanced over my belay. “Why didn't you chuck a sling around the tree?”

“Apparently I have a problem seeing the blindingly obvious!” I was a bit pissed off. Not with his observation, but with myself.

Automatically sorting out the ropes he slung me a lopsided smirk “Enjoy it?”

I cracked a great big smile – yeah. I had. “Brilliant!” I replied. “But you'll lead the next pitch won't you!”

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