In reply to Offwidth:
> It's arguably the best place to start leading I know anywhere as it has good mods you can climb in balance and perfect Diff, VDiffs etc depending on how strong the climber is learning to lead. Your memory must be faulty if you have forgotten the good mods there. Falling on longer routes has its risks as you fall a long way when 20m out with rope stretch and on a easy route will almost certainly hit something. At Windgather you won't fall far and its steep enough you might miss everything and get caught on the rope. This is all irrespective of supervision being ideal, as of course many of us started without it.
Well, yes, my memory of it is not particularly good, as I haven't been there for c. 15 years - and I associate it it with climbs of mostly around V.diff to VS. Probably because I didn't do any of the easiest routes. I do remember that quite a few of those mid-grade routes were technically quite tricky for their grade.
Re. supervision, I meant for more or less complete beginners. My brother and idea did just 3 days climbing with an instructor when we started, the last two routes being Flying Buttress and Spiral Stairs on the Cromlech. After that we climbed completely on own own, and not with any club for c.18 months. We basically did everything exactly as in Blackshaw's 'Mountaineering'. We didn't really get into trouble - oh, except I nearly came unstuck on Brant Direct (as described in a certain book
)