UKC

Offshoot from the thread about escaping the system. What was your stupidest mistake and what did you learn from it.

Mine is being young and naive (almost 10 years go now) and not reading the guidebook. I thought I was a hero because I'd done a couple of slate E1s and got on Bela Lugosi is Dead (E1 5b) I didn't read the part of the guide where it says gear runs out in the middle and got on it eager to just get it done. Cue me skipping gear thinking this is easy, what a doddle. Then suddenly coming up against a move I couldn't downclimb from with a microcam halfway between me and the floor. I fiddled in a very poor peenut that was half in and made the move by the skin of my teeth. At the time I thought it was exciting and kinda cool and wondered why friends gave me the look of "jesus". Looking back a few years later I realised how close I was to f'ing it all up and it could have been avoided.

1) RTFGB

2) No one is a hero

3) Learn to f'ng downclimb

4) The one piece between you and the floor shouldn't really be a microcam if there are other options available.

5) No one is a hero

Now that Craig y Forwen is open for business after so many years, I was looking through my very old guidebook for a few ideas. Within, there was an E1 that I had marked as ‘soloed’, but with a ‘scream face’ next to it.  The route in question involved a layback up a hand-grip width flake. There was also a slot in the flake, which made a nice jug. Just as my left hand closed around that jug, the bit of flake in my right hand broke off. No wobble, just a perfectly timed transfer of load from right to left hand. I stared in disbelief at the fist-size piece of rock in my right hand and chucked it over my shoulder into the blackthorn bushes too far below and carried on to the top. 

What I learned was, ‘Don’t solo on UK limestone’.  
 

Having learned this lesson, I sat through it again, but was beaten more soundly the second time. The second lesson I learned was ‘Don’t solo on Turkish limestone either’. 
 

There's something in what you say!

Worst mistake? Abseiling off an in situ peg (my sole abseil point) decades ago without tapping it to test it (and trusting an in situ peg anyway). I was tired at the end of a long day. It pulled as soon as I put my weight on it and I went 80?? feet (vertically or almost) and slammed into a sloping scree-covered ledge, sustaining various injuries. I didn't fall off the ledge and hit the deck luckily... I survived to live another day. The peg eye turned out to be big and the blade small

Didn't make that mistake again hahaha

At the end of a very long, very hot day on Scafell East we gratefully threaded some old in-situ tat round a large chockstone. Despite being fairly reckless at the time, my mate persuaded me to add one of my slings 'just in case'.

We both abbed down, mostly free, thinking about a celebratory pint or three.

Of course the rope stuck.....

Of course a sharp tug brought it down, together with the old tat, the new sling and the chockstone...

The lesson I learned was always use your mate's gear to ab off, in case you're not that lucky.

Make sure your rope is long enough, not nice finding out on the route,  happened in Spain. Bring the head torch on a multi-pitch, don't leave it in the car! Especially starting later than normal in the day, climbing in France., thank God for the mobile phone torch!

Some years back out on my own in the Pass, i decided to scramble up the descent route of Dinas Mot and continue on up to the top on what looked like easy angled ground. Turned out to be lumps of stacked rock held together (with "held" being a loose interpretation of the word) by heather and mud. I pressed on thinking it would get better. It didn't. Eventually I was forced to retreat, slowly weighing each foothold and hand hold very very carefully.

What I learned:

If it looks like choss it probably is choss

Quit while you are still ahead

I have a tale not a million miles away from yours.  One upon a time, Central Buttress (E1 5a) was in the guide as HVS 4c.  Having not long since broken into leading at the grade, I set off up it one grey, cool lonely afternoon.

The first pitch was 70' long.  The hard bit was at the top.  The last runner was a peg at about 30'.  

I can still vividly remember that dry-mouth adrenaline feeling, and I was very glad to reach the belay.

T.

I'm not sure that was my worst mistake though.  I've packed a few in over the years.

A little over 30 years ago at the age of 19 I went out to solo NE Ridge on Aonach Beag in winter. I'd been climbing for 4 seasons and regularly soloed grade III. I think I was right in the middle of that dangerous phase where things are exciting and new and you feel indestructible.

I took the pinnacles direct and got into hellish trouble. I ended up bridged across a groove on my knees and couldn't see how to climb up or down. I knelt there for ages, at one point I even considered whether I could jump to a snow patch about 20m below and self arrest on it. Thank god I didn't do this but it gives an indication of how desperate I was. Eventually I decided I had to do something and I might as well try going up. My memory is that I couldn't find any axe placements but there were handholds so I took my mitts off, let my axes dangle and went for it pulling on the rock. Eventually I arrived at easy ground, sobbing from the effort with bloody fingers that I couldn't even feel. I had appalling cramps in my legs from the prolonged bridge to the extent that driving home I had to grab my trouser leg to lift my feet onto the pedals.

Lesson? Buy an automatic.

Joking aside...

Lessons:

Straightforward mountaineering terrain should look and feel straightforward. If it's feeling hard then you're probably not in the right place.

If you can survive that difficult, half smart phase then you'll probably be ok.

It's much easier, more predictable and safer to solo ice than mixed at any given grade.

Beware of vague guidebook descriptions. Modern guides tell you to bypass the pinnacles to make it III.

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rock_talk/has_anyone_ever_fallen_off_ride...

4th post down.

Mind you, I'd struggle to pick a top 10 of stupid decisions and that definitely isn't #1.

There are a few examples from early in my climbing career where the chasm between my ego and my wisdom was slightly larger than it is now. 

I thought I was clever once placing a metolius nut key as the last piece of protection below the roof on Barbarian (E1 5b), which my equally unwise partner had convinced me would be good first E1. The nut key held. Nothing was learned.

Wanting to get out in Scotland more, I agreed to climb with someone i'd never met before on Facebook and met up in the Glenmore car park, planning to do some scrambling in Sneachda to get to know eachother. Unfortunately, Aladdin's Mirror Direct (IV 4) was in beautiful condition and free. I should have looked at his Terrodactyls more closely, and things went from bad to worse as he fell off twice onto my anchor, threw his belay device to the bottom of the couloir and promptly informed me he didn't know what a munter was. I soloed the pitch instead. Not sure what I learned. 

I think my most memorable lesson has been not to pull my ab rope until I'd triple checked that the knots were untied. Especially after the diagonal ab on Diedro UBSA (5c). It's hard to forget the feeling in my gut looking at the hanging end of the ripe with half a figure 8 in it, swinging gently in the void - about 7m to the right of the belay point and a few metres up. This had the added bonus of a second lesson. Exhausted, and emotionally spent from the horrendous semi-solo traverse to retrieve the end, we misread the route and continued up the last pitches of Costa Blanca (6c+), neither of us having climbed above 6a before; so I learned to aid sport routes at the same time.

I probably should have elaborated that said nut key held a fall from just above the overlap to where my belayer was sat (about 7m after stretch), looking at me with a hint of guilt after I had inverted sliding down the lower slab. 

1981, halfway up the Matterhorn, my partner sat down and said "enough".
I was horrified. Was it the constant rockfall raining down on us? The queues at each bottleneck? The guides pushing us out of the way? I had been planning this for years, and we were getting there. Now he was ending my dream. "I'm hating this", he said.
I was very, very angry. So angry, I said, ''OK. but I'm never climbing with you again, you've let me down".
We descended, went back to the car, and started the drive home. A horrible drive, the stony silences, the car keeping breaking down, my temper tantrums.
He dropped me off at my house, and I never saw him again. We had grown up together, been school pals, went to football matches together, then pubs, then hiking, then climbing.
As I grew wiser I realised what a tw*t I had been.
What have I learnt from it? That climbing isn't important. That the youthful excitement of dreams and the urge to achieve, the competitiveness, can blind us to the many things that are more important in life, -people, friendships and shared passions, not personal ones.
 

Don't get drunk on international trips - just a waste of the next day's climbing potential.

Don't start gossiping when you are in the middle of tying in - you can find yourself halfway up the route with no rope.

Creating a slack anchor point with 20ft of dynamic climbing rope is a great way to find yourself dangling 6 ft over the edge of the crag when your second falls off.

Taking someone climbing for the first time and expecting them to be able to hold a lead fall is unrealistic. 

Benightment is real - so are headtorches. 

On sea cliffs, the sea is your enemy and will attempt to swallow your rope and tie it around undersea boulders for you. 

When travelling to new crags, NEVER take the advice of locals when they tell you a route is a "soft touch" or "easy for the grade".

Mountain rescue volunteers save lives - donate whenever you have the opportunity. 

In winter, one pair of gloves or hat might as well be no pairs of gloves or hat. 

Tying your hair back before you abseil is a great way of avoiding an impromptu haircut by ATC.

Thinking you will be fine with half a rack at Gogarth, because you can't be bothered to walk back to the car is a mistaken presumption.  You will in fact not be fine. 

Spending a week with a broken stove, biblical weather and a climbing partner who has decided to pick that week to give up smoking, is not a good time to read Cancer Ward, or foster a lasting climbing partnership. 

Ogmore, 30+ years ago. Momentarily distracted from my normal routine by my climbing partner passing gear back to me and I never returned back to the task I was doing. Got to the top and pulled the rope hard to clip into anchors or stake and it came away in my hand. I'd not been too stretched on the route and was clipping runners around waist and chest height so it never got pulled hard mid route. 

Lesson, even subtle buddy checks glancing at each others harness or looking down at the start as you say 'climbing' is time well spent. 

Silliest: reached top of route, walked round huge boulder, which used up all the spare rope, then just put the live rope into my belay device without tying it off to my harness first, so the belay loop got bigger as my second climbed. Duh! Lesson: check the belay at least twice.

Most embarrassing: put in runner below overlap, tried move, backed off, put in second runner, clipped them in the wrong order, made move, at which point the rope and runners pulled into a knot and I was fixed to the rock spreadeagled just above the overlap. My second had to climb up to take off one of the runners, cue years of piss-taking. Lesson: think carefully about how the rope runs when you place a runner.

Nearest to disaster: Enticing looking gritstone flake, then bulge above it but a possible escape between them. Soloing the flake went easily and that encouraged me to go for the bulge, despite it looking unlikely, as it was "only 4b". Closest I've ever been to falling off and not doing, only a wild random grab kept me on. It now gets HVS 5b.            Lessons: don't completely trust guidebook grades, and if things don't feel right then back off/escape.

Marry in haste.....

I’ve had a few close calls with rockfall and the like, but I think the closest was just after I started climbing a few years ago. A few years ago now doing some skills practice at a local crag (escaping the system if I remember correctly), everything went smoothly and I’m just over the edge at the top of the crag sorting out the anchor we used as a back up and cooling up the extra rope. Take out a few extra screwgates and go to lean back, holding on to the anchor expecting my lanyard to go tight…it never does. I hold on and clip back in, counting my lucky stars that I was holding on. I’d accidentally unclimbed my lanyard instead of the empty screwgates.

Lesson I learned: be thorough and deliberate when doing anything ant height. Always keep your lanyard/clovehitch weighted or at least taught so you don’t take it off accidentally. 

I’ve had a few harsh abseiling lessons too - getting a rope stuck and having to Prussick up 60m because I didn’t shift the knot over the edge and it got completely stuck in a crack. Swinging around a bit too care free with the rope running over a granite edge and pulling the rope to see about 30cm of core showing on the first ab of 9 come to mind as two of the most avoidable mistakes. 

Sheesh... where to start?

One of my own..... When you're doing a pull-through caving trip, don't pull the rope down until you have double-checked that NOTHING has been left behind.  This lesson was during a 10 hour trip into Titan and out of Peak Cavern.  Sadly, my tackle bag contained the maps to get out.  Won me 'Mug of the Year'.  Again.

And one I learned from others.  As a second, ALWAYS tie on before you leader sets off - never accept "I'll tie on later".   Two friends observed the aftermath when a leader did Finale at Shepherds, shouted "safe" and then fell off the belay ledge (before they were actually on-belay).

I drove up from Invergarry to Glen Shiel only to find I'd left my boots in the drying room. It was over an hour's round trip to go back and fetch them. Since then I tend to keep spare boots in the boot. It happened again yesterday and my scrambling shoes saved the day.

Wasn't at Blue Scar by any chance?

No..... not in the UK

I really hope your friend has read this and gets in touch.

December on the Milestone Buttress, leading Rowan Gully, Mod. Rain washing the snow off the holds. Aged 14, climbing in walking boots, a little inexperienced, but finally, I got a runner in! Hooray- safe now!

Sadly, to clip a runner, you need a rope and mine had just fallen off.  I soloed to the top. I tie better bowlines nowadays.

Taking an interest in a lifelong all consuming activities that has me obsessing all the time.

seriously: pushing the old adage that « “when in doubt, run it out” almost too far. On one of my physically hardest winter lead, I was miles above gear and felt the only way was up. The gear was there but I was physically not able to place it. I kept going until I reached a ledge, panting heavily with forearms cramping. It was an all knees and elbow affair for a good 10 minutes before I was able to put a piece ensuring I wasn’t going to take an almighty pisser. I managed to then continue on to the final stance. I brought my second up who had watched it all appalled, there was not much else he could have done. Upon reaching me he wisely said to me: if that’s how you envisage climbing on, it won’t be with me.

Lesson learned, have a plan B. I have since climbed really run out pitches with the same partner but never in that absolutely desperate physical state.Once with little alternatives available on extremely thin ice, but I was measured and controlled throughout.

30 years ago. Just started climbing and absolutely broke. "Almost no gear and not much idea". Couldn't get a climbing partner, but could get the rope to the top anchor on a route at a local bolted crag. I had no Shunt or similar device but I'd studied 'A Manual of Modern Rope Technique' by Nigel Shepherd cover to cover. It included a description of the alpine clutch. I thought I could use it to self belay myself up the route on a static top rope. For those who don't know, it's 2 screwgates resting against each other with the rope threaded in such a way it self locks. The route was just in my grade... but only just. As I reached the top, I glanced down and saw that one screwgate had passed clean through the other, essentially completely undoing the alpine clutch. I was free soloing. I couldn't re-set it but fortunately was just a few moves from the top.

Big mistake, forgetting your sun / snow glasses , only realising at the Col de Fourche hut prior to Route Major.

Sun glasses/ goggles made out of a corn flake cardboard box don’t work 😵‍💫

Pitching a tent at night on an “island” in a river, in heavy rain, halfway up a mountain  is not a good idea.

Descending the other side of a Himalayan peak because the descent looked okay from above is not a good idea.   Encountered high cliffs that couldn’t be seen from above , when on unstable ground, and had sketchy reascent back to summit and descend the way we’d come up.  Lesson beware of descending unknown terrain if you haven’t also had a look at it from a few different angles to get a proper idea of difficulties.

Climbing as a three one time, I reached the belay ledge 2nd, tied myself to the anchor whilst chatting. Was about to relax and lean back on the rope when I saw that what I had tied was not a clove hitch. I would have fallen the length of the rope. The lesson here; check your knot.

I strongly agree

Avon Gorge was notorious for undergrading in the 60s. Central Buttress was given VS! I had a desperate time in 1969 just seconding, made worse by the fact that I’d scarcely ever climbed on limestone.

First time I did the crevasse jump into Great Zawn I went light, landed cat like and ferried the rack across. The second time I just remembered the jump was fine so leapt across with full rack attached. Landed like a sack of spuds and teetered backwards then head first towards the deep, all in slow motion. Well fielded by a slightly surprised belayer. Always good to start the day with a spectacular fall before you even get on route!

Climbing one the pinnacle rib routes up Tryfan on a day with a reasonably high wind forecast, in July, without smidge or a buff. In a party of four where my job was to second the first climber and wait for my mates - new leaders coming up behind us - to make sure they found the right way. About an hour at one belay I think.

I now know that midges will follow you up to the top of a mountain, and a good wind forecast makes little difference (at least, if you're in the leeward side). 

I should be really bloody careful about climbing (or anything) when I am in a state of mega stress, as I WILL have my head lost up my arse. . 

For instance earlier this year I almost  abseiled off the rope at a sport climbing venue, had walked around to set a top rope, except completely neglected to check both ends were at the bottom.  Luckily caught the short end in my hand as I felt it, cm from going through safety prussik and  belay device.  very luckily there was a bolt within reach that I could reach to clip and figure out my shit. 

Another time I was cm away from being flattened by a tram in Geneva as was so stressed I had stepped out without looking. 

... and then there was Fiva, Gordon

Yes, Fiva almost amounts to a manual of all the possible mistakes NOT to make.

something like this perchance?  

No, with a smaller blade as I recall. (I wish I had kept it or a photo of it, but I was injured plus traumatised)

Hi, 

I think threads like this are really important!

I've cross-posted this before, but there is a similar thread on Mountain Project. 

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/126203278/scariest-momentsmista...

There is so much to learn and reflect on reading through all these. 

Stay safe out there!

possibly falling chest deep into a crevasse (legs dangling in space) solo coming down from the Wildespitze.   I think I reacted with my arms to avoid going right in but I could just have subtracted myself from the world if I hadn't.  Lesson - avoid doing things like that.

Best not to dwell on moments like that.

Also being a front passenger without a seatbelt in a car that overturned and went off the road into a ditch in Torridon (icy bend, seatbelt would not fasten as it was a crappy old tiny honda car I had a lift in). Happened in the first hours of a cold February saturday morning in the mid 80s, an outing from Kishorn with workmates.  I braced myself as I saw it coming and somehow when everything stopped moving I was the only person sitting upright (Feet on roof, head up in the footwell, with the fully lit up instrument panel in front of me, engine running - everyone else upside down - then I started worrying about being burnt.  Doors would not open but I managed to get the driver to turn the ignition off and stop someone trying to use a lighter to see in the dark.

Lesson, be careful who you get a lift with. PLUS - lifesaver tip applied again years later in an upside down car.  SIDE WINDOWS KICK OUT with VERY LITTLE EFFORT!!!!  This should be taught ins schools and driving lessons - you do not need to be trapped in a car just because the doors are blocked and you are upside down.  (Even if the stupid driver is yelling at you not to damage his car.)

Do not waste time trying the windscreen!!!  Seconds count!!!

i should have specified external life stresses non related to the near miss event

Bring spare battery for the headtorch (Petzl Zoom), in case it turns itself on in your bag! Thank God for a reasonably light night!

Bring 2 head torches as it can be hard to swap batteries in the dark.

I could barely afford the first head torch at the time!

Maybe not my worst personal mistake but certainly something that I look back on with a queasy feeling.

Climbing my second ever multipitch in a fairly remote Peruvian valley with an stoner Aussie 'guide' and his German girlfriends that I'd met trekking there.  I'm not sure what qualifications he actually had but he was strong and presented himself as Jeff the guide.  After fuelling up with his morning bong hit he led us up something that he thought might be a new route.  A few pitches up the granite slabs we came across some old pegs and and various in situ gear that proved others had been first and which rather cooled his motivation.  We all ran out of steam shortly afterwards anyway and we started the multiple abseil descent.  It's at this point and with hindsight that I wonder about his professional credentials, as he started stripping the in situ gear at the belays with great delight at the accumulated swag, leaving only single pegs of entirely unknown virtue for us to abseil from.  Lashed to one of these single pegs and waiting for our leader to sort out the next abseil down below I asked the German girls whether what we doing was safe but they just shrugged and said it was how they normally did it with Jeff!  Needless to say we reached the ground safely, and Jeff ended up with a bigger rack than when we'd started out that morning.  

The learning came years later as I gained experience and reflected on how much blind trust I had put in someone who had the expert aura but was quite possibly a charlatan.  He did lend me his newly expanded rack for my first ever trad lead a week later though.

Yeah fair point, there were times when one, let alone two head torches would have been a stretch.

Ah, but what is the Plan B? I'm guessing something like if it's strenuous, only go so far above gear before getting something in or downclimbing? It's just making that call though, and each route/situation is different. 

At sixth form I decided to bunk off games one afternoon and introduce a few mates to climbing at a local quarry. Back in school the next day, we told some of the other kids what we had been up to.

That was a terrible mistake. They blabbed- the headteacher was livid.

I learnt to keep my my mouth shut.

My local pub has a blackboard outside.  It recently had "Plan B is the same as Plan A, but with more alcohol" on it

Those Zoom batteries were something else, especially when you think about how much light a Zoom actually kicked out!

Worst mistake was figuring that my non-climbing brother was a good enough athlete and quite unflappable, so taking him climbing in the Alps was a nice 40th birthday present for him.  Potential death experiences nearly every day, none of it relating directly to the routes we went up, which - as you would expect - were at the straightforward end of the spectrum.

Early winter climbing, in fact 3rd winter climb.

III in Coire on lochan was ok therefore north buttress on the buaichaille (III/IV in the guide) will be fine. 

Late November, start from Glasgow, inevitable faff in the mist looking for the bottom. Darkness is falling as I start the third pitch. I'm rushing hoping to reach the promised easier ground and am not very diligent with gear. In fact extremely foolish and I have a big quad cam in a flared crack when I fall 40 ft above my belayer. 

It rips, i come crashing down in a shower or sparks ice axes firmly tied to my wrists. Land on Mark which half destroys the belay (peg failed, we were a hammered in hex away from going the distance). He stops me tumbling of the ledge.

Remarkably the only damage is a small tear in Marks gore tex.

He leads through with a petzkl zoom in darkness and I spend many hours watching the cars drive by on the A82. 

We're off the hill 18 hours after starting to meet the mountain rescue in the car park. 

Lessons 

As other have said when it gets dark slow down and take care. 

Youthful ambition can be fatal, we were very lucky. 

Around a year after introducing my partner to climbing and quite a lot of trad, we went sport climbing for the first time. I failed to explain that after finishing a pitch of sport climbing the leader is lowered to the ground. So when I shouted that I was at the lower off she took me off belay. I noticed that the rope was a bit slack but didn't think anything of it and was about to jump off when something stopped me. I lowered myself hand over hand slightly so that I could see her and then realised the problem...

Dont assume that a new or inexperienced partner knows what to do. Communicate properly.

Yes, the flat 4.5V batteries, I had the 3xAA adapter, too - all still in my gear bag.

My Dad was a battery buyer for a large outfit at one point and therefore spoke to lots of suppliers. Tried to get some suitable high-capacity rechargable units, but nothing came of it, unfortunately.

Communication (or lack thereof) can be the downfall of all of us.

One time climbing at the Whangie (a narrow ridge of rock with routes on either side), we'd agreed I would lead a route then either get lowered off the other side or abseil using my mate below as the anchor (can't remember which, doesn't really matter). Halfway down there was a substantial ledge where inevitably my weight came off the rope for a bit. When I reached the end of the ledge the rope still didn't feel tight. So I waited, and sure enough after a couple of minutes saw my mate walking round to meet me. Think I just grinned and asked him to put me back on belay.

Another time, at Polney, I was abbing off to strip a trad route and thought one rope doubled would most likely reach the base. There was no middle mark and rather than measuring it I guessed roughly where it would be. That sounds pretty silly, but I shouted down to ask if the rope had reached and received a confident "yes" in reply. I thought it was obvious I meant both ends...

Once, in mild extremis leading at Gogarth and with a mate out of sight below I shouted "watch me!" and received an "off belay!" in return. There was certainly some swearing that time.

Very early on I took a intro to climbing weekend with an organised group. Climbed something easy (although it seemed gripping at the time). There was a long traverse out of sight. The guide and leader disappeared (I think she was soloing if I recall - but recollections are hazy and this was my first time climbing). Anyway, after a very long wait I guessed I had misunderstood the instructions and should follow. Traversed quite a long way including around a rather bulging rock - nothing that would bother me now in the slightest -  but it was a long way up and probably a fatal fall. Got to the pair as they were still setting up the belay (he was a beginner too hence the long delay). I'd been completely unbelayed for the entire traverse. The guide did mention not doing that again - in hindsight I can see a lot of problems with the situation, not all of them my doing! 

I wouldn't mind betting that was the exposed first traverse pitch of Spiral Stairs

We climbed a 400m, 14 pitch TD rock route. There was a bit of fixed gear but mostly trad with some insitu belays and an abseil descent. We'd climbed it on one rope with the other in the bag. Unfortunately we carried the wrong bag up the route and realised at the top that our only option was to descend in increments of no more than 30m at a time. Most of the abs we managed to sort something safe out and did leave too much gear behind but one section was pretty compact and didn't take any extra gear. There were 3 pegs next to each other, two of which had snapped. I bounce tested the one remaining peg then sat on it and bounced again. My partner lowered down and we both sat on it. With no other choice available we pulled the rope with both of us sat on the one peg, threaded it then lowered down the the next stance. I've never stared so hard at a piece of fixed gear before.

Lesson: don't let your partner get so pissed in the hut the night before that he brings the wrong bag.

I should also add that he was so hungover that he fell asleep belaying one of the first pitches and I had to yank the rope upwards to hit him in the face with the belay plate to wake him up!

put an LED bulb in one (preferably home made to save cost) and they are a lot better than new.  They have more primitive functionality than modern LED torches but are 1000 times more robust and weatherproof.

I remember a mate upgrading to a halogen bulb for the High Peak Marathon me year. We all mocked him relentlessly for his “lighthouse lamp” but I bet it would be nothing compared to a mid strength LED lamp now.

Didn’t last the night either, especially at our pace!

I always avoided the halogen bulbs for that reason!

I've used 1W warm white LED elements and a suitable resistor to drop the current (possibly around 10 ohms)  fitted into the screw body of a defunct bulb.  The battery seems to last forever and the light is really very very good compared to the old bulbs. Just a bit bulky, but completely trustworthy and robust.  I do still have a more modern Black Diamond headlamp - nice and light and very good for reading with red light not to disturb folk but very fiddly and fragile to fit batteries and definitely not as waterproof.

A long time ago I thought I was climbing quite well and launched myself up a HVS at Tremadog - it could have been Belshazzar, but I'm not sure. At the time I was still tying in directly - not even a waist band of any sort - and because I was feeling a bit cocky, rather than tie the ropes on with two separate knots It tied them round my waist with just the one. 

Of course, as I reached the crux, the inevitable happened ... one of my ropes became immovably jammed. If I'd tied on separately that would have been anxiety provoking but not terminal - I could have just untied from the jammed rope and carried on. As it was, I had to hang on with one hand, untie the two ropes, holding them in my teeth (under some tension, I may say!) , let go the jammed rope then retie the good rope with a bowline - fortunately I could tie one of those single handed (and still can). 

I don't think my 2nd could see enough to realise what was going on, and I didn't choose to make a big fuss about my stupidity when we got to the top. But I've never done that since.

Central Buttress was one of my first "HVS" leads. Since I didn't know any better, and Avon was my local crag at the time, it didn't occur to me that it might be unusually poorly protected for the grade. 

My own worst mistake, a couple of years later: trying to solo Brown's Eliminate Direct (E3 5c) on a hot day in July. I had  done the normal version before, so I knew that if I managed to reach the traverse ledge the rest was ok. So when it all started to go horribly wrong, instead of trying to climb back down, or jumping off in control, I tried lunging for the ledge, and failed to hold it. It took surgery and a lot of physiotherapy to get my right knee back into full working order.

Don't try to solo things at your limit on grit on hot slippery summer days.

Best HVS from the old Drummond Guide was Krapp's Last Tape (E3 5b), i backed off before I got far enough to kill myself.

Theres been a few...

1st trip to the Dolomites, we'd already done a few routes and ferratas and South Arête (IV+) was next on the list. Sounded a nice chilled route and a walk off.

I misinterpreted the Kohler book of lies pitch 5 (rockfax pitch 6 which even warns you but it wasn't out then) and quested straight up from the belay clipping a peg.
A few runout meters later it was obvious this was not the way and I down climbed before quite quickly taking a humungous whipper cartwheeling down past my belayer and ending up on a ledge below them. Turned out a hold broke (one that held me on the way up but not on the way down).
Mrs W took over the lead and we finished the route. Got away with a smashed helmet and 7 stitches plus some bruising. (We actually have a photo of my questing away seconds before the whipper)

2 lessons learnt - be suspicious of the rock on less travelled ground. Pay more attention to the guidebook and learn to realise if you are going the wrong way much sooner 

A few uneventful Dolomites trips later and we were back. After some more low hanging fruit we could see Via Kostner (AD+) from the apartment. Easy approach up the Tridentina ferrata and then a walk off via a hut. Sounded great and we had our new shiny "Mid grade trad" guidebook , what could go wrong?
The 1st 4 pitches were loose but that was expected. 5 & 6 we started to get lost but then came across signs of previous climbers so reckoned we were back on track. 7-10 umm who knows. At one point (and at least learning my 1st lesson from the hexenstein re poor rock) I traversed leftwards 20 odd meters of tottering death choss with 1 runner pushing the holds back in as I went along. Just when all hope was lost I was below a solid looking chimney with a peg which gave one final (excellent) pitch to the summit. We think we ended up on the groove well to the left of the red line here (https://www.sassbaloss.com/pagine/uscite/kostner/06.jpg)

Very welcome beer at the hut and an argument with a German on the wee stretch of Tridentina you join up with after topping out.

1 lesson paid heed to (be wary of poor rock)

1 lesson ignored, questing off hell knows where without paying attention to the guide. Don't run out 50m of rope if you think you are going the wrong way!

This is incredibly mild compared some of the truly near-death experiences described, but warrants noting because it was stupidity borne from utter laziness, totally avoidable and could have had messy consequences.

Pembroke, 2012. Initiation Slabs. Climbing with wilkie14c of this parish. Aries, VS 4b, 21m.

We’d been using my pair of 60m half ropes and, being lazy with all the rope handling on semi hanging ledge belays, decided that one rope doubled up would be enough as the route is only 21m. I am effectively leading on a pair of 30m ropes. 

Of course we didn’t account for the fact that the traverse to the arête from the base belay is not insignificant. 

Skip to the end, I “top out” and we are out of rope. Anyone familiar with this part of Pembroke will know that belay stakes are used. Stakes driven into the ground quite some way back from the cliff edge. Stakes I am unable to reach. Maybe if I’d had a 4 metre Dyneema sling I could have had a go at lasso-ing one. 

In hindsight I should have untied and pulled all the rope through to make a safe belay anchor and then chucked the rope back down to wilkie14c. Not sure why I didn’t, maybe I was proud of having “protected the second” on the low level traverse. 

Instead I surmised that it’s easy climbing with barely a 4b move and gets the grade for exposure (the arête basically has one dubious piece of pro about halfway up) and wilkie14c is climbing well and he’s basically top roping so there’s no fear factor. So I my posterior and my heels in and myself to be the anchor. This was one of the far less secure “sit anchors” I’ve done. It’s grassy, slopy and a bit chissy up there. Wilkie14c is fully aware of the situation. The dubious gear is far enough down the route that if he does fall and I can’t hold him, I may get yanked off and then the weight of two men will shock load the dubious gear IF we aren’t already in the sea and rocks before the rope comes taut.

Anyway he climbs the route “fine” and there is no drama, but he does say it was harder than expected (my expectation being that he’d “cruise” it).

In hindsight, as the second he was in no way safe and was effectively soloing with the additional bonus that if he fell off, I would come a cropper too. 

Lesson learned….always have plenty of rope. 

I bought a four metre Dyneema sling about three years later. I haven’t had to lasso anything with it yet 

sorry for a few typos and missing words!

Compared TO some of…

I dug my posterior in.

I considered myself to be the anchor. 

chossy, not chissy

Having climbed in Britain on Trad, I returned to Spain and got.into freeing old aid routes at a crag NE of Burgos. I had lots of important inputs from the chap who put them up.

One morning we  started up a three pitch route, which had a third pitch on hooks. The hanging belay was on two bolt heads, I strangled them with 2 rock 1's. My mate Fran followed me up.

I started leading pitch 3, the last pitch. The supposed crux wall was full of small pockets, and although it had been done with sky hooks it was surprising easy but both unprotected and run out.

A short overhanging crack provided the first bit of gear, a bomber rock 7 about 5 meters from the belay. I placed it blindly. I was surprised  at how difficult  the crack was, all on precarious finger jams and poor feet. As soon as my feet were above the placement, there was an unclippable home made peg with a shoe lace dangling from a tiny drilled out hole. I got instantly gripped and my arms pumped out irreversibly.  I was flying.The rock held and the rope went tight.

When I looked down,  Fran was dangling just below me. I had lifted him up from his insecure perch and he was no longer attached to the belay. the belay wires were pulled up and off the bolt heads. So we were both dangling off the rock 7 about 60 metres from the deck.

When I got home I never told my parents.

What was the mistake? I don't quite understand what "strangling the bolt heads with rocks" means. I have a sort of an idea but it doesn't make sense, so it's easier to ask for clarification. 

Also....how did you escape?! 

After splitting from my 1st serious GF, I went back. That was the mistake. We split again. I obviously learned nothing, coz I went back again.

If an expansion bolt has no hanger, you can slide the head of a small wired nut such as a Rock 1 or 2 down its wire a bit, hook the wire loop over the bolt, then slide the nut back up of (sort of, maybe) secure it in place. Something I'm glad I've only needed to do once.

If you search for images of "aid climbing rivet hanger" you can see a purpose made version of the same idea

akin to winter climbing really, I’ve sat in and been belayed up by a few bucket seat belays and buried axes etc in the past (no frozen mars bars though) been caught out a few times like this (rope ran out) and have had to simul climb. Grey slab/lost boot while doing classic rock/link up. on a pair of 50’s, we’d constructed the bottom belay from the rope and unfortunately didn’t realise there wouldn’t be enough to reach the top, get to that horrible, quartz filled weird crack where no gear fits or feels safe and partner had to set off climbing to give me slack so I could get on the greasy slab and top out and make safe. Done it again since and remembered this so made the belay from slings and there was just enough rope so learning by mistakes if def a thing. It’s all part of the fun, character building and being a ‘climber’. Anyone can climb up a bit of rock, not everyone can do under pressure and fairly safely!

My biggest mistake was taking the wife around snake & ladders in the slate. I didn’t make her climbed the ‘snake’ but did everything else with me lowering her down the abbs. We did suffer a rope jam during this that involved tying her off, using the other end of the rope (60 single) to abb down to her, clipping the other end to her, hand balling/belay device back up and continuing the lower. I was terrified the slate would cut the rope where it was jammed so got another independent line to her, then freed the jam while I was clambering back up. No drama, just got on with it, she was calm and didn’t fully appreciate the mortal danger she was in. She still says S&L was one of her best experiences outdoors but it was the opposite for me. I often torture myself with thoughts of what could have been. She was only there because of me, she went along with my plans and trusted me. Regular partners have already made the choice to do what they do and we accept this and crack on climbing together. This situation though wasn’t like that, I had put my wife in danger under the guise of me knowing what I was doing and I still suffer guilty thoughts even now. 

Sorry  I can imagine it's hard to envisage  how the belay worked.

The mistake was that I should have realised that I was going  to pull Fran up in the event of a fall as he was of lighter build than me.

Back in the 80s and 90s in Spain you regularly found bolts called golos or buriles, which were just a 10 mm diameter screw 4cm in length with a hexagonal head, hammered into a hand drilled hole that was slightly smaller  in diameter. So some had no hanger. In Spain you could  carry a special removable hanger for such bolts. I had no removable hangers so I had to use a small wire ( the wild country stoppers were called rocks) and trap the head of the bolt between  the loop of wire and the aluminium  wedge. This was fine if the force on the wire was down, if you pulled them up they would detach from the bolt.

We finished the route by tying into an inverted stopper at the belay in a crack below the belay and  getting  an additional piece of gear above the one which held the fall. I sat on the gear to get past the peg. With much trepidation.  

I don't  think the route has been repeated, as the crag is not popular, but it would make a great 7a sports route if it was bolted.

If there's a shiny new bolted lower off in a quarry, its there for a reason. Use it. 

Dont clip it, thinking, at last some good gear. Then head off up the 2m of vertical gravel and heather to top out.

There are some of these on the first few bolts on the aid routes in dovedave (dove holes) maybe the first 2 or 3 bolts, no hanger just bolt head sticking out 10mm or so. I think it’s to discourage lay persons climbing up to them (if they see nice shining hangers, they might be encouraged to climb up to them) I had a couple of the hangers, in fact someone here gave them to me when I was prepping to do the aid routes. Like a normal hanger but a sort of key-way hole, they slip over the bolt head and slide down, then your crab clips on and this stops the hanger moving upwards and off. Worked well but yea, a rock 5 or similar works well too - slide the wedge down the wire, hook the exposed wire loop over bolt head and slide wedge back up to lock it on. Ghetto but works!

Taking the Peak District for granted and moving to Cumbria two and a half years ago. Now rectified, moving back, I got my old job back, and house purchased with 52 crags within 5 miles according to UKC. Can’t wait to come home.

Will you be changing your name again, Paul?

Oh yes I will! Live and learn, I realise how lucky I am to be able to turn it around.

Having climbed in the Peak a lot between 1995 and 2015, and then moving to Cumbria, I finally realised how easy cragging was in the Peak (I used to baulk at a 20min walk in!), but also how urbanized and crowded it was. I love grit, but far prefer the chance of much more solitude and 'wilderness'. I'd hardly climbed in the Lakes previously, so it helps that I have everything to go for. 

Aanyway, thread derailment, sorry,  will think about worst mistake etc and return.

I've had a further think about my top ten.  And there are two that I'm pretty ashamed of.  So here goes for the first:

I was 23 and working in Saudi Arabia in the early 1980s.  A friend and I drove up through a sandstorm (whole other stupidity story) to Jubail on the gulf coast for the Eid break.

We were told by a local that there was a nice sandbar island about 3 miles offshore and he offered to take us over for the day, drop us off (with snorkelling gear and an eski full of beer) and pick us up in the afternoon.

All good, except by 4pm there was no sign of our ticket home, and we were quite worried.  Perhaps I'd had too much sun, but I decided to swim back to the mainland.  I knew I could swim 3 miles ok, and within 3 hours, when it would be dark.  So I set off.

All was good for about an hour or an hour and a half - although it was disconcerting that I couldn't see land in any direction.  Then I came across a large shipping buoy and decided to have a breather holding the big riveted crimp that held the two halves together. 

And suddenly I could feel a current dragging.  And equally suddenly I got a terrible wrench in the pit of my stomach that I didn't know which direction I'd come from.  I was utterly paralysed by panic - perfectly safe holding the buoy, but no real idea how far off course I was.  My only sense of direction was a low sun.  I knew I needed to go SWish but didn't really have a clear idea of the coastline.  I'd seen no boats, so decided I'd have to press on, with a guess at the current.

I swam for about another hour.  By this time I wasn't exhausted, but I was definitely starting to tire, screaming inside at the stupidity of it all, and fighting rising panic.

And then it got dark...and that saved me.  As the light faded the glow from the huge Aramco refinery flare stacks became visible...and I knew how off course I was, but also where I needed to go.

It took me over three hour's swim to finally make landfall - the longest I'd ever swum.  The boatman seemed mildly apologetic and was reluctant to go back out in the dark for my friend, until I more or less threatened to kill him.

Learning:

- tell someone reliable where you are going and when to worry

- setting off for a swim of unknown distance in an unfamiliar sea and with no backup is beyond moronic

And the second:

If my first story is an example of a single, massive lapse of judgement; the second is more butterfly effect (or maybe just sustained lapse of judgement).

In the Alps, with a mate, both relatively inexperienced - 2 or 3 Pyrenean or Alpine summers.  Just arrived; weather poor but not terrible; itching to get stuck in.  Decided on a nice acclimatisation route - interesting mixed ridge then a whaleback of snow after the summit for a nice easy return to our camp on the glacier.  No huge rush - a shortish day and we'd just travelled so decided to ditch the alpine start.

It was snowing in the morning - and the grey mist was down to the ground.  But the forecast was for improving weather and it wasn't stormy, so we set off across the glacier to the ridge.  It felt like a long way, but perhaps that was just the travel fatigue and first day with a pack.  We hit it eventually and went up the gully to the notch as described.  A bit loose and rather steeper than expected, but we needed to get back in the swing.  Up the ridge the climbing was interesting - turning several gendarmes that weren't mentioned in the brief description.

And it all seemed to be taking a long time.  We'd been climbing for hours - including a couple of spicy pitches - but still couldn't see the summit through the cloud.  We berated ourselves for being slow and unfit, but pressed on, because a nice broad slope off was much more appealing than reversing this, well, quite demanding ground we'd come up.

Finally the top.  We went forward eagerly to meet the descent track...and found only a yawning drop into the cloud.  We'd managed to miss our target ridge in the mist by being a couple of hundred metres too low, and traversed on until we hit another, parallel ridge.  A much harder, longer and more committing route up a different mountain.

Nothing for it but to go back the way we had come.  About half way down it became clear that a) we were rushing and starting to make mistakes and b) we were going to get benighted.  The one piece of good judgement was stopping and looking for a safe place to wait.  We had no bivvi gear, and only a small amount of food and water (we'd expected to be down for tea).  We dug a smallish "coffin" in the snow on a ledge, put on all our gear and shivered.

As it got dark, the promised improvement in the weather happened and the skies clear...and the temperature plummeted.  And it seemed to keep getting colder as the night went on.  Around 2am we were both recognising the possibility of being too ill-equipped to survive.  A woolly jumper and caggie, snowed up dachstein mitts. 

But around 4 it seemed to stop getting colder and shortly after there was the first glow of light in the east and I knew we would make it.  That sense of being unsure of the outcome, and the inescapabilty of the situation has really stayed with me.

Learning:

- the skills needed to get out of a situation are greater than those needed to get into it.  That's a dangerous imbalance and one to always be aware of

- extra warmth is always worth carrying in cold places

- be alert to when you're force-fitting the guidebook to the surroundings

All three of your “learning” points are excellently and succinctly written , the first in particular can be generalised to absolutely anything, even (and with apologies for having alluded to this recently) playing music ….but if you want something more physical I can throw freediving in there especially having had personal experience of the freedive equivalent of significant whippers on run out gear 

Dropped onto my back, on solid rocks, from about 4m up by an experienced belayer using a belay device they weren’t familiar with. They’d used it with me before and I just assumed they’d remember. Lesson: never assume.

I was surprised I walked away from it with just a sore back.

Yeah any big crag takes at least an hours walk in. (N Wales much better in that regard). But if you live in the gap between the Lakes and The Dales you’ve got all the yorkshire limestone on your doorstep too.

If the leaning point is don’t take the plus points of anywhere for granted, that’s fair. The Lakes has different positives, as Jon alludes to.

Agree wholeheartedly, as is taking some time to be brutally objective about what floats your boat.

Early summer, 1970: Yellow Slab, Scafell East Buttress.

I had been climbing for about a year, an arrogant 18 year old who thought he knew it all. Bob started to lead p2, up onto the little pinnacle, came down, tried again, came down. Let me do it, I said, and I set off and made the move up onto the Yellow Slab, feeling very excited and very pleased with myself. I thought I'd reached a decent stance, although it felt pretty exposed, so I took the rope in and Bob started climbing up to join me.

I glanced round, and to my horror realised that I hadn't constructed a belay, and I wasn't clipped in. I was using a traditional waist belay for Bob, so I couldn't do anything while he was climbing up towards me, except pray that he didn't slip and pull us both off. 

He didn't.  But it was a warning to me:  if I was going to do this stuff, I had to do it properly, not casually, ignorantly or arrogantly. 

Edward Whymper "Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end"

. 

Will you be buying back all the guitars you sold before moving! Welcome back!

Hiya, I’ve picked up a whole new rack of guitars in the meantime but there are a couple I wouldn’t mind getting back, plus the odd amp !

Sunny day off work in the early 90's, Avon Gorge, started to solo something as all on my lonesome. Got to a sticking point at (thank God) a ledge, couldn't go up, couldn't down climb, sat down, pondered my predicament and waited, and waited. Fortunately a pair turned-up, spotted me looking rather pathetic, and sorted a rope down for me.

By this time I was sunburned, very dehydrated, possibly suffering from sun-stroke. Bus from Clifton to Bristol, then had to wait in town for bus back to home. I GLOWED, I kid you not, and was on the receiving end of a lot of staring.

What did I learn - Avon Gorge takes no prisoners, ever. Wear sunscreen. Bristol is very judgey.

1 -Abseiling off a tree at Aldery Cliff. We'd passed the rope round the back of a tree, and needed to use both strands to ab off. I only put one strand through my belay device. Fortunately my friend spotted it just before I leaned back.

I'm now very rigorous about double checking everything before weighing the abseil.

2 - climbing on Chair Ladder. I was belayed under an overhang. OH had led off across a traverse and out of sight. I heard a call that I thought was "safe Becky!" and took him of belay. Then put him back in when I realised he was still climbing. The call had come from the other team on the crag. OH always calls me Bex.

I'm now super cautious about taking people off belay. I'll ask them to repeat the call if I'm not sure, and will keep them on belay until the end of the rope if I'm not totally certain. 

Misinterpreting or mishearing calls (safe sounds a lot like take to me, when shouted at a distance) really freaks me out and I have always preferred the rope pull method. Five long, heavy, intentional pulls on the rope (they must be strong enough that they can't be confused with tugging the rope when clipping gear) to indicate 'safe' (telling the belayer they can take the belay off and start getting ready to climb) and the same again to indicate 'on belay' (indicating to the second that they can strip the anchor and start climbing). It hasn't failed me yet, personally.

My worst climbing mistake is probably something I remain blissfully unaware of.

One that always comes to mind with a shudder though is I lowered off the end of a rope. I describe it as such since it was all my fault despite the rope eventually slipping through my friend's hand. I'd been stripping clips out of a sport crag, climbing up, swinging, lowering, transferring from rope to rope, line to line at the end of the day gradually becoming complacent and losing situational awareness. Something I had time to reflect upon in freefall though I was saved by a comparatively lucky landing and the fact I'd been working uphill on a crag with a sloping base.

Check everything every time something changes. Start again if you get distracted.

Another is noting but ignoring changes to a familiar (quite 'geologically active') crag while walking in. It collapsed completely that same day burying where we'd been belaying under thousands of tons of rock. Saved from pulverisation by having to get home for Christmas dinner rather than good judgement.

Pay attention, think 'why?'.

jk

Went to try out a local climbing club at a local crag.

After a day of climbing one of the club members sussed I was pretty competent and as I was looking for a final climb of the day so he pointed to Bob and said he would be happy to second.

I approached Bob and he was keen so I lead the climb and belayed at the top, which required stringing up a few newish fence posts at the top of the crag.  Meanwhile another club member had set up a top rope on the next climb along to do some teaching and one of my 3 belay points doubled up one of his three belay posts.

At the end of the climb Bob asked if he could do anything whilst I was coiling the rope.  "Sure." I said, "can you dismantle the belay."  Unknown to me Bob was also new to the club and new to climbing.  He promptly dismantled both our belay and the top rope belay and then handed me my kit, weirdly leaving the Teacher's kit on the ground.  I didn't check, and just gathered my stuff and we descended together.  Luckily the next guy up the top rope was the very competent Teacher climbing up and over to dismantle the setup.  There was enough friction to keep the top carabiner in place so no one noticed until he reached the belay posts.  A lot of Effing yelling could be heard from the top of the crag.  Needless to say when he got down I was roundly chewed out!  I could have dobbed Bob in it, as it was he who dismantled said belay, but in truth I was responsible and took the hit.  Teacher had every right to be livid.

Learning points: 

1) Always find a way to ask someone you've never climbed before how competent they are; e.g. "I assume you've climbed before?" or "Do you do much climbing?"

2) If YOU set it up YOU are responsible.  It was fine of me to ask him to deconstruct the belay, but I should have quietly eyeballed his actions to check I was happy with them!

Yep, that's me....back again for the third time in 45 years and loving it.  And her...   Hopefully not a mistake this time .  It doesn't feel like it after 10 years so fingers crossed

Climbing mistakes???  So many, so many !!

Whitt (VS 4c)

My first ever multi-pitch, as middle of a 3. Leader called down "safe" from the top, so I took him off belay and, keenly, but unthinkingly, unclipped myself from everything in preparation to climb.

That meant that I was stood on the belay with enough rope lying on the ledge that one wrong move would have meant decking!

Fortunately, the 3rd of our party spotted my error and quickly clipped me back in!

Thankfully I have never had anything climbing related, and I wasnt injured, but I did have a moment about 25-30 years ago, a moment which looking back could have been very dodgy, could have hurt my wife, and is something many 'normal' folks probably encounter. Pretty mundane by many comparisons here but with important lessons nonetheless

One winter, for reasons I cant remember (but probably involved bravado/youthful foolishness), we'd stayed in the Lakes for NYE and decided on NYD to walk up Helvellyn. This is long before I had any understanding of hills, winter or anything. We climbed Dollywaggon Pike and onto HV, the snow was getting really heavy at this point and there was plenty of previous snowfall. We were struggling with visibility but navigation was reasonable. Problem is, time was ticking and the going was slow, and the light started to fade. There were two, clearly very experienced and well equipped walkers who met us on at he shelter on HV, who looked decidedly surprised to see us - we were well clothed but in hindsight, desperately ill-prepared and of course we had no GPS/mobile phone. 

I started to panic and wanted to make sure me and my (still) wife got down OK in the light. I told her to stay well back and then began to 'test' the snow/climbdown on Striding Edge. I didnt know what a striding edge was at this time. I managed to get about 20 feet down, then remember a feeling of utter horror after I slipped. I made it back up to the top, and the other walkers were long gone so we would have been screwed.

We did eventually, more luck than judgement, get to Glenridding via Whiteside, very tired, very wet but very relieved. I look back on the experience and think about all manner of things which could have happened from freezing, getting lost, slipping, cornices.

Plan better, back out if the weather looks bad, make sure you tell people where you walk (I didnt), choose a longer day, and never, ever try and descend a snowy/icy arete without the proper skills, axe, footwear, protection and experience.

Not actually my mistake and maybe not his worst...

Son was in the far east on a climbing trip, this was before Whatsapp and when information on the internet wasn't easy to get hold of on a phone unless you had one of these new-fangled smartphones - we didn't. We were out shopping, Saturday evening, get a text from son "what time's high tide in Vietnam" - might have been more location specific. Wife panics "oh my god he's trapped somewhere and he'll drown". We phone daughter, get her to look up info on the web and relay it to son which all takes some time. Hear nothing more that day so wife gets a not very good night's sleep (guess who the worrier of the family is).

Next day we find out that they're camped on a beach and just needed to know how close to high tide they were to judge whether they needed to move the tent.

Learning point: always start by saying that you're ok before launching off into some scary sounding stuff.

What other stuff has he managed? well how many of you have left a trombone on the bus 🤦‍♂️

I think the scariest thing I've ever done climbing was abseiling after doing King Kong (E1 5b) one evening. Didn't do the little 4a top pitch, abbed off the bolts (are they still there) down the big second pitch, ropes in a bit of tangle, so was bouncing around sorting them out. Got down to the halfway ledge, clipped into the bolts there and then realised that my screwgate was almost certainly undone whilst I was doing all that bouncing around - there is a vague chance that I'd undone the screwgate automatically when clipping in but I don't think so.

Gave me the willies for years just thinking how close I was to coming off the rope and going the extra 150' to the ground.

Learning point - 2 screwgates back-to-back on the figure-8 so that you should still be ok if you've not done them up.

Don't abseil on a gear loop ... now i understand why you have big-wall harnesses.

A friend tried something similar, part the way up Saxon his gear loop failed and all his wires ended on the beach. Much lobbing up of wires & krabs. Split the gear onto two or more loops?

Camping at Isaf Farm, I had a quick flick through Steve Ashton's 'Scrambles in Snowdonia' and decided to scoot up south gulley on Tryfan with the object of getting up and down before lunch. 
I'd been up the east face plenty of times, scrambling and climbing but never up south gulley. 
Arriving there off the heather terrace I was suddenly faced with a conundrum based on my lack of attention to reading the guide book which I'd left behind; does the route go up to the north or the south of south gulley rib? 
Well... the north side looked so much more inviting, so that's the way I chose.

Years ago I did a long distance walk on the south coast after I accidentally lost my house. I had such a good time and my partner was cured of an incurable condition, so I wrote a little book about it. Some people were then inexplicably upset about a minor accounting irregularity I’d got caught up in prior to the walk and said all sorts of unpleasant things about me. Lesson learned. Always keep up to date with the accounting regulations!