UKC

I came across a sheet of creased paper, written in green ball point and pencil, which is a log of my first climbs. I had to copy and trace to make it readable and I hope somebody finds it interesting.
It is not dated, but goes from Oct. 1958 to about Jul. 1959 - Mo and I used to hitchhike from the Midlands at weekends and all climbs were in North Wales except for six in Langdale.
Looking at it now makes me realise how inefficient we were compared to those who learned their craft on sandstone and gritstone and arrived in Wales as competent "VS men". In a period of nine months I did about fifty climbs and most were in the lower grades.
At least it looks like I "Flashed" my first VS lead.

That's great Ian. My diaries start in about 1971 but I really wish I'd recorded my climbing right from the start. It seems as I get older earlier times take on more importance, but they are lost without a record like yours.

No dates?
You guys were busy! I don't think I managed nearly as many climbs on early trips to Wales - The first trip was, however, memorable for it's truly awful weather (Easter 1969?). Highlights were climbing the rafters in Scotties barn, desperately trying to stay warm, a good supply of tins of Irish Stew and dehydrated mash potatoes, washed down with sugar water and martini. I'm not sure how we scored the latter as we were all under age. Oh, we did a route or two.Milestone Buttress and Pinnacle Rib, I think. Graduated to VS in Langdale the following summer, if memory serves me. Or maybe the year after. As Jon says, I wish I'd kept better records!

Thanks guys - that's all I wrote at that time. I did keep another log about two years later when I was climbing well but it got lost.
Like you, I wish I had kept a full record - like JCW, who seems to have kept a comprehensive diary of all his climbing activities.