I went for the crux, the motion startling me like a car unexpectedly in gear in a crowded parking lot. I swarm through the roundness of the bulge to a crank on a brittle spike for a cluster of three crystals on the right; each finger crucial and separate like the keys for a piano chord. I change feet three times to rest my lower legs, each time having to jump my foot out to put the other in. The finger-holds are too poor to hang on should the toes catch on each other. All those foot-changing mistakes on easy moves by runners come to mind. There is no resting. I must go and climb for the top. I swarm up towards the sunlight, gasping for air. A brittle hold stays under mistreatment and then I really blow it. Fearful of a smear on now-non-sticky boots I use an edge and move up, a fall fatal, but the automaton stabs back through, wobbling, but giving its all and I grasp a large sidepull and tube upward. The ropes dangle uselessly from my waist. Arthur Birtwhistle on Diagonal, I grasp in cuts and the tight movement swerves to a glide as gravity swings skyward.

• 1986 Gaia, Black Rocks E8 6c (first ascent)
• 1986 End of the Affair, Curbar Edge E8 6c (first ascent)
• Smoked Salmon, Bamford Edge E8 7b (first ascent)
• Face Mecca, Clogwyn Du'r Arddu E9 6c (second ascent)
• Angel's share, Black Rocks E8 7a (first ascent)
• 1990 The Very Big & the Very Small 8b+/8c slab (first ascent)