Gasping, I reached upward; my arms felt dead and the last quickdraw was clipped six bolted sections beneath me, if I were to fall it would ****ing hurt and spending the night in A&E on Christmas Eve just wasn't an option. Fine long cracks, following the path of the mortar, ran along the stretches of brickwork between bands calling into question the structural integrity of the chimney.

I shifted my body weight onto my leg, shook off my arms and crimped the band. An adrenaline rush surged through me, I ignored the numbing pain building in my arms. Sarcastic, I asked myself, 'This real enough for you now?' I grinned, one of those quirky oddities, 'Hell yes!'.

I took a deep breath, light headed from the intoxicating refresh, and lunged up to the next bolt. With hands coated in a mixture of dirt, grease, sweat and blood freshly flowing out through the cuts on my knuckles, I grasped for the ledge. With one last effort I clambered over the wall, a triumphant finish. Just sitting up there amongst the pigeon shit I smiled, the hard graft had paid off. There I was, free.

Anchors fixed? Check. Backed up? Check.

"Right. You can come on up." I yelled down the chimney. "[ks]. Pull the rope taught, just to check it's not snagging".

Not snagging? Check.

[sy] attached himself to the rope and began to make his way up, "****. This is a right bastard!" he said, I smiled like some crazed goon.

"I don't think we've got enough rope to double it!?" he said. I looked down, he had a point there.
"Right what we'll have to do is double it abseil to the last bolt, anchor, pull it down to us and double it again from there." I replied.

He headed off first, hanging on the anchored single length. We had agreed on leaving a sling behind to use as a backup. I threw caution to the wind, took the sling off, doubled the rope on the rung and committed.


#1 Ravenhead Glass 2008 | [sgb]


#2 Ravenhead Glass 2008 | [sgb]


#3 Ravenhead Glass 2008 | [sgb]