Went for an intro to climbing course at my favourite climbing centre in London with my ex colleague and friend HV today. We had taken up climbing more than 10 years ago, but hadn’t been in a while, so decided to take a course to refresh our memories. It was really a lot of fun. I’d been out of practice for a long time (which meant that my fear of heights was more in the fore front), my right hand is still injured, and my hip was hurting, but I still managed to get to the top on some climbs, albeit the easiest grade (Grade 3). I struggled a fair bit with tying in and getting the knots exactly nice and neat, but the instructor didn’t really have feedback on my belaying technique, except that I should be more comfortable with slack in the rope for my climber. I was so quick and aggressive at removing slack from the rope that he said I was really challenging him to create enough slack to simulate a fall. I’m so quick at tightening the rope because in the past I used to belay people who were a fair heavier than me, e.g. AJ, so I had to really to be super on top of the belaying, so I don’t risk a fall or a large drop.