Appreciation.

Reminiscing over the Scotland trips... I like exploring around to new and different climbing areas (more on THAT later). I've always been inspired by Scottish outcrops ever since seeing the first pictures of Reiff, Torridon, North West Gneiss, Aberdeen sea-cliffs etc etc. And in fact become even more inspired in recent years when I've explored plenty elsewhere and started to yearn for somewhere fresh and full of choice of climbs.

I had the same prominent yearning this year - get up there, explore, climb. I often have such strong desires for new places, but also often don't think they'll actually happen due to the usual logistical hurdles: travelling, timing, weather, partners, etc. Maybe that's my pessimism and lack of organisation, but some of those factors are genuine, particularly weather for Scotland. So I didn't have the highest hopes of actually getting a decent climbing trip up there.

But now I've been! To just the right areas! Twice!

I was a bit shocked at the end of the second trip - that I'd fulfilled a Scottish desire not once but twice. It took a while to sink in that I'd actually got up there, the drive was okay, the weather was good, there were people to climb with. I'm rather chuffed with that, appreciative of the opportunity and the people involved with both trips, and more confident about future trips (my homepage is still http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_weather.html , of course ;)).