Sports by MarkS

Last night I went climbing with a mate, and it was a lot of fun.

The last time I went up a climbing wall was probably 6 years ago, so I was slightly nervous when we arrived at Plas Power Adventure - the largest indoor climbing walls venue in North-East Wales, UK.

However, the guy I went with had even less experience than me, plus it was relatively quiet when we arrived due to it being later in the evening, so we weren't going to be too embarrassed if we didn't turn out to be fantastic at the first attempt.

The instructor, Ian Walton, was friendly and informative, and showed us exactly what to do - and what not to do - when climbing. Initially this involved learning to tie a series of knots in the climbing ropes, which didn't take too long to learn, and making sure we knew what was important in terms of safety.

Then it was on to the good bit: the climbing itself. What we quickly learned was that the person climbing is very dependent on the other person guiding the rope at the base of the climbing wall. Basically, if the person at the bottom isn't doing their job properly and you become unstuck while climbing, you're likely to end up falling several metres (depending on the height of the wall) and hitting the floor below.

Fortunately this didn't happen, but we did come unstuck a few times, especially when using only the smaller hand-holds in the wall. Despite that, it was very enjoyable - and what's especially good is that, as my mate pointed out afterwards, just concentrating on the process of climbing takes your mind off literally everything else - so it's quite therapeutic in a way.

Membership to the walls is only £10 for a year, so we're going to join. We may even be able to do some outdoor climbing too...