“The heat is on its own, the roof seems so inviting”
There isn’t a single day I wake up and think: curse you all, I have to go to work. Except for the fact I am absolutely not a mo(u)rning person, I like my job. It allows me to travel from time to time, and off course I take the opportunity to combine business with pleasure.
Saturday, 5:30 am, you know it’s gonna come, but you still want to crush your cellphone when the alarm goes off. 
Sleepy eyes and all packed in the private cab to Brussels-Midi. I-hate-goodbyes and hugs and hopped on the Eurostar to London. Forecast: epic climbing weekend with my Everest boy and girls Rhys Jones, Bonita Norris and Becky Bellworthy. Fixed and traditional climbing. Another chapter in the Rhys Jones advanced school of climbing. I took a national train from London to Brockenhurst and met the happy bunch. So it begins.
It was clear my 20l backpack wouldn’t do for the trip so I quickly changed it to a 60l bag. With all the gear cramped in we set off to Swana
ge, a small seaside town in the South of the UK. The walk-in was only 30 minutes, so we arrived pretty quick at the climbing spot. Dropped of the gear in our sleeping cave, harnessed up and tested a few easy pre-bolted routes. When you are climbing with Rhys you pretty much got no excuses of not attempting or doing something. After warming up on some grade 4 routes en leading 5+ routes, we were getting into more serious business. 
By the way, these routes have the most funny and uncommon names like ‘Alice in Pumpland’, ‘Hangs like a dead man’ and ‘Godamn sexual tyrranosaurus’. We were aiming for this nice but hard 6B+ route called ‘Mindless Optimism’. Overhanging in the beginning and then quickly changes to this hard steep part with nothing to hold on. After 6 hours of climbing it was time to head to our cave, light the BBQ, inflate our thermarest and crawl in our sleeping bags. In a cave. On a cliff. With the sea 10 meters below us. Headlights off. Goodnight.
Sunday, 6:53 am, not my alarm that wakes me up, but the sunrise and the waves hitting the rocks below. Day 2 ahead of us, sport climbing routes in the morning, traditional routes in the afternoon.
Now it is getting really interesting. With even more gear than the day before, we abseil down on one of the ledges. With trad routes you basically create your own route. A lot more freedom but a lot more risks. I only seconded these routes, but it was even more fun than the sport routes.
Time goes by too fast. Time to wrap up camp.
Leave nothing behind and only take the experience and stories with you. I don’t want to sound like a hippie, but nature is awesome. And we should be humble towards it. I could have spent a few more nights there, but the Cumberland in London is awaiting me. Quite a contrast. But still, I read somewhere that a climber’s day always starts at the crux: getting out of bed. Hotel or cave.
