As a kid, in fact even as an adult, I looked up to the stars
of the climbing world. Then slowly, as you meet them you realise they are
actually normal people. It’s almost a surprise! Ben Moon is Human!

Dani completing his project

Petzl Rock Trip 2011. Getu valley. There must be more
limestone here than the whole of the UK
put together! But the really crazy thing is the variation in styles. There just
seems to be everything plus more other styles you didn’t know existed. The
world of slopers was totally crazy, but pretty close to on-sight hell,
certainly for me anyway. And also not red-point heaven either requiring large
biceps and shoulders that God forgot to give me.

Bits of rock can look pretty much the same, it doesn’t
matter where you are in the world. Big features, crazy formations, caves,
pinnacles, whatever; up close and pulling hard, rock is rock. In a place like China
you need to escape the system and explore the view, just to know where you are,
or you might as well have stayed home!

Borre handed me another beer. The main dude behind the
Norwegian Rockmaster. The second event, in 2010, had been a good one. "Steve,
how can we make the competition even better?" I thought for a minute. "You want
something that stands out from the crowds? The way to go is DWS!"

Climbers are an obsessed type of people. We’d climb every
day if we could. Having a family pushes me into doing stuff that maybe I
wouldn’t otherwise do, like holidays to places where there is no climbing.

Or the God Of all Traverses? I’m not the fittest of
climbers, but it’s not often that I turn up at a cliff and only manage one
route before crawling off exhausted! But the mega traverse at Craig-y-Longridge
is way longer than the average route!