Another one
When I was about 11, my borther and I were dragged on holiday with our father to Newquay, to stay in what was essentially a big trailer.

Nearby was a beach, so off we went to play in the sand and piss in the sea, as you do. Then we walked a bit of a way round the beach, and came face to face with the most tempting cliff you have ever seen. Not fully realising the implications if we fell off, we set about climbing round it. Yes, round it. A lot of it was narrow ledges and fingertip stuff, but the fact that there were always little safe bits just ahead kept us going for about a mile.

Christ only knows how we made it without dying to the end, where there was a tiny inlet. Waves crashed below us, and as the water level changed we could see that the area was lined with jagged rocks, just to make things even more interesting. There was no way across, but the jump from one side to the other looked possible if we got a bit lower, so I foolishly edged my way along a ledge about 6 inches wide, made out of slate, to a boulder from which I could get onto a lower level and make the leap.

First near death experience that day was when the slate broke beneath my feet, leaving me hanging by my fingers and scrambling for something to stand on. Eventually made it across, as did my brother (he was only 8 at the time, brave little tyke). From the boulder I could see a small ledge below that I could us to jump, so down I went, arse to the jagged rocks and waves.

About half way down I became aware of the fact that I could feel the rocks moving beneath my fingers, and knew that if I dropped to the ledge it would either break, or I would be thrown off balance and tumble jacksie first into the aforementioned deadly swirl.

"For fuck's sake, help!" I screamed, thrusting a hand out to my brother. He almost took it, then pulled away, uttering with a grin that almost killed me there and then-

"What's in it for me?"

"TAKE MY HAND UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO DIE!!!"

Second near death experince of the day. Reluctantly he helped me, and I proceeded to beat the snot out of him for fucking with my life in the first place. Cnut.

So, we went back the way we came (almost) and soon came to a section that was impossible to cross, having jumped down on the way there. So we backtracked a bit and found a dirt slope (similar to the one in my previous post, only a LOT steeper). Being light, he made it up no problem, but I had a hard time of it (it was about 40 metres of scrambling and praying). One time I slid about 15 metres on all 4s, and could see the edge of the cliff coming at me. Third near death moment in 10 minutes. Made it to the top, and spent half an hour walking back through eerily peaceful fields.

Never climbed a cliff since then.

Apologies for length
(youthink, Fri 26 Nov 2004, 20:13, Reply)