It's getting on for 50 years since last I did anything like this - and it wasn't for charity, but to save my little pink bod from another long cold winter's night up on the icy Cuillin Ridge, but it can't be so hard, can it? There's gravity to help, isn't there? I reckon the really hard bit is the steep 153-step staircase getting up there....

These days, getting up the 12 steps to my bedroom at home can sometimes be uncomfortable, after one knee replacement op and another pending. So getting to the top of Portland Light on the 19th will take rather longer than coming back down again.

Thinking on the changes with the years, and in response to a cheeky request, I dug out a couple of very old pics of myself in my climbing days. They're now in the gallery, for better or worse....

A short article in the above sailing magazine triggered the idea, 'whose time had come'.... and I needed another displacement activity to avoid cutting the hedges at home.... So.... Now I can't back out.....