[SA Chris]

Combined with the fact that wife was usual partner for mountain stuff.

And it's a full day out plus usually a day to recover.

Compared to a fair bit of bouldering circa half an hour walk from home.

[abarro81]

I've had various boulder sessions where I've gone out in the morning and been at work by 11am using a bit of flexitime... I've never done that with multipitch mountain trad! It's also a lot less time consuming to train well for strength vs onsighting long routes and/or big days out, since the mantra for the former is "stop strong" and for the latter "do more".

[ali k]

I smashed into the wall below…and the back of head hit the wall quickly afterwards. I think I might get one of those lightweight helmets now and wear it even for sport climbing as the outcome could have been much worse.

After witnessing a few near misses at sport crags this year, with head-cratering sized rocks being knocked down very close to people belaying or stood around at the bottom I started wearing a helmet for sport climbing. A few weeks later I greased off a hold clipping the 2nd bolt and flipped upside down same as you and hit my head on a rock buried in the ground. Helmet was smashed and I had a headache for about 2 weeks afterwards (mild concussion?). Without a helmet who knows what would’ve happened? So I feel comfortable it’s the sensible thing to do even if you often feel like an idiot at Kilnsey.

[Jerry Morefat]

For what it's worth, I went to Pabay for a week when my daughter was 10 months. Obviously I left her at home with her mother and grandmother. Taking her with me would have been totally irresponsible