South Face, Castle Rock of Triermain Tuesday 31 Aug 2021

[Stuart Watson]

As hopefully all of you know, about 1 year ago (6 Aug 2020) I had a bad accident climbing, where (for reasons we’ll probably never know for sure) I fell, ripped out all my gear, and hit the deck. I damaged 15 of 33 vertebrae, my shoulder, a few other bones and my brain and yet was in fact incredibly lucky! Helped by my trusty partner Bob and the Keswick Mountain Rescue team I somehow managed to avoid dying or spending the rest of my life in a wheelchair, and am slowly but surely recovering.

As an aside from the main purpose of this email, I should spend a moment mentioning that my wife Celia is doing a sponsored walk, 26 miles around Ullswater on the 7th August (1 year and 1 day after my fall). Originally this walk was organized on an earlier date for Alzheimer’s here…
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/trek26lakedistrict202026miles-celiawatson
but, the walk was postponed because of COVID, and because she had already raised the original target amount for Alzheimer’s, for the rearranged event on the anniversary my fall, Celia is getting sponsored again to raise money for the Keswick Mountain Rescue team…
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/celia-watson-2
If you feel inspired to sponsor Celia for either of these charities that would be brilliant!

Now to the main reason for this email…
I am down to be a meet leader for 2 KMC meets at the end of August (24/8 at Head End Quarry and 31/8 at Castle Rock). The Castle Rock meet on 31/8 is now a problem. Celia was going to the musical Hairspray in London with friends on an earlier date, which has now been moved (because of COVID) to 31/8. Some of her friends can’t make this new date, which means the girls night is now likely to become a couples night (i.e. I’m invited too). Even if I turned down the opportunity to go to the musical, Celia would be mega stressed if I was to go off climbing without her being around to tell me what not to do (my accident was much more stressful for her than for me, as I was just having a peaceful snooze in ITU, while she was being told all the awful things that might happen to me).
I’m still happy to be meet leader for the Head End meet (probably a good location for me to try a simple climb outside on a top rope). However, I would like to see if there is a KMC member out there who would be happy to take over and be meet leader for the Castle Rock meet on 31st August.

If you are free on the 31st August and happy to be a meet leader that evening then please reply to me on stuartataltitude@gmail.com. I am very grateful for your help!

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