22nd February 2009.
Started climbing proper again today. Went out with a friend and climbed Pebble and Shingle Shack on the Exmoor coast. 
The weather did not look promising to begin with. Low cloud was settling on the Quantocks and North Hill, with a chilly northwest wind at 1000ft.
The sun eventually broke through allowing us to climb in shirtsleeves for most of the day. The air was really clear with views up to the Severn Bridge and way into The Brecon’s, where patches of snow could still be seen on the mountainside. Don’t know how much longer I can avoid paying the parking fee at Bossington, the climb back up to the car park on North Hill is taking a toll of a different kind.
The weather did not look promising to begin with. Low cloud was settling on the Quantocks and North Hill, with a chilly northwest wind at 1000ft. The sun eventually broke through allowing us to climb in shirtsleeves for most of the day. The air was really clear with views up to the Severn Bridge and way into The Brecon’s, where patches of snow could still be seen on the mountainside. Don’t know how much longer I can avoid paying the parking fee at Bossington, the climb back up to the car park on North Hill is taking a toll of a different kind.
Didn’t know what to expect from the weather, the Brendons and the north side of Dunkery still had a fair bit of snow cover. A bad sign I am told if it lies about for too long.
The Ravens are busy repairing their huge timber nests so maybe spring is not that far away. People are getting out again, there must have been well over twenty walking on Bossington Hill, plus a couple of Para gliders.
It was possible to climb without the fingers freezing; I could not resist a quick traverse across the slab above 
Read somewhere yesterday that the most stolen book from UK bookshops is the A to Z of London. Can you believe that the second is OS maps, the main one being the Exmoor Explorer map? 
No chance, visibility across the top was down to less than 100 metres with a cutting east wind. The heather was covered in frost but this did not deter the mutt as he ran shovelling his nose through the heather looking for any poor bird to chase. We walked up from Dunkery Gate to the Beacon then across to Row Barrows. I did not have a compass, I used instinct to guide us across the two roads and out on to Almsworthy Common. Thankfully the dog returned each time he lost sight of me. We reached Alderman’s Barrow and turned back. It was far too cold to stop for a bite to eat, we had to keep moving. 
I would guess that the temperature would have been around minus 5 degrees. We crossed Codsend Moor keeping the field hedge in view for most of the way. The trees were covered in frost. Eventually we arrived back at Dunkery Gate. I was looking forward to sitting in the car and having a hot cup of coffee. Could I get the dog into the car? Could I heck. For twenty minutes or more I shouted commands at it from the list plus a few that I made up. It ran around in circles and jumped into the air as though it was on springs. I ran off through narrow gaps and tried to ambush it. I tried to bribe it with the official good boy rewards nothing worked. Eventually a woman with another dog casually walked up to him and caught hold of his collar. Daughter is collecting him on Sunday. I hope. We will all miss him especially the cat.
Great views along the coast but the cold wind soon had me on the move again. I descended into East Combe and followed the rugged coast path east. At the top of the ridge between East Combe and Henners Combe the wartime remains of a bunker and a tank reminded me that North Hill was once a 
Hidden in the heather and gorse are bunkers, turntables and embankments along which targets ran on rails. I know of one bunker where it is still possible to squeeze inside. I moved on down into the top of Henners Combe, crossed the stream and climbed the slope on the far side. I wanted to have a close look at the boulders and rock faces in Western Brockholes. The place is completely shattered, it has long scree / boulder slopes, two huge cube shaped boulders and various pinnacles. Here and there in the debris it is possible to descend into holes of up to 18ft or so. I am no geologist but it seems as though the hillside has slumped creating ridges, rock faces and areas of boulders. 
Very similar to The Guildhall below Sugarloaf Hill, but covering a far larger area. I continued east along the path to 
I had visited both about a month ago and knew that they were in reasonable condition, but I was a little concerned that there may be ice on the rock steps. We met up at Barna Barrow car park on the hill above Countisbury, the wind was cold but it was not freezing or raining. We decided to repeat the route I followed on my last visit but in the opposite direction, as they were both concerned that I would become bored and fall asleep somewhere. Our route would entail a descent of 
as it is very steep in the top third of its length. In these gullies the main cause of injury is being hit by stones or small boulders accidentally dislodged by those above you. Because of this you must all move close together so that the falling debris cannot get up speed between you to inflict injury, it is usually possible to stop the stones just by placing your hand on them. However you can only abseil down the rope one at a time which results in people standing around in the gully 150ft below as you slowly descend trying not to knock anything down on to their heads. We got away with it without mishap and slowly plodded down the last two thirds of the gully to the beach. 
We turned east and walked a short distance to the Gun Caverns; huge caves running back under The Foreland. I do not know why they are so named, I can only guess it is because of the outward explosion of spray caused by the waves compressing the air inside the tunnels. It was nearly half tide and getting quite choppy, we returned to the bottom of Coddow Slip before continuing west for a couple of hundred yards to the foot of Great Red where we had lunch. 
Great Red Gully is about 1250ft in length and is graded as a 2 on a scale of 1 to 4. The difficult section involves climbing a 10ft rock step where you dare not pull on the large rocks jammed together at the top of the step. This problem is 800ft into the climb; an injury here impairing the use of an arm or leg would be serious. Refreshed we set off up the gully; the first 600ft is a slog on loose shale and stones. Eventually the gully narrows at the zigzags and you are soon upon the 10ft rock step. On my previous visit I had descended the gully and had merely shuffled on my behind to the lip of the step before jumping down into the soft shale below. 
Our initial attempt to scale it failed because fine shale or gravel had banked up on top of the step concealing any holds that may have been of use. Eventually by bridging with the feet on each side of the gully and ignoring the gravel we managed to pull over the top. The zigzags continued for a while until we found ourselves on the final steep grass slope leading up to the wooden railings at the top. The gullies had kept us occupied to the extent that we had not noticed that we had been out of the freezing wind, which now chilled us to the bone as we made our way towards the pub at Countisbury.