27th February. "Look - No Hands!"

"You won't like this." I said climbing out of the velux window and up the 60 degree roof with various custom made ladders.

"You're a braver man than me, trusting your life to some old bits of wood." said Mr F. presently recovering from a climbing accident.

And there's the rub - all the best rope, harnesses, bullet proof belays etc but you've still got to trust something, in Mr F's case, the belayer.

Rope can just as easily slip too quickly through someone elses hands as a short bit of ladder come adrift, when balanced on the ridge of a slate roof.

To be fair 'Chez F' isn't exactly a bungalow, it took eleven metres of liner to reach the fire place and that was on the upper floor.

An error could have resulted in more than just a sore heel.