Bouldering: Aches, strains and embracing your inner child

Picture this: you're clinging to a rock face, searching for the next hold. The ground is far below you. Oh, and there's no ropes.

This is bouldering. Or as my brain insists on calling it "rock-climbing-without-ropes".OK, so the ground's never going to be that far below you - most climbs only reach about 6m - but the thought of falling even a few metres seemed to be enough to keep me clinging on for dear life.

I've been climbing a couple of times before. Nothing spectacular - indoor walls for fun rather than technique - but I really enjoyed it. So when my mum suggested trying out bouldering for my sister's birthday it sounded like a wonderful plan.

Rockover Climbing Centre in Manchester seems to specialise in bouldering, so we headed there for an induction session. There's little kit involved - just a pair of climbing shoes to help you keep your feet in a better position.

There's just me, my mum, my sister and a guy with his son. First impressions of the walls are "ohhhh... that's quite high" followed by "I hate these shoes". The latter because our first foray across the traverse wall resulted in the climbing shoes crushing my dodgy toe. Ouch.

From that first sideways clamber to get us going, we moved onto some climbing.

"Right," said our guide, "just swing up and grab the next hold."

"Just straighten your leg and reach up."

That easy. Only, my leg kept going into spasm which meant straightening it wasn't really an option. Brilliant fun though.

I imagine it's much like climbing trees. I never climbed trees as a kid, but there's something really wonderful about clambering up a wall with no rope to catch you. When I've been climbing before I've managed to reach the top pretty quick, but bouldering makes you really think about where you're putting your hands and feet.

Several times I managed to get myself nearly within reach of the final hold, only to find that I'd got myself into such a position that there was no way to get there. From there, the only way to move is down. Get to the bottom, have another look at the wall, work out where you went wrong and try again.

Now I've been on that induction session, I can go back whenever I want. Clamber about unsupervised. Probably get stuck a few more times. Great fun. Just need to find some different shoes...

Oh, and I need practice. Partly because my arms and shoulders ached like hell for 2 days after the session and partly because I fancy adding bouldering to my list of adventures for the Grand Tour. A friend gave me Lonely Planet's 1000 Ultimate Adventures for Christmas and it includes bouldering in Canada and Australia.

Bit too advanced, maybe?

So I'll be back on the indoor walls before I leave, trying to work out how to reach that last hold. Got to love a bit of adventure for your inner child.