On a sunny bank holiday I was photographing my friend climbing at Mother Carey’s from an abseil rope. The tide was coming in rapidly and quite a few groups were on the face finishing their routes. A climber in the cave which is an optional belay on one of the routes shouted to me asking if, from my vantage point, I could communicate with his second- a combination of the sound of the sea and the angle of the rock meant that he was unable to let her know that he’d reached the cave and was going to belay from it. Matters were complicated by rope drag which meant that he could not tell how much rope he had pulled in.

At first I could only see the ropes leading down and out of view but soon I was able to let him know that his partner was climbing the pitch and was actually not too far from reaching his stance. He did not receive this news as cheerfully as I expected and the reason became clear as I saw him hurriedly attach his belay device to the rope- he had not anticipated that his second would have started climbing and, unbeknown to her, she had effectively soloed the pitch!