On one of the hottest days in July Tony Simpson and I met up at the Robin Hood car park in the Peak District National Park about an hour after the arranged time no thanks to a lorry fire on the M1.

The plan was to take some photos of Tony climbing in various models from the range of Garra climbing shoes including the prototype for the new Araotz velcro model planned for launch in 2007. Thankfully Tony had the foresight to bring his partner along to belay as it soon became aparent that my ability to take pictures while scrambling into awkward places didn't leave anywhere near enough hands to assist anyone else.

Photo: The prototype 2007 Garra Araotz minutes before their 1st UK gritstone outing.

After some product close ups, Tony indulged in a nifty bouldering session at Gardoms Edge overlooking the road with an awe inspiring drop behind. For the evening we moved to Lawrencefield Quarry to get some bigger shots. Little did we realise just how hot it had got... frying eggs on the slabs at the back of the quarry would have been easy. With sweat beading from every pore it was soon apparent that the very best lines would have to wait for another day but nevertheless the results were worth the effort.

Photo: Tony demonstrating death defying faith in his Garra Latinos

With faithful pooch Murphy cooling off in the pool 30m below and with hot slippery fingers; the exposed route of Suspense (E2 5c) on the left wall proved to be anything but simple to reach the ancient peg, but it all came good in the end - great stuff is chalk!

A quick change out of the Garra Panthers and into the new Araotz shoes for a shimmy up Billy Whizz (E2 5c) in the middle of the bulging spectacular central wall made for a great finish to the day even if it did need 10 minutes of dangling to clear a particularly stubborn cam afterwards.

Hot, dusty and exhausted we retired to the local pub and a long cold one (plus a cup of tea) never tasted better.

Photo: Billy Whizz (E2 5c) Lawrencefield in the new Garra Araotz