As leaked in a previous blog entry, the 2010 ‘Be in My Calendar’ Competition winner and appearing in Climbing:2011was Liam Lonsdale from the Lakes. Capitalising on some truly awesome weather on August Bank Holiday Monday – not a day traditionally know for it’s good weather, Liam and myself, ably supported by Phil and Rae respectively, hit the Lakes in a two-venue photo shoot...

We had a truly spectacular day; wicked climbing with wall-to-wall blue skies all day long! Definitely NOT a typical Lakes climbing day at all – more's the pity! Starting out at Carrock Fell for a spot of bouldering, we moved over to St Bees for some route action before totally killing ourselves with yet more bouldering.

Sadly, there can only be one competition winner, although by way of consolation five runners-up were also pulled from the hat and each will get a copy of the Climbing:2011. Step forward if you please; Dom Bush – a self acclaimed slatehead, mature student and film maker (heck Dom, you sounds like you’ll need a calendar to shoe-horn all those activities into your day!), Charlie Mackie – a student, Duncan Critchley – a maturing (in the nicest possible sense) climber looking to recover former ground on the trad front, Oli Boynes – another student and finally Donna Mawson, a Pembroke-based climber. Thanks very much to you guys and all those that entere into the competition. Hopefully we'll do it all again next year!

Amazingly, and totally by chance, I met Duncan Critchley down in Pembroke when I was down there whilst shooting the images of Neil Gresham and Steve McClure. The chance meeting was all the more amazingly as Duncan and myself had climbed together before – way back in the 1980’s. It was great to catch-up with old friends and chew the fat – one of the great joys of the climbing scene.

And finally, confession time… That Liam, this year’s winner’ was kept under wraps was, in part, due to the images of him being used on the front cover! Sorry fo rthe wait folks but I hope you see why I wanted to go 'big' with the story of Liam pulling the front cover!

For more details of the photo shoot, and my thoughts on the ‘Be in My Calendar’ competition, check out my new feature article http://www.keithsharplesphotography.co.uk/articles/articlestbees.html and gallery

Firstly then, the front cover of Climbing:2011 with Liam on Dreaming of Red Rocks (F7a+) and yes folks, this is the Lakes and not some far-flung corner of the globe...

And then the shot of Liam within the calendar itself – also on Dreaming…