A trip to Derbyshire

This was a passage I wrote in Year 8 after going on a trip to Derbyshire with my old climbing instructor:

Hastily ripping lilac heather and skeletal fern off the tiny crevice which is my next hand-hold, I step up and reach for a slippery shelf. Plunging my raw fingers into my tattered chalk bag and taking out my powered hand, I sweep my palm across the shelf in order to wipe away the grains of dirt and push against my hands to get my feet where my fingers were moments ago. My now-calloused fingertips rest happily on a large jug, but I hear my instructor Katie below ordering me to get my food even higher than my hand into a dent in the wall before it starts raining. After several desperate attempts, I somehow manage to lodge my toes in the dent, stand up to straighten my body, and breathe shakily. The final part of the route follows a wide crack and suddenly I find myself at the top of the climb and back to reality, as the familiar scent of dewy plants hits me peacefully and the long, lush grass whispers in the soft breeze. Reconnecting with nature is so significant and important in this modern, technological era because it is a way of plunging yourself in the natural world, which is usually far stronger than you are. This takes us back to periods such as the Stone Age, where humanity did not have control over the world, and the environment dictated our next moves. Recently this dynamic has altered dramatically, reversed in fact, so now we are the ones with the weight on our shoulders of complete ecological collapse: we have the might and capacity to prevent ecocide, but will we continue in our devastating, deforesting ways, or save the world from extinction? With diving into the elements of water, wind and earth, you can build an unexplainable, inextricable, lasting, layered relationship with the land, relying on her with your deep, dark secrets and trusting her for showing you the right direction in an isolated wood, against a forceful sea current, and on an especially flat and scary slab of rock.