"Suddenly, being deposited ten feet back down at the base of the cliff with my handhold still firmly clutched in my right hand was not what I had expected or wanted. The cliff had shrugged us both off, me and the handhold, to a painful landing. Whilst contemplating my next move, the feeling came upon me that I wasn’t alone. But, who else would be in this remote, seldom visited part of Snowdonia? Looking around, I slowly became aware of a number of black shapes on the surrounding rocks, high and low, ranged almost in a semi-circle around me. There must have been eight or nine of them, hunched up and staring intently at this human form sitting on the ground. Death’s harbingers? Was this the end or was I being fanciful? Of course I was. I’m a scientist and seldom taken to flights of fancy and it only took a second or two to recognize that I was almost surrounded by a group of my great mountain friends....the Raven.'
