A NOVICE Ings wall crawler is set to attempt a tricky Scottish climb this weekend despite having a partially paralysed leg.

On Sunday, Brain Baker is to put his 18 months of climbing experience to the test and rope-up for a traverse of Skye's Cuillin Ridge.

The two to three-day climb will be an exhausting challenge for the former GP, who has severely restricted movement in his left leg as a result of childhood polio. To get around the problem he uses his knees a lot and will be clambering over the crags of the Western Isle range in bespoke trousers with specially toughened knees.

"You have to expend roughly twice as much energy to go the same distance," said Mr Baker. "After an hour's climbing it looks like I've done a really tough workout. I'm completely knackered!"

The idea to take on the ridge which includes the ominously named Inaccessible Pinnacle' - cropped up after a trip to the wall of the Lakeland Climbing Centre, in Kendal, with his son.

"I wanted to do a few hard ridges so I thought I would go and do the hardest one so I wouldn't need to do any others'!" explained Mr Baker.

So he asked instructor Ian Stevenson whether he thought he could manage the famous climb, to which Mr Stevenson replied "yes".

"Since then he has dragged me up a waterfall and every nasty, craggy wall he can find in the Lakes."

Mr Baker blames the polio for his appetite for tough challenges.

"It's made me irascible you need to be determined to do things. It also makes you feel you always have to prove yourself."

The ascent is not something prompting fear, thanks to his trust in his climbing partners, but he is anticipating struggling with exhaustion.

"I'm pretty determined but I don't have any preconception it's going to be easy," said the father-of-four. "It's going to be very hard, I just hope everything is going to be right when we are up there."

If the weather is fine, Mr Baker will be setting off on Sunday and hopes to arrive for a well-earned rest at a comfortable hotel on the other end of the climb within two days. He thanked both his family and Mr Stevenson and his mountain guide Andy Owen at the Kendal climbing wall for their back-up.

"The support I have had has been fantastic - you can't do this in isolation, you have to have help."

May 29, 2003 17:00