Gran Paradiso, Italy`s highest bump, was my first 4000er since my accident in 2004, and so has special significance for me. It`s only a walk with ski poles and crampons and so tests only legs, rather than my now weak arms. But it`s a long walk, 2,200 metres up from the valley floor in Pont. So I felt proud to have got back into the swing of it, having been, to all intents and purposes, out for the count. It felt great to know I could still "dance the dance", a phrase I heard Jack Nicholson use, though he was referring to a rather different activity than mountaineering.