Strangely enough I don't feel like I knew Paul for a very long time, yet I do have very fond memories of him and it's hard to choose one. I believe my very first memory of spending time with him was during a car drive to the Alps in 2019 (so by "spending time with him" we're talking about 12h in a 4sqm space, the kind of experience that gets you to really know people). Of all the hours of random chats in the car the one I remember the most was about how much he wanted a baby. In a car full of adventure seeking testosterone-fuelled dreams, there you had Paul, with a massive smile on his face talking sweetly about Lukxmi and his dreams of starting a family about to come true. Hearing him talk like that made me realise how much of that pure genuine excitement, that most of us leave back in childhood, was still in him. More of that innocent excitement was actually about to come, as the first thing we did after that 12h long drive was go and find something to climb (I guess we needed to stretch our legs!). We soon learnt that sleep-deprived decisions aren't always the best ones, as he set off to climb something that was too long for our rope length, which involved some creative thinking, with me having to belay him from the top of a massive block of ice that happened to be nearby. After this mishap it was decided that perhaps pizza and wine were a better plan; and despite our first climb together having been a little bit problematic, he still agreed to teach me how to do multi-pitch climbing the next day. And I believe that's what I've heard the most about Paul these last few days. "Oh he taught me…" "Ah he got me into…". He was always happy to share his love for climbing and his knowledge, patiently explaining things (taking his teaching very seriously too, I remember how serious and focused he was when teaching me!), not judging if you had the silliest questions or if you dropped your belay plate mid-climb (guilty as charged! I still have that belay plate!). Back from that trip, after another 12h drive, I knew that the guy I'd seen at some of the club's meetings and that had jumped on the same car about 10 days earlier to become my climbing buddy, had also become a mentor, and more importantly a friend.