Mountain Clients

What Climbing Has Become

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

http://www.ukhttp://www.ehow.com/how_8184445_homemade-climbing-rocks.htmlclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=392890 The brave new world of climbing, bolting, chipping – watching paint dry.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=3311 What UK climbing has become – place your own bolt-protection (self-drilling bolts) where ever you like; when ever you like – bring any route down to your standard.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=487602 Not content with damaging; ruining Cheddar Gorge for traditional climbers, Avon Gorge soon to be ruined by the same British Mountaineering Council, Bolting-Legend… 

Dear Sir, it would appear that Mr Gibson has set out to allow all of us who lack natural talent the means to ascend the lines of some of his routes, although it would appear that he may have been insufficiently generous. I’m sure he won’t object if I fill in any awkward gaps with additional bolts to ensure the routes are Eurosafe; say a bolt every metre? JH Russell, Manchester. 

 http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=446843 ’We love the environment sooo much – we bolt it…’ BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA guides.

 http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=489536 Deliberate damage to unquarried rock by so-called climbers, frightened of their chosen sport. Can’t climb? Bolt!

 A climber a week died in Scotland during the winter of 2010. With a similar number of avoidable deaths in 2011. Is this acceptable? With the 2012 winter batch waiting in the wings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iipcKGgsg_Y&feature=related Abandoned by other – climbers.

Training for climbing outdoors – indoors?:   http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=4321 As G. Rimmer wrote to Dennis Gray, the then General Secretary at the so – called British Mountaineering Council (BMC/MMT): ‘I can make you loads-a-money, forget about access and all that rubbish…’ What climbing has become in an age of averice and greed. No wonder that on average, a -climber-a-week dies in Scotland each winter. Get trained by the – experts. And the definition of an expert is? http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=59419

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Winter Bouldering – What Climbing Has Become

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=487602 Brave new world of – climbing. Not content with damaging Cheddar Gorge for traditional climbers, the British Mountaineering Council’s Bolting-Legend, is now vampire-like looking at Avon Gorge. Can’t Climb? Bolt! 

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=446843 ’We love the environment sooo much – we bolt it.’ BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA guides.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=489536 Deliberate damage to unquarried rock by so – called climbers, frightened of their chosen sport. Can’t climb? Bolt!

Silly me, I thought it took place – outdoors. An excellent outdoor training aid, bouldering has taken-on a whole new meaning. http://www.thebmc.co.uk/News.aspx?id=4485 BMC backed – of course.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=486519 ‘Climbers’ claiming recent ascents of insignificant bouldering test-pieces that were used as training aids – decades ago. So insignificant, that climbers did not bother to record their training activities.

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Pete Livesey 1943 -1998 What Climbing Has Become

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

http://www.ehow.com/how_8184445_homemade-climbing-rocks.html The only way that climbing will reach Olympic Standards re: watching paint dry.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=446843 ’We love the environment sooo much – we bolt it.’ BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA guides.

There’s a certain irony in that 32 years after he made the first free-ascent of Clink (7a), in Trow Gill, the climb was – over-bolted (in 2004). There was of course, no way that Pete could have been ask for his opinion; his permission prior to the debacle, as he died in 1998. http://www.rockfax.com/databases/dates.php?crag=40 List of over-bolted trad climbs at Trow Gill. There are more than enough names on the enclosed list for the probable bolting-culprits to be identified. There is no further information as to how the remainder of the climbs at Trow Gill were – rigged, frigged and top-roped etc., etc, prior to a supposed ascent. 

Pete Livesey in 1972 and Anaud Petit in 2011 were/are capable of climbing all of the climbs listed at Trow Gill, without bolt protection.

In the mid-1980′s Pete telephoned me: “Hi Dennis in answer to your advert asking for information as to how many companies were written to by the British Mountaineering Council (Dennis Gray), telling them to change the content of their advertising, the ‘circular’ was sent to just – three companies.” The circular did not go to the Asssociation of British Mountain Guides (BMG – our qualification is your ‘guarantee’…), advertising eventually removed from High magazine by Trading Standards in 1997.

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Chance, Risk and Expert Accidents

Friday, November 4th, 2011

http://www.sais.gov.uk/about.asp Avalanche Expert: checking conditions below a huge Scottish Cornice – helmet safely tucked away.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Paramedic+left+paralysed+after+climbing+accident.-a0139019387 

 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Adventure+centre+boss+relieved+at+not+guilty+verdict.-a0139130065 Client paralised for life…

The organisation that supports the none wearing of protective head gear; safety helmets (now sponsored by probably the worse, Mammut, climbing rope (s) ever produced), is to collate (avoidable) climbing accidents. http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1099 

The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) is apparently http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Mix-up+that+left+a+climber+paralysed%3B+Wrong+people+let+go+on…-a0131927735 part of a new initiative – to collate climbing accidents. The wearing of helmets would, at a stroke, reduce the number of on average, 60 climbers a years killed or injured in avoidable UK climbing accidents. Chance, risk and accidents supports a picture (Internet connection above) shows an individual sat amongst fallen rocks of various sizes whilst his helmet sits safely in his rucksack (if he has a helmet). The none wearing of safety helmets and the practice of falling off rockfaces is condoned by the BMC (via so-called sports climbing). Flooding the UK climbing scene against the wishes of the vast majority of UK climbers with 10,000 expansion bolts in 2007 has not stopped accidents, fatal or otherwise. That fact that fatal accidents are happening on indoor climbing walls – beggars belief (helmets not mandatory – of course). To say nothing of pushing; advertising Mammut ropes which when used together as double half-ropes act like copulating vipers warping around each other thus increasing the risk of an accident.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=487230 To say nothing of showing incorrect belaying practice (2012) to the general public.

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Adventuremark – Adventure Activities Association Ltd (BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA) aka AALA

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Safety Rope merely clipped into the front of the harness:  Apparently, the new adventure gold standard in outdoor pursuits is – Adventuremark. Interstingly, an example of the ‘high standard’ of participation in the organisation is shown to potential clients in one of its adverting pictures. At the proposed abolishing of the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (difficult to see the difference  between AALA and Adventuremark) under who’s guidance, avoidable, accidents in outdoor pursuits continued to happen, attention is now directed at – Adventuremark.  http://www.adventuremark.co.uk/ In the adverting picture, a young girl is being  lowered down a rock wall near a lake, her safety rope is merely clipped to the front of her harness via a karabiner (they test one in a batch). It is common knowledge, or should be, that the safety rope should be tied through the main sit-harness as per the manufactures instructions – and not merely to the front of the harness via a karabiner. The girl, the client, is totally oblivious to the danger that she could be in. Similar shoddy instruction is the very reason that the AALA was originally set-up after the Lyme Bay Disaster in 1993 when four young canoeists avoidably drowned.

The Supervisor of Adventuremark: Is the Adventure Activities Association Ltd: The Directors of which are -BMG/ UIAGM / IFMGA.  http://www.adventureactivityassociates.co.uk/aboutus-detail.php?id=1 The gold-standard of the re-placement for the AALA already established… The safety record when it comes to BMG/ UIAGM/IFMGA clients are well and truely covered in this web-site and elsewhere on the Internet. Whilst the instructors, with the desired qualities and vast experience who lost there jobs (approximately 600 since 1996) in outdoor pursuits will not benefit from this new arrangement, BMG and AMI instructors will continue to flourish – regardless of accidents to clients. Langmuir: ‘It is not intended that those instructors with the desired qualities and experience etc., should be denied employment in outdoor pursuits…’ Apparently, nothing is going to change.

Potential clients beware. Me, with all of my experience – I am not qualified to comment. http://www.adventureactivityassociates.co.uk/accreditation/scheme-approval.php

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Post Course Euphoria

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

The Westploration climbing / mountaineering courses were very successful, so much so, that every so often a client would approach me by mail some weeks after they had returned home after two weeks in Chamonix, for example, regarding: selling his business; throwing in his mini-bus and working with me. I would not reply because I knew that another letter would arrive two or three weeks later: ‘In the cold light of day, back home, I have thought about my original request again and decided to stay put. I hope that I have not inconvenienced you.’ The two week courses were quite condensed, rock-climbing, crevasse rescue, ice-climbing, glacier travel, mountaineering, bivouacking and finally, an ascent of the highest mountain around. In Chamonix that would be Mont Blanc. Switzerland the Matterhorn, in East Africa, Kilimanjaro.

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Confusion Over Climbing Knots

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

Confusion over safety knots: There appears to be a lot of disinformation on the Internet – apparent new-comers to climbing asking basic questions regarding the knots used in climbing: BMC (European) Death Knot, Edwards Bowline, what climbing has become when difficult to tie or down-right unsafe knots are introduced into the sport (alongside perfectly acceptable; safe knots: figure-of-eight, double-fishermans etc) for newcomers to sample; risk their lives on, become confused over: http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=4;   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-sided_overhand_bend

The figure-of-eight knot (a perfectly safe knot): become’s useless when it is being employed (in 2011) to tie the main rope (s) via a karabiner to the front of the harness even on long, alpine routes instead of the safety rope being tied through the harness properly as per the manufacturers directions. As if the death-toll in the alps (Scotland) each year was not high enough. The Bowline, Tarbuck and the Reef knots became redundant years ago. http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=58088 Yes, double check your equipment: I was watching (amongst a small crowd of admirers) the brightly-coloured smooth climbing guide as he stopped to make a belay some 70ft of the ground at Gailands crag in Chamonix. As he reached up to secure the rope to a belay – his harness fell down around his ankles. You couldn’t make it up.

The question regarding the Death Knot is will it be less likely to jam when the abseil rope is retrieved. It will obviously not jam in a wide crack – it will jam if it falls into a narrow crack. The knot that the Death Knot is trying to replace, the Double Fisherman’s, is slightly, more bulky, they will both jam in features large and small. There is a probability of jamming for both of them. But, there has never been an abseiling death from a Double Fisherman failing in itself if tied properly. Death Knots have unravelled ending in fatalities. Two ropes are found next to the body with evidence of a knot nowhere to be seen. The Death Knot can just unravels. Be afraid; be very afraid.

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Mountain Pictures

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

TV Mountain: http://www.tvmountain.com/video/alpinisme/6958-tour-ronde-face-nord.html#.ToyS2smhNIE.facebook  http://xianblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/obituary-walter-bonatti

Carn Vellen should have been left to a better climber who does not need bolts: Arnaud Petit…what trad climbing has become. http://xianblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/obituary-walter-bonatti/

 http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=416516 What climbing has become…

What climbing has become – speed-climbing 2011.   http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11_03/climbing1411_442x650.jpg Mm, I’d rather watch paint dry.

 http://mountainclients.typepad.com/photos/the_professionals/mer_de_glace.html 

Picture Gallery:   http://www.spanishhighs.co.uk/camino-del-rey.html 

Photo’s   http://mountainclients.typepad.com/photos/the_professionals/index.html

Photo’s   http://mountainclients.typepad.com/photos/alps/index.html

 Photo’s   http://mountainclients.typepad.com/photos/bicentenary_ascent/index.html

 Video North Face Tour Ronde: http://www.tvmountain.com/video/alpinisme/6958-tour-ronde-face-nord.html#.ToyS2smhNIE.facebook First climbed by a double-leg amputee (Norman Croucher) in June, 1983.

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Bi-Centenery Ascent of Mont Blanc 1986

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

http://mountainclients.typepad.com/photos/bicentenary_ascent/index.html Photo’s taken during the 200th anniversary of the first ascent of Mont Blanc.

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Walter Bonatti 22 June 1930/13 Sept 2011

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

 The finest climber who ever lived sadly died on the 13th September, 2011 whilst in Rome. A fine, honest man, Walter Bonatti (painting by Dennis Morrod, 1986) was not only a brilliant mountaineer but also a staunch defender of ‘traditional’ climbing. Bonatti was vilified for 50 years (1954-2000) by those (jealous) who should have known better. In 1961, he wrote: : ‘Climbing is a shining light on the scales of human values’, and yet, in 1965 he stopped extreme climbing. He leaves behind a legacy of extreme climbs some of which, have been / are being ‘over-bolted’ by lesser climbers. His ‘swan song’ in 1965 was a winter ascent of a new route; a direct line on the North Face of the Matterhorn – solo.

On the 4 June, 2010, Dingus Milktoast (Internet name) wrote: ’Two professional mountain guides abandoned Bonatti and a Sherpa to their fate, Bonatti, who in fact, had enhanced their chance of succeeding on K2 on that final day***. I do not want anyone to tell me about the ethics of some European mountain guides when it comes to whom they might abandon; leave behind.’ It is no wonder that Bonatti resigned from the Courmayour Guides Office; the UIAGM. ***Bonatti and a sherpa had carried extra oxygen to the expeditions final camp – not finding the tent (it had been deliberately moved) he and the Sherpa stayed out all night descending next morning the oxygen (some of which Bonatti was acussed of using – without a regulator?) was left in position for the summit pair Larcedelli and Campagnone. Their lies on the their return to Base-camp caused Bonatti heart-ache for the next 50 years.

Bonatti also had to live with stupid comments about him: On page 242 in the 1981 edition of Quest for Adventure and on page 343 in the 1982 edition by Chris Bonington: ‘He still climbs, but with a small group of close friends. In many ways he is a sad and lonely man. The problem with chasing the extreme in risk and physical adventure is that the solace it gives is ephemeral.’ No doubt Bonatti was very sad – but at the demise of the sport to which he had given so much.

On the 25th October, 2011, I visited Rome, the Italian city in which Walter Bonatti died… 

http://sweclimber.wordpress.com/climbing/stories/k2-bonatti  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/opinion/exploits-now-not-so-daring.html?_r=2&ref=europe

http://www.tvmountain.com/video/alpinisme/7681-walter-bonatti-piolets-d-or.html

 Vincendon & Henry, 1957:     http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0665-martyrs-of-mont-blanc/ 

 http://www.planetmountain.com/english/news/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=38571 Walter’s well attended funeral.

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