Well I'm having a day off and spending it with Jane (its her birthday) and the kids (oh my go i have 2 don't I?!).
Lots of interesting stuff on the web though:
For the Glaswegian climbers amongst us- Dumbie's boulders under threat of a good clean up by the 'Cooncil'- if they do the same sort of job they did at Auchinstarry heaven help us: http://stonecountry.blogspot.fr/2012/07/requiem-for-boulders.html?spref=tw
Three Peaks Charity walks. have things gone too far? A lot of my colleagues make a living out of these events but I've only ever worked on 1 and I'm not comfortable with the whole experience. There are more interesting and arguably appropriate Challenges out there that don't put such pressure on the environment (especially round Wasdale).
Take a look at this from the BMC- http://www.thebmc.co.uk/three-peaks-challenge
and then poignantly this from Wasdale MRT- http://www.youtube.com/embed/_JmXrfr9_D4
The return of the Tricouni? http://rohantime.com/30615/trigs-a-gripping-idea/
This is great; Will Gadd on staying fit and Airports as a food cultural indicator. To paraphrase: 'Keep moving or die' - http://www.rockandice.com/news/2064-breathe-avoid-mcdonalds-will-gadds-wisdom-for-staying-fit
Big up to Nick Bullock and Andy Houseman on the 5th ascent (First British) of the Czech Direct on Denali- http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=67229
This pic of them on the route is mind blowing when you begin to conceive of the scale- http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150938404792732&set=a.10150341607677732.359228.711082731&type=1&theater
Steve House's account of an ascent with Scott Backes and Mark Twight is good in his book and this account of the Giri-Giri boys ascent gives a flavour of the route- http://c498469.r69.cf2.rackcdn.com/2009/24_Yokoyama_Denali_aaj2009_web.pdf
Final word on that one goes to Bullock's blog before leaving on the climb. His writing just keeps getting better, bring on the book in September- http://nickbullock-climber.co.uk/2012/05/06/living-life-true/
Lastly for today another excellent TEDX talk. Google have digitised 15 million books. 5million of these (giving 500 Billion words) can be analysed with an Ngram viewer. Want to learn about how often a word or phrase has been used historically? Want to see how this shows clearly something like censorship in Nazi Germany- crazy stuff:
2 comments:
I take your point about the three peak challenges Al but I must say in defence of The wooden Spoon (Childrens charity) for whom I do the Four Peaks Challenge every year, they take a very responsible approach.
Firstly, they now do NOT do Scafell Pike due to the sensitivity of Wasdale Valley, but do Helvellyn from Stiles car park instead.
There is a team of marshals who follow the last team off each mountain and lift all litter(Not just that left by the teams) Teams are instructed not to drop litter before they set off.
The Wooden Spoon make a contribution to the responsible authority for each mountain to help towards maintenance costs.
It is as you point out, a problem, but not all are irresponsible.
Alan Thomson.
Hi Alan, to was exactly your example that made me write the post. The Wooden Spoon go well out of their way to minimise impact. Avoiding Wasdale is an excellent idea. Unfortunately very few other organisations are so responsible.
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