Well yesterday was a CWA Training at Climb Caledonia in Inverness with Pt 2 on thursday for HOL students from UHI WHC. Today and tomorrow owing to a cancellation I have free with the family but with the wind trying to do a big bad wolf on our house today I've no regrets about that one!
Saw that Dane had posted a short modern piece by Mark Twight on his blog. Ethics to aspire to or pie in the sky? I climb when I can and how I want. Oxygen would be cheating for me. If I couldn't do it it without It would be better to try something else (and more interesting and adventurous for me).
Alex Roddie's love affair with the birth of British Mountaineering is fascinating to follow. If you want a good read try his book but his blog throws up interesting historical gems. Did you know that the modern use of crampons is actually a resurgence in their popularity rather than their first appearance? Read on on Alex's blog and this article from Alpinist on Oscar Eckenstein.
Bullock has been reminding himself of what it means to be a winter climber again after a lecture tour: http://nickbullock-climber.co.uk and spotted this wee vid of what looks mucky, peaty, loose and vegetated enough to be a fine Scottish winter route - but its in New Hampshire!
6 comments:
Thanks for the mention Alan! Great to hear my ramblings are proving interesting.
Hi Alex, I'd long been interested in Oscar E and collect old Guidebooks and Instructional books- the Badminton and GWYs Mountaincraft have always fascinated me so your 'Progress' in Mountaineering is always of interest.
Hi Alan
Just a further comment regarding Eckenstein and his formulation of the modern crampon. Interestingly, it was common for climbers in the Lake District between the wars chose to use crampons selectively. When climbing in Britain they would use nails, but on trips to the Alps, crampons. The impecunious Kendalians Sid and Jammy Cross made their own crampons for trips abroad, but never used them in the Lakes! I've no idea whether this attitude was prevalent throughout the UK, but Sid thought most Lakeland climbers acted as he did.
Cheers,
Col
Got a copy of both of those books--had Badminton's for a while but only just managed to obtain GWY's Mountain Craft. It is indeed fascinating stuff!
Col, it sounds like Sid and Jammy would have been burnt at the stake if they had climbed in Aberdeenshire where the crampon was last accepted as fair game for Scottish Winter.
Yes, I think you're right Alan! I suspect some sort of 'moral' sporting double standard operated, possibly at the subconscious level, whereby foreign mountains were regarded as fair game for such 'aids' whereas they were unacceptable for British hills (in much the same way there are some folk today who are happy to clip bolts abroad but baulk at the notion on British rock). On the other hand, nails were clearly very effective in British conditions if wielded by skilled practitioners: Sid and Jammy made the first ascent of Bowfell Buttress (now V, 6) in the winter of '37/38 and Norman Collie did Steep Gill (V, 5) as early as 1891! I know the Aberdeenshire School were very fond of their nails, some famously experimenting with their strap-on Tricounis ('Trampons') as late as the '80s, but perhaps less well known is that the Lakeland lot had presaged this in the late 30s with The 'Hargreaves' Nail' (named after its inventor the ace inter-war climber Albert ('AT') Hargreaves. This was an innovative screw-in toothed metal plate, similar to a tricouni, attached to a boot sole by two screws. You could pattern an entire boot this way so it resembled nothing so much as a a very aggressive metal Vibram sole. I saw the late Jammy Cross's pair of Hargeaves-nail boots and they certainly looked fearsomely effective for mixed - altho' I think I'll personally stick with a pair of G20s!
Cheers,
Col
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