Mountain Clients

Sports Climbing New Olympic Sport? (16 Dec 2007)

For the exponents of 'watching paint dry' there apparently, is to be a new Olympic Sport - Sports Climbing - so-called. Yes, in 2020, Sports Climbing is to be introduced another International competition the British will never win - no Gold Medals there then. Sports climbers apparently, are latant tradional climbers with - no balls. Fixed, pre placed protection is a must for climbers without the neck for real climbing. No doubt, the BMC's new 'Leaders ladders' will play a prominant part in this new, Olympic sport. It is to be hoped, that the Sports Climbing contestants can cope; survive the inevitable drug-testing.

Internet References (24 Jan 2007)

Wholesale advertising by the British Mountaineering Council along with the Sports Council's able assistance - Sport for All - enticing young people into climbing - the quick way, is one of the main reasons for the increase in climbing participation and therefore, the increase in fatal climbing accidents - 2007 appears to be one of the worst Scottish winter mountaineering tragedies - in the making: 'The question has just been asked on rockfax (23 January 2007) - do older climbers believe that there are more climbing accidents now?' Yes there certainly are - due to the above mentioned points - too much enticement.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=10&years=2008 

http://groups.msn.com/SafetyInformationforMountainClients/internetreferences.msnw

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2813287.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/615529.stm

Broken Climbing Harness (9 Nov 2006)

Apparently, there is shock and horror (November 2006) over the fact that a climbing harness broke, plunging one of America's finest climbers to his death. Climbing harnesses have broken before and climbers have 'fallen-out-of' their climbing 'sit harnesses'. But it mattered not and climbers have continued to refuse to follow the harness manufacturer's guidelines. After this latest fatality, climbers will continue to climb in a potentially dangerous manner. It matters not, that the sport has its own inherent dangers, as if that was not enough, dangerous practices will continue. Each evening thousands of young British climbers attatch themselves to the 'belay loop' on their harness (the loop that broke recently) whilst top-rope climbing and not, as per the manufacturers instructions, through the harness properly. What has the representative but would be governing body of British climbing done about this suicidal practice over the years? Nothing...

An additional, simple sling, tied around the waist and into the abseil devise would have saved a life. Infact, less strain would have come onto the faulty, nylon loop, and it would not have broken. An additional safety rope tied through the harness (as per the manufacturers instructions) would also have saved a life. It is not rocket science.

Vixen Tor - Shock

28 February, 2005: Apparently, there is 'shock and anger' at the Ramblers Association over the descision of the Dartmoor Planing Inspectrate to keep an access ban at Vixtor Tor. Not the best-man-won no, shock and anger. Perhaps if the Association had not alighned itself with the British Mountaineering Council in this protest it might have done better; there might have been different outcome.

Talk about David and Goliath, a lone woman and her son against the machinations - freedom ro roam - regardless of who's land we trample over. That these Association's (with apparently nothing better to do) will continue (supported by tax-payers - wasting taxpayers money) to put pressure on this woman is a disgrace.

Bill Wilson (26 Dec 2004)

Bill Wilson bill.wilson@minorplanet.com on the 30 September, 2003, wrote to me via e-mail: 'Mr Rupar is quite obviously a racist Bigot who's comments could not possibly be taken seriously, given his embedded hatred of the english. Let us hope that if he still braves the hills that a similare fate does not befall him..' Mr Rupar, a qualified avalcnche expert had commented that: 'Whilst it is understandable that inexperienced climbers become involved in avalanches, experienced climbers who are involved in avalanches must be either myopic, English or a combination of both...'

Risk Acknowledgement (17 May 2004)

On the 12 February, 2004 Lyndon Gill wrote in Rockfax - Bloody Scouts Need Rescuing: ' I agree that there has been a fair amount of cronyism in professional guiding and instructing. There is still some evidence around today especially relating to the criticism levelled at amateur groups by certain professionals.

As you point out the British Mountain Guides 'safety guarantees' previous to 1997 was highly erronious. More so the fact the BMC published such advertisements. Misleading and dishonest in the highest degree. Cronyism at its worse.

What is needed is a dose of realism. Life is full of risks. We carry on just the same. Participants need, especially new participants, the opportunity to acknowledge the very real risks that exist in the mountains. If society realises they accept those risks and proceeded regardless it is far more understandable that if the impression is given than if they were led into the lions den.

Look at the low level qualifications there is no requirement for certified leaders to understand risk acknowledgement, its value or terminology...'

Mr Gill was advocating the value of risk acknowledgement and the requirement for person responsibiliy - from all participants... I agree with Mr Gill completely.

What Sort of F***ing Idiot Are You? (6 Mar 2006)

Was the title of the unsolicited e-mail received from Tim Howard at 14:36 on the 23 February, 2004: ´You aver, without advanced argument or evidence, that all the incidents referred to on your web page ¨Are the Guides to blame?¨ were ´avoidable´ even though, in some cases, properly constituted public enquiries came to the opposite conclusion. The suggestion on your homepage that you ¨surrender responsibility¨ to a guide whose services you hire is simply daft (Reinhold Messner´s words in fact - not mine so Reinhold also must also be 'a f***ing idiot' in Tim Howards, myopic world) I have no idea (correct) what sense of injustice or inadequacy drives you to publish such rubbish but suggest that you take the site down before people start laughing at you.´ If publishing rubbish were a criteria for - taking down a website, then the pro bolting BMC's website would have disappeared long ago. Tim (what sort of f***ing Idiot are you) Howard of course, must therefore agree totally (if the idiot had half-a-brain) with the recent:  'properly constituted public' - Hutton Enquiry even though, the vast majority of the British public think it was a government white-wash (including the powerful magazine - Private Eye). Having sampled the calibre of Tim Howards language/vocabulary thus far, it is quite obvious that any attempt at 'advancing an argument' with the likes of him, would be totally pointless anyway...

Walter Bonatti - Must Read Book

Walter Bonatti's latest Book: 'The Mountains of My Life', is a must-read for genuin climbers / mountaineers.

The Enticement of Children to Rock Climb (1 Dec 2003)

After years of enticing young peolpe (no lower age limit) to sample climbing on artificial climbing walls and rock climbing outdoors, the BMC isnow backpeddling on its responsibility to those young persons. After advertising aimed at youngsters, the BMC then allowed them to be endangered (see any climbing competition for young people) by allowing them to climb without wearing correct head protection. According to visitors to the BMC sponsored, Rockfax website (Dec 2003).

Shock: Climber cuts partners rope (20 Oct 2003)

Shock and horror was expressed today (20 Oct 2003) when it was revealed that the film: Touching the Void was finally to be released. Apparently,it has been deemed acceptable in certain climbing quarters, in fact by the climbing establishment as a whole, for a climber to deliberately - cut his already injured comrades rope and - get away with it. It is to be hoped that the film finally shows just how, one positions a sharp knife, so as to have it accessible even in the direst situation...

Mount Everest - 50 Years On (9 Jul 2003)

During the 50th Anniversary (2003) celebrations of the first ascent of Mount Everest by a New Zealand climber and a Nepalese Sherpa, the British press laughed in the face of British mountaineering: 'No One Climbs Everest. British Mountaineers celebrate Coronation By Staying At Home. As dawn broke over the Himalayas, an astonished scene greeted the world's media.

For the first time in living memory, no one climbed Everest for an entire day. Said veteran guide Sherpa Howard, "It was eerie. The great peak towered above us, with not a single climber in sight." Not a single British climber could be seen standing on the summit of the world's highest mountain (yet again) waving a Union jack and throwing away an empty lager can.'

Trouble at the top - Mount Everest 1953/03 (26 May 2003)

'Trouble at the top,' So wrote Stephen Venables in The Sunday Times, May 25, 2003: 'Everest 'altitude tourists' have excelled themselves in crass behaviour on this great anniversary.'   50 years after the first ascent of Everest and this majestic mountain has been brought to its knees by trophy hunters attracted to the mountain by mountain guides greedy for money and dare I say, public recognision. Chomalungma has become the highest toilet in the world since the first ascent in 1953 along with frozen human remains for all to see and disacrded, yellow oxygen cylinders marking the way.

The Scouts Association - Be Prepared... (29 Jan 2003)

"The Scouts committee of the Council (in 2002) believes that they are in grave risk from an outside body imposing regulatory restrictions upon them." Step forward, the BMC and the BMG...  The Scouts Association should - Be Prepared, for an increased level of accidents to its young members. 100´s of 1,000´s of Scouts now (January 2003) have to take their Outdoor Pursuit courses with ´outside providers´ (authorised by the BMC/BMG lead - AALA of course) thanks to the machinations of the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) and the supposedly, autonomous - Association of British Mountain Guides (BMG) an - outside provider)... The Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) should also profit quite nicely from these new - regulatory restrictions that have indeed been placed upon the Scouts Association. See also: Scouts Association - in this site.

http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/facts/pdfs/fs120084.pdf

http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/facts/pdfs/fs120086.pdf

Climbing Journalism v Press Jornalists (16 Jan 2003)

On Friday, 1st of December, 2000, I received an email from a press jornalist who had written to Geoff Birtles (pointing out inaccuracies in climbing journalism) who had printed an article by Joe Simpson who castigated press jornalists for the inaccuracy of their journalism.

In response to the journalist email, apparently, Geoff Birtles (Editor of High Mountain Sport)had replied in quite an abusive manner (press journalist): ´Seldom have I met with such aggression from a fellow journalist. You do not know me from Adam, so comments about my character are gratuitous...It now seems academic to reply to Simpsons article, as your petulant display of loyalty (to the person in question) shows that you place this above any kind of commitment to the truth.'

What Would You Teach Children? (21 Dec 2002)

In a recent interview (Dec 2002) when asked the question:"What would you teach children", John Gill one of America´'s all time great climbers replied:"I do not believe in - recruiting climbers. Especially very young climbers. For me, climbing has to come from the inside, and not from some external stimulous. I would rather see a child grow into a young adult - uncontaminated by the current competitive climbing environment, and discover the joys of climbing in some other way...People still become climbers to flaunt rules and regulations! God bless them."

The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) ably assisted by the British Sports Council, has / is still doing the very opposite to Gill's sensible comments regarding enticing young / very young people into the (potentially dangerous) sport of climbing. 

Heinrich Harrer SS Officer (16 Jun 2003)

On the 21 November, 2002, British climbers attended a talk by Heinrich Harrer the ex-Nazi SS Officer (membership number 6307081) who had been invited to give a discourse by the Royal Geographical Society. For fifty years, Harrer refused to admit his involvement with the German nazi Schutstaffel and the NSDAP, the Nazi Party. Certainly, he makes no mention whatsoever of his Nazi past in his first book: The White Spider.

Harrer is of course not the first climber with Nazi involvement in his past; to have been feted by the British climbing establishment. Anderl Heckmair with whom Harrer made the first ascent of the North face of the Eiger with financial assistance from the Nazi Party, was invited; was the guest of 'honour' at Plas-y-Brenin in 1984 by the BMC, as a guest of the - BMG, Association of British Mountain Guides. Both of them, continued to work for the Nazi Party as mountain (SS) troop's instructors even though, it was common knowledge in 1939 that the Nazi Party had banned all Jewish climbers from German climbing clubs. 

Low Altitude Sickness (6 Nov 2007)

Now this a new one. Apparently, climbers have been dying annually whilst climbing mountains below 20, 000ft from - low altitude sickness. This new revelation, idea, appeared in an unsoliced email from Patrick Kenny an Himalayan mountain guide on the 25 November, 2002: 'You can hardly call Kilimanjaro (19,380ft) atitude.' So there you have it. The dangers of altitude no longer exist at 19,380ft according to this high altitude specialist, expert (expert - a has-been, a drip under pressure).

He of course, climbed Mount Everest in 2000, as a working member of Himalayan Guides - IGO 8000, using - oxygen, fixed ropes and Sherpas to carry his gear, along with all the usual paraphibnalia that: '...real climbers would not require...,' Reinhold Messner, who at the Alpine Club Symposium on the 6th of March, 1999 said: 'I don't know to whom, or to which Gods, we should look too in the next few years to save - mountaineering.' Messner of course never used oxygen during his Himalayan climbs including two ascents of Everest, one of them the first solo ascent. Where as, Mr Kenny made full use of oxygen whilst on Everest.   

    

In a second unsoliced email Mr Kenny said he was: '...amazed and dumfounded....,' that I did not think that the organisation IGO 8000 were the finest thing since sliced bread. Many IGO clients wish that they had never set eyes on IGO 8000 advertising, their personal trips to Everest ruined in one way and another. As one Internet observer recently commented (2007): "IGO 8000 has proved to be - a failure.."    

UIAGM/IFMGA Alpine Accidents Sub-Committee (14 Apr 2002)

During its 1998 Conference in Bavaria on the 19-21 November, the UIAGM/IFMGA reported on the setting-up of an: Alpine Accidents sub-committee. The sub-committee formed in 1997, created a panel of 'experts' to review accidents. Apparently, Erich Gutgsell reported on the complex chain of events which occur after an accident. In trying to understand better this supposed chain of events, the sub-committee hopes to identify the best ways in which the UIAGM/IFMGA can serve the interests of - member associations and their guides. There was no mention whatsoever of clients who have been involved in - fatal accidents.

      Erich, wanted all member associations to identify an expert, to serve as a reviewer into accidents involving - guides. Once again, there was no mention of accidents involving - UIAGM/IFMGA - clients...

Abseiling is Dangerous (22 Dec 2001)

The January 2002 issue of High Mountain Sport (the official magazine of the British Mountaineering Council) contains an article by Andy Kilpatrick (mentioned elsewere in the same magazine as a new leading light in the British climbing establishment) in which, he states on page 66:
"Forget  all the old twaddle about joining ropes with reef knots and double fishermans, just go for the simple overhand knot..."

Abseiling is probably the the most dangerous aspect of climbing when, all of the equipment is stressed. Too many climbers have been killed whilst abseiling including, too many 'famous', very experienced climbers. To a man, they made a basic mistake - please don't make the mistake of following Andy Kilpatrick's potenbtially dangerous instructions...