Any Climbers Out There?

Little Rascal

Little Rascal

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For the Tilmanites:
Just wondered if there are any other climbers or mountaineers out there?

If so what do you climb and where?
Rock? Scottish Winter? Alps?
 
No longer, I am afraid; age, minor injuries, aches and pains all took their toll. Mainly rocvk and ice in Scotland, Northumberland, Lakes, with occasional forays to other parts of England, plus France, Switzerland, and Austria, and a brief winter experience in Southern Alps, NZ (great place, but one day is not enough.....).

Mme S in 1985;

Spring1985.jpg


I'd been climbing since the 60s, so I still miss it, but it ain't ever coming back, I'm afraid.
 
Bit like Sgeir I am afraid, several alpine seasons summer and winter Scottish and Welsh winters, lots of British rock all now a distant but fond memory as age and 20+ years of rugby have taken their toll. Love Tillmans books but not to be to dissparaging I was never a plodder up snow or any other slopes I read them more for the passages he undertook in later life to get to some remote locations rather than any mountaineering content.
 
petehb said:
Bit like Sgeir I am afraid, several alpine seasons summer and winter Scottish and Welsh winters, lots of British rock all now a distant but fond memory as age and 20+ years of rugby have taken their toll. Love Tillmans books but not to be to dissparaging I was never a plodder up snow or any other slopes I read them more for the passages he undertook in later life to get to some remote locations rather than any mountaineering content.
Click to expand...

Tilman was a mountaineer from a different age really, before the war and before frontpoints etc... I wonder what he would make of the Big Walling going on in Greenland now?

Still living where you do, you can always go up and sit on top of Valkyrie at the Roaches! :-)
 
My first climbing boots had Tricounis and Clinkers. A few years later, the 'hill boots' were Tuf Boots - Unconditionally Guaranteed for 6 Months. They typically lasted almost a fortnight in Skye, before the toes wore through on the gabbro. Never mind, the exchange pair would last through the rest of the season in Glencoe and The Ben.

My last were 'PA's - they're still somewhere in the loft, but I wouldn't be able to put 'em on now. Their predecessors were 'Empire Made' baseball boots - just the thing for 'padding' up the Etive Slabs.

We carried a big plastic bag, inside our hill sacs, when lugging gear into Coire Etchachan or the Shelter Stone, for bivvying should we be caught out on the summit plateau. Most of us had yellow mountain jackets with 'Wimpey' emblazoned across the shoulders. That was a wee while before multi-colour Goretex, at up-slope of £300 an item, became the norm.

That was the gear I first used, sailing.

'All our yesterdays.....'

:cool:
 
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Started climbing in 1975 and did alot of rockclimbing and winter climbing in my youth. Rediscovered climbing again when I was just under 50, lurching along in the Low E Grades at the moment ... Just wish work and sailing did'nt interfere with fitness plans ;-)
 
He'll probably have a pop at me for mentioning this, but Jimi is a genuinely modest person with some very creditable climbs under his belt. If I'm not mistaken, he has quite a few hard rock first ascents to his name.
 
As a yoof I did lots of pretty serious rock climbing - especially in N wales. I can still bring on a cold sweat by thinking about some of the loooong lead outs I sometimes found myself on. Some winter stuff in Scotland.

More recently climbing in Hell's Gate is a totally different experience - warm dry rock that is hardly ever touched by another climber and being bombed by lammergeyers, attacked by bees, and sticking your head over a ledge to see a snake looking back at you.

mainwall.jpg
 
Respect and admiration.

Anyone who has and still climbs on E grades impresses the heck out of me.
Also the Free Climbers are beyond belief with what, where, and how they climb.
I don’t really have a head for heights, did some basic stuff with a Marine Mountain Leader from Faslane Exped Dept in 79, fell off the Ben (saved by the rope) and the swine made me go round & do it again successfully this time.
But all you guys still climbing certainly have my respect. :)
 
"Plenty of untrodden sea cliffs in Shetland though... "

It depends what you mean by "untrodden". One of the main sources of protein in the more remote Shetland islands was young birds or eggs from the many nesting species on the sea cliffs. The islanders were extraordinarily good free (or nearly free) climbers. I doubt you'll find much that hasn't been climbed! The sea cliffs are spectacular, though, and so are the birds.

No, I'm not a climber.
 
I used to do a bit of climbing but nothing too special. I went right up to the South Stack cliffs (Anglesey) the other day, in a yacht. There was a team on Dream of White Horses and another further into Wen Zawn on a spectacular route I didn't know. The weather was perfect and the sun shone straight in, it was a beautiful sight.
 
Grew up on the British crags, now moved on to the Alps. Now mainly my own patch (Julian Alps, which I adore, because you'll see no-one all day), but in the past a lot in the western Alps and Switzerland. AC and CAI.
 
Living 5 minutes from Stanage in the Peak District it would be almost illegal not to be a climber. Nowadays, after many years, the problem is finding rock that isn't familiar although just returned from Northumberland which has some lovely rarely visited crags. Have driven to the Alps many times, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland etc, but find the journey now too much hassle and would rather go sailing.

Winter climbing is another thing altogether, every time I swear it's the ''last time'', but when the sun shines, the snow sparkles it's [almost] irresistable. Managed to avoid Scotland last winter though, the Lakes are much more convenient.
 
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