Trad climbing’s survival in a material world, by Stevie umpayed Haston.

this rack weighs about 8kg

Trad climbing is certainly doomed from what I have seen lately, the once and only way to climb is now just a circus side show! The free climbing ethic grew very slowly over many years until it became established in its proper form in the 1970s, there were many fight arguments and discussions along the way. There were also great climbers and some great impassioned ascents that showed that it was all possible. Out of the many examples I could use, I will highlight the Boulder climbers of the seventies as thee great standard. I do this because they are documented and where written about in great detail and I also know that most of it is true. So the ethic was basically to start at the bottom and make your way to the top with out hanging on gear or using it in any other way. Simple, very, very simple! If you fell off or had a slip or touched something it was called cheating and you had to start again, simple! If you had a lot of gear in or used a rope to protect you from above the ascent was invalidated, simple. One climber a man who inspired me and others, called screwing up on climbs tainting, as in your ascent was tainted. I always thought this term was perfect? These rules (you cant have games without rules) were established by the elite and where adhered to -maybe, sometimes, and certainly not always by trad climbers.  The problem with this ethic came about with the escalating standards and the normal pressures of life, and worse nowadays the thirst for harder routes and controversy in magazines and on the internet. Today a discussion will take place on the internet about Trad climbing by sports climbers, or idiots or both!

The inconvenience of complicated trad climbing often precludes enjoyment and that’s why people take short cuts. Probably every body takes short cuts but and it’s a very big but some of the great trad routes have been done from the ground. You only need to think of Yuji on Salathe with two falls! When you purposely put all the gear in a complicated and hard to protect trad route it’s called cheating! The amount of nonsense I have read recently about this is astounding! In Indian Creek and most of America the ethic for cracks is strict, you must place all your gear on lead or it’s not an ascent. Some people only pay lip service to this but strict ethics have been used (apart from practising on many of the trophy routes, think Cobra Crack and the Meltdown. Examples of hard to protect climbs are easy to find, in Britain full racks of 3 sets of friends plus wires makes the going very hard. A crucial hard to spot placement changes the grade of a climb dramatically. A heavy rack makes the climbing of strenuous routes very much harder. A big rack may weigh 8kgs!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The exclamation marks are for some people on internet forums who don’t understand that a rack can affect the grade of a route!!!!!!!!!!!!  Try a hard rout with 8kgs extra! Jibé and Raboutou used to say that 200grams used to affect how they climbed. I once did a hard offwidth in the desert on a tower with a big rack (8kgs) and collapsed on the summit for half an hour. Inconvenience is just that, its inconvenient. It’s fairly inconvenient to wait four years for the Olympics, or to wait for good powder or good ice, but that’s how it goes.
Many good climbers bend ethics or rules (I have numerous times) but if Trad climbing is to survive we need to at least pay lip service to placing gear. In Britain Mcleod places his gear on his final leads, many people do not, if you make the difference you will understand! And so why do you think he does that because it’s easier or harder? And yes it might be a little inconvenient to do a very hard trad route on Ben Nevis or use good ethics on El Cap but some people do, so please make the difference.

A few things the internet has got wrong!

They accept any old shit because it’s free!

Not checking!

Talking about stuff when you don’t know what you are talking about! This last one could be equally levelled at presidents of the USA.

I will leave you with something a bit more refreshing and upbeat but is on the same lines. There is a sport called Free Diving and in it, the Divers recognise different categories of dive, because lets face it they are different! So we have the most sensational which is the deepest dive but using weights, this draws the most interest, it isn’t the hardest, its just got the biggest numbers. Then we have another category which doesn’t use fins or a wet suit, this you might be tempted to think is purer, and I might be tempted to agree. So if you really want to be cheered up by human performance, click onto William Trubridge free diving the arch in Egypt. Notice there is a guy with tanks, Its 50 meters down, 33 meters across, and 50 meters up. Now that’s free.  And I’m off free diving now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrXQbucZUDA

Century crack three, by Stevie Haston.

So here’s a photo of a young climber being greedy and making a mess! Two people came onto my Blog last night from Iraq, and I was just wondering whom you were. A lot of people come onto my blog and don’t get it, and when they cant find the stupidity they seek, they don’t come again. That’s no loss to me. Some people come to my Blog and actually read, and gain something, which is a bit of plus. There are an estimated 4.5 million orphans in Iraq! The two blips out of the air-waves from Iraq, I guess you are soldiers, who are climbers also, if you are reading this, hello from me, and Laurence, and my three grandchildren. When I saw your blips I was very sad, sad for you, but very sad for Iraq, and horrified at the appalling list of innocent dead and injured. Peace to all.

Master bakers have opinions too, by Stevie Haston.

I miss being in Italy, but its nice to be at home. Cats, and my climbing partner, a garden; and living without car noise! One of the great things about being home is the climbing, my favorite cliff is here, but it is upside down, and my old warm-ups are 8a. I have been there three times since coming back, and months since I went climbing, so it was a surprise to lead one of them, and so did Laurence. Wow, I can call myself a climber again, my legs were like bursting sausages  and I am verry-heavyyyy! Went on a project, cos I felt a bit chuffed, and was brought back to reality, couldn’t do nothing, I mean nothing, Decided I am less than rubbish, will try again when ego has repaired itself. I love climbing, love running, love caving and swimming, but you cant do them all very well at the same time. It's automn here, the leaves are turning, it's blue, blue, blue, and I am happy. 

The god of small gifts, by Stevie Haston.

Young Jamie in Stevie's secret chamber.

Taking pleasure from other peoples enjoyment is one of the more groovy things in my life.  Dave our Electrician and his son did a bit of caving with us and liked it, it was all Laurence’s idea. Over the years we and I separately have helped more than a few kids start caving and climbing. Caving is so easy for them to understand and love and its very evident that older people start to loose the ease of liking caving. The photos you see are in a my little village cave, the first part of which has been vandalized and the second bit is through a gate and is still nearly pristine. One little chamber was discovered by me and it was an odd moment to think that in all those ions of time it had waited patiently for me to stubble across it. Hope you like the photos, you would have to have something severely wrong with you to not like them after all. Some of the formations in the cave are aragonite crystals and flowers, there are cave pearls and a downward spiralling series that looks like Areo-chocolate but makes you feel like you are in the small intestine of a dragon with colon cancer.

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Running Stuff, Lizzy Hawker by Stevie G.L.F Haston

Just read that Lizzy Hawker is going to do the Great Himalayan trail, wish I was going it looks Brill! At about 1,700km, its long, had a peek at their web site and I have been in about half of it, looks like a great adventure for Lizzy and wish her luck. Lizzy won the Mont Blanc trail in september, and followed it a month later with a 24hr record of 247km. Cheered me up thinking about her great form and this majestic run that traverses Nepal from one end to the other. I don't have a photo of Lizzy unfortunately so you will have to do with this one of a guy under Lhotse south face,  running higher than the Mont Blanc and slower than a snail. Namaste.

Running stuff, ‘three swift lads’, by Stevie Haston.

A running pal told me I was getting senile and left out the most important fact about Steve Jones, so I will add it. Steve Jones still holds the British marathon record! 2hrs 7mins is still the fastest time a Brit can do a Greek distance and the most important thing about Steve’s record for the man himself, is that he shouldn’t have it, it should be bettered! Steve Jones was (still is?) 5 feet 10 inches and his weight was (is?) 62kgs, he now lives in Colorado and helps people run swiftly. The whole thing about my blog was really to high light how at a tender age I had some very good athletes to impress me. When I think back to those years and the preceding ones it is even more impressive that people did so well with so little. Today standards have improved, but it is very different, maybe not as romantic. Having said that the marathon is very exciting at the moment, is not it? The continuing question of how fast it can go spins my head. There are 1970s winning times for 10,000 meters in alotta fast marathons. Anyway thanks ‘taffy’ for phoning me up, and correcting my omission. 

Running stuff, ‘Three swift lads’, by Stevie Haston.

Just chatting about running sometimes seems to be running. Anyway ain't done much jogging, slow shuffling, or running but keep thinking about it, which isn’t the same either. I am a bit crook, have a gammy abductor which I have made worse by climbing at my favourite crag. I have in fact worked with my injury, doing building work, run up my hill, gone swimming and diving, caving too, and they all hurt. Cycling is ok which shows you the value of having a pushbike. Anyway was thinking about three of my running heroes this week so I thought I’d talk a bit about them and my injury will magically heal.

Steve Jones a South Wales likely lad had the world record marathon time for a while and reportedly showed very little mercy in his training. It was a bit of a shock for people at the time as Steve enjoyed a pint or three and seemed to have came out of nowhere. He came of course from being a tough lad who wasn’t scared of getting stuck in. Anyway he brought up the fact (or some one did) that in 1984 there were 25 sub 2hrs 15mins marathons, and in 2009 there was just 1! That’s pretty funny, or sick, or indicative, or something! 1984 Orwell’s year! So another lad I was thinking about was Kenny Stuart, I saw this lad run a record Snowdon race which I think still stands to this day. I had pretensions as an aspirant runner in those days but Kenny  payed put to them, I basically gave up. He was astounding, I mean it, his speed going up was murderous, him and another guy but when he turned around it was a hurricane. A few years later he did a 2hr 11mins marathon without of course to days benefits and easy options. He retired shortly after because he got sick one of my Lake District buddies told me. Kenny was from the Lakes like my other inspiration and shows you what little mountains and quite village life can turn out. Anyway what can you say about Billy Bland! The strongest of the Blands, our Billy always springs into my mind on a long run, especially when I am flagging, I see him scrutinising my weakness, and then he kindly says ‘come along now, get a move on’, it never fails. Billy is the course record holder for Britain’s best little round the Bob Grahame and again it was done along time ago. I often wonder what he could do in the Tor de Geants or could’ve done, I should say. Billy had a 2hr 15 marathon I think. Kenny Stuart weighed I think 50 kg for 5 foot five and Billy weighed nothing at all. They weren’t white Russians, they were white Kenyans. There you go Float like butterfly, fly like a swift.