PREDICTIONS Crystal Ball
What does the future hold? We polished our crystal ball and invited the new BMC ambassadors to gaze into it.
LONG-DISTANCE WALKER
Chris Townsend
Age: 64 @townsendoutdoor
2013 HIGHLIGHT:I
Walking the Scottish watershed and making the Cairngorms in Winter fi lm with Terry Abraham.
IN 5 YEARS:I
More people take up hill walking. Hopefully progress on access rights and more protection for wild areas. Or, maybe not…
IN 25 YEARS:I
Walking becomes much easier and more popular after the development of auto-navigation devices. Floating rucksacks follow behind you, and England and Wales see Scottish-style access legislation.
IN 70 YEARS:I
Complete protection, restoration and expansion of wild land. Well, I can dream…
ADVENTURE CLIMBER
Hazel Findlay
Age: 24 @hazel_fi ndlay
2013 HIGHLIGHT:I
Climbing Freerider and the Final Frontier in Yosemite, trad climbing in South Africa and going back to Morocco.
IN 5 YEARS:I
We’ll be using modern technology to aid adventure: quadcopters, iPhones, satphones. There will probably be an app to rescue you from a crevasse.
IN 25 YEARS:I
Legions of boulderers realise they’ve been wasting their lives at the climbing wall and unleash themselves on to trad routes, resulting in the hardest grades ever seen, 20 metres above an RP. All the people who used to trad climb have taken up alpi-solo-ba kicks
ase ski to get their -sk s, combining the scariest
elements of alpine climbing, base jumping, free soloing and skiing.
IN 70 YEARS:I
We'll have probably exterminated ourselves, so it's not worth worrying too much.
Were they right? ALPINE CLIMBER
Calum Muskett
Age: 20 @CalumMuskett
2013 HIGHLIGHT:I
Paciencia: a really wild rock route on the North Face of the Eiger.
IN 5 YEARS:I
Faster repeats of harder alpine rock and mixed routes. Top-end diffi culty free climbs like those found on El Cap will fi nd their way to more remote mountain areas. There’s a move away from speed walking up north faces.
IN 25 YEARS:I
Capsule style becomes obsolete in favour of the single-push style as hordes of young climbers discover that hauling and aid climbing is just very slow. Glob lal warming stabilises Patagonian weather, leading to stacks of diffi cult free routes. I wish.
IN 70 YEARS:I
A renaissance of alpine routes from the 1980s as the modern generation of climbers realise just how nuts their great gra were. To
anddad ommy C his Dawn Wall project.
See you back here in 70 years to fi nd out more.
62 | 70TH ANNIVERSARY | FOR BRITISH CLIMBING AND WALKING SINCE 1944 2013 HIGHLIGHT:I
My thirdWorld Youth Championships fi nal in a row in Canada, and also doing my fi rst-ever trad route.
IN 5 YEARS:I
Standards continue to rise; top athletes become younger and stronger. Another Olympics bid surfaces, with ideas such as relay, rhythmic or synchronised climbing.
IN 25 YEARS:I
More disciplines joiin the formal comp c
petitive scene,
combining gymnastics, dancing and ninja warrior styles. The demand for athletes to do what is thought of as impossible will increase, with route setters becoming more eccentric. Double dynos on routes are passé.
IN 70 YEARS:I ds Caldwell frees
Climbing will bemore mainstream and opportunities to compete on these adventure-based, ice climbing, dry tooling, hanging structures will be easily available. Competitors will be allowed to do anything it takes, using specialised tools to get to the top; Gladiators meets The Hunger Games.
COMPETITION CLIMBER
Molly Thompson Smith
Age: 16 @Mollytheclimber
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100