Give ‘em


enough rope… T


Has climbing become all about hopping onto the bus to the fi nishing line and getting the medal? Nick Bullock thinks that dreams shouldn’t be that easy.


o a growing number of people it seems that the only signifi cantly challenging mountains are those that come with an 8,000 metre label. The clients, for that is what they are, will have read about wondrous adventure,


and will have imagined themselves being on the edge of humanity as they pit themselves against a giant mountain and its weather. They will have also hoped to reach new levels of personal achievement, and then to return triumphant to tell others of that achievement. I'm sure there are people involved in fi xed-rope


climbing who do reach new levels of personal achievement, but to no greater degree than any marathon runner in London, New York or Paris. Many marathon runners train and often work harder than most Everest fi xed-ropers, and yet they remain completely unknown, and certainly don’t automatically gain status to go on the motivational talks circuit. For the fi xed-line clients, I wonder how much the actual experience meets their imagined expectations of adventure or do any of these fi xed-rope marathoneers feel the experience was tainted, that it turned out to be too much about buying a ticket to queue and that it actually all ended up being too similar to what they thought the experience would help them escape?


SUMMIT ONLINE ALPINE SPECIAL #01 | SUMMER 2014 | 13


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