P ERSP EC TIVE
I do appreciate that people visit the mountains and get joy from just being there, but if you are one of those who entered a fi xed-line, steep-gradient marathon, please don’t now try to tell the world that what you did was cutting-edge adventure mountaineering. I am very privileged; I get to meet mountains directly and to fulfi l a drive in myself that I don’t fully understand but that I need to respond to and explore. I know there are many people who would also like to experience true adventure. Sadly too many people are denied this by being enticed to aim for the impossible. Too many are being manipulated to pay for something that is ultimately fake.
Imagine, instead, staring up at that shimmering, soaring mountain dream while turning all the questions around in your mind. Then let your head go. Then ask yourself ‘Why?’ Why are you doing this, why are you climbing this thing, what do you want from it. Sitting beneath a big hill, waiting to attempt a
diffi cult Alpine-style route is truly nerve wracking. I experience things as if I had not experienced them before. It is the unknown which helps me know myself better. It pushes the chattering monkeys in my brain to their limit, until they can’t chatter anymore, and then my head goes quiet. In the end, perhaps it’s this peace
that I’m after. Peace from the chattering world. You can’t fi nd peace queuing on a fi xed-line. Then stepping onto the mountain, just my climbing
Nick Bullock was a prison offi cer working in a maximum-
security jail with some of Britain’s most notorious criminals. Then he discovered the mountains. Making up for lost time, Bullock soon became one of Britain’s fi nest alpinists, well known for bold and audacious ascents. http://nickbullock-
climber.co.uk
partner and I, neither of us carrying any kind of get- out-of-jail-free card, no easy way back ... for me, this is the essence of greater ranges mountaineering ... and in fact when I take that fi rst step onto the mountain, that’s when I actually leave the jail, and become free. It is also then that I put myself in the belaying hands of someone I trust implicitly. My climbing partner and I share a trust that is complete and simple ... we depend on each other for our lives, and neither of us for a moment forgets this. This intense simplicity, that has nothing to do with cash, or kudos, or jealousy, that has only to do with sharing life and surviving, this has shown me what being human is really about, or at least what it should be.
Listen to us, chattering monkeys, arguing over what? The choice of one’s climbing style is a very personal thing, and so obviously means so much to so many different people. When all said and done, I’d like to think that climbing mountains will always take honesty and courage, soul-searching and strength.
At bottom, mountaineering is narcissism. The best we can do is to take a long hard look in the shimmering mirror and just be honest with ourselves.
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www.thebmc.co.uk/bmc-rad-android-app 14 | 70TH ANNIVERSARY | FOR BRITISH CLIMBING AND WALKING SINCE 1944
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