Everybody shut the hell up and listen! After .html year of unfulfilled ambitions, dissatisfied egos and vigorous infighting the editor is back to offer his opinion as to what the club should feel.
Looking at the clique, it is impossible not to laugh at the educationalists who claim that climbing helps fit an individual into society. Many climbers fit only into climbing society; the ease with which most climbers can be identified in the cities demonstrates this, as does the inconsistent and parasitical philosophies of the thinking mountaineers such as Scott.
This may be due to the need for climbers to have faith in their own uniqueness. They need to have an ability to know of danger, but not to believe that it applies to them- otherwise we simply would not climb. Danger can apply to other climbers- this is why people rarely climb well with someone they are fond of. My own best routes are often done with people who irritate me in some way.
From this doublethink, it is a short step to the outsiders stance. The ability to regard acquaintances’ death or injury as something to gossip about. The easy insulation of self from outside; how many top mountaineers have happy marriages in their generally short lives? Can anybody really believe it is safe to take a seven month pregnant girlfriend trekking in the Himalaya? And, when we have seen someone suffer, we pause to reflect for a while, and perhaps give up soloing or wear a helmet. Soon, though, very soon, we will be planning the next step up in grade; have to do a death route so we manage the moves; still, only a fifty foot deckout; I’ll land feet first. And why? A quest into the strength of our own courage and determination? A desire to burn off Tom? Or just the addicts automatic response? I don’t know; and I’m too far gone to care very much. All I know is that eventually the doublethink will stop working, and I'll have to give up hard climbing. Better hurry before it happens to you...