It is not unusual to meet a would-be climber whose ideas of the use of the rope are peculiar.
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| On the Western Buttress of Lliwed. Detail of photo in G D Abraham, The Complete Mountaineer. |
A friend was recently taking a beginner up the south-east gully on Great End, and having reached the top of the first pitch he hauled in the rope and called down to the novice, "Come on!" "All right," was the reply. But nothing happened, and the dialogue was repeated. Then the leader became anxious and asked if his charge was indisposed. "No!" came the reply, "I'm waiting for you to pull me up. Surely that's what the rope is for!" Thus it may be advisable here to deal with the practical elements of rock climbing…
References
From George D. Abraham, First Steps to Climbing, Mills & Boon, Limited, London, 1923.
3 comments:
This made me remember a post I once read about, the very funny and entertaining, John Barry on a ukclimbing forum thread. Posted by another climber:
"I followed him up an E1 at Craig y Forwyn. As I pulled over the top I saw him sitting on the grass slope, not a belay in sight. Sensing my surprise, he said "Knew you wouldn't fall off, mate!""
Good morning, Iain - indeed an amusing anecdote, unless of course you happened to be the belayed one. A very similar incident persuaded the brother of a friend to give up climbing altogether! By the way, thanks in passing for providing all those Inaka articles - as you see, they all got a repeat airing in the talk I recently gave at the JAC. As Inaka is so hard to find, they are probably less well known than they should be ....
Couldn't agree more re Inaka.
Eagerly awaiting Tales of past and present (3)
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