In this three-part series, Mick Ward explores the ethos of 'clean climbing' and how it has shaped the equipment we use, the ascents we make and the community are building. Part 3: Custodians of the Stone

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Has anyone told the pegbolters?

Is that your photo Mick (I know someone pictured)?

The very start of article: "An irritating drawl from long ago. But he WHO?? had a point. Since then the numbers have grown massively."

I got really confused by the "WHO??" until I realised it was probably the editor's note, not removed!

I'm too scared to!

Mick 

Sadly not. (Couldn't take a photo to save my life!)

It's courtesy of a really talented outdoor photographer called Roxanna Barry, who kindly let me use it. Would urge people to check out her work. 

Mick 

It is. And it's really my fault as, even more irritatingly, I just can't remember who it was. I do remember he was one of those people who's so arrogant you don't want them to be right. But he did have a point...

Mick 

My fault! Amended.

Cheers, realised this when I read the article more carefully.

Ahh, ok - I thought it was Chouinard as he is mentioned just above. 

Please amend Gill to Jill! 😀

Eek, that's definitely my fault. Senility! Maybe Jill and Gill Kent (first Brit lady to lead E6, 7b+ in new money) are morphing in what remains of my mind. 

Mick 

P.S. That meet when Jill led Right Wall was so pivotal. The first time people had seen lots of women leading hard routes. An old climbing partner of mine, who had always been scathing of female efforts (we'd had some bad rows about the subject) could barely believe it. 

Thanks Mick, and not to forget Gill Price (?)

Agree! 

Mick

My thanks to Roxanna and all the other lovely people who let me use their photographs. In particular I love Roxanna's 'cover photo' - and the one by Sílvia Vidal. 

Sílvia Vidal is almost certainly the best climber you've never heard of. The scale of her accomplishments is off the scale. There was an interview on here about 10 years ago but mostly she flies under the radar. 

That 1972 clean climbing manifesto was about exploration - both of mountains and of oneself. And it was about purism - how we conduct ourselves. I'd argue that Sílvia Vidal exemplifies these traits. If I manufactured climbing equipment, she'd be the person I'd most want to sponsor. Because what she does and how she does it is, well... something else entirely. 

Check it out for yourself. 

Mick 

Thank you Mick for this article, indeed, this series. Thought provoking. I wonder whether more should not be said about the consumeristic attitudes stimulated by the contemporary climbing industry (broadly understood as encompassing clothing, equipment, services, but also, significantly, social media, which you do mention). Aside from the obvious environmental impact of this industry, I believe it also creates a risk of transforming the climbing experience - which, somewhat romantically, I view (also) as an expression of freedom and an opportunity for self-knowledge - into another display of conformism. This point may be more related to one's personal climbing experience (an experience that is impoverished by conformism, although it may be enriched by the growth in the numbers of climbers if we do things the right way) than to the protection of the environment and the community. But the two are obviously connected.

Any suggestion of a writing by Peter Beal?

Thanks

Hi Federico, hope you're well. Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. 

The (arguable) advantage of me doing pieces like this is that I can look across 55 years of climbing history. For instance I well remember that 1972 manifesto; I loved the boldness of it. 

But the disadvantage is that I'm not in the mainstream of climbing. Others will be far better placed to decipher contemporary trends. So I would ask those people (and you may well be among them, Federico) to take the arguments further, perhaps to places I can't imagine. 

That route in the Mournes I mentioned - 'We're All Learning'. 

Mick 

Oops, re Peter, although he's written for various US magazines, perhaps the best place to catch up with him is on Facebook. He really does care and his arguments are always beautifully reasoned. It's a terrible cliché me calling him 'the conscience of climbing' - but he truly is.

I guess that in the past the much missed Ken Wilson was the conscience of climbing but Ken (like me?) probably argued too much from his heart. And Ken's arguments were sometimes so forcefully delivered that people could get put off. But his heart was always in the right place, bless him. 

Mick 

Thanks for both replies Mick. I read your piece again and found in it things I had somehow missed in my first read. I think you actually touch on the issue I raised, perhaps with less focus on 'individual phenomenology' and more on community and environment. It strikes me as a piece that I will have to read every so often. Maybe this will also serve as a way to check if the arguments indeed need to be taken further.

I look forward to the next instalment.

Thanks again,

F