Arni Strapcans: Original Image-Photographer unknown?
It has been suggested
that routes with boring names should be omitted from future
guidebooks. Alternatively, routes with names such as "Straight
Crack" or "North-East Climb" will be exchanged for
more intriguing options such as "Outer Plasmic Membrane",
"Rupert Bear Goes Hiking", or even "Bimbo The Lorry
Drivers Gulch Eliminate". ("Exploding" is an optional
extra applicable to all route names.) Names will be reappointed by a
qualified body of verbal diarrhoea sufferers on a three-yearly basis.
All British route names will be placed in a lottery barrel in a
heavily guarded room at the BMC head-quarters in Manchester, then
drawn out at random and reappointed to completely different routes.
By this method, classic routes will not get over-polished because
nobody will know where they are.
Consequently, chalk
will be rendered unnecessary, and the more congested routes will be
relieved as traffic gets more evenly distributed over all the crags
from Land's End to John O' Groats. Every decade, all the names will
be discarded and replaced by a completely new set—to prevent
boredom, of course, and also to provide permanent employment for
guidebook writers (a profession which was beginning to look
increasingly insecure owing to the worsening new-crag and line
shortages. Who cares what a route is called? Does it matter? What
difference would it make if White Slab was called "The Orange
Throated Gonk"? Would it be any worse a route? Well, a name
certainly does have a predominant influence on the first impression
given by a route description, and therefore a well chosen name may
well even enhance the existing character of a route. The honour of
naming a climb is given exclusively to the first ascensionist, who
apparently has the right to call his route whatever he likes, whether
relevant or not.
A route name might be
merely functional—pinpointing a feature or features encountered on
the rock face. On the other hand, a little imagination might be
employed and something more entertaining might evolve. Therefore the
simple role of naming and describing a route can provide an amusing
literary side to climbing which can only come as an enrichment to an
activity which is becoming increasingly categorised. But in the '50s
British climbers realised that if they were going to rate by European
standards in the Alps and elsewhere, they would need a thorough
knowledge of pegging. Hence, not wishing to undermine the
free-climbing tradition, they set about catching up with the
continentals by smashing to bits what were then the less popular
crags — especially on limestone, which had not really been accepted
as a free-climbing medium. The idea initially was that of practice
for bigger things elsewhere.
The very nature of this
type of ascent gave little motive for consideration of a route beyond
the desire to practise. Consequently, little attention was paid to
its potential value as an addition to the wealth of British climbs.
Times have changed, unscaled rock is becoming increasingly scarce.
Consequently, areas of rock once taken solely by pegging-practice
routes are rapidly getting overlapped by free-climbs, often of the
highest quality and difficulty. Surely this totally different outlook
can no longer be compared with its shady predecessor. And the
renaming of areas of rock is highly commendable as a blunt rejection
of the low values which no longer apply. Yet perhaps this harsh
wipe-out of the past is a far too insensitive attitude, as there are
several pegging routes which hold a lot of historical value, and even
quality, in themselves,.Routes such as the Main Overhang at Kilnsey
stand out as milestones in the development of British climbing and
their mode of attack is still far from obsolete—as can be seen by
the tactics of ascent which still seem necessary for scaling impasses
on the huge remote rock walls of Patagonia, Baffin Island and
elsewhere. Maybe a compromise of some sort is the logical answer.
If an aid route is
climbed without aid but along the very same line, should it be
renamed? * What does the name apply to? Is it the line, or is it a
reference to a particular climbing experience? If a name is given as
an indicator of the line, its significance is unchanged by the new
method of ascent, and a renaming may be difficult to justify.
However, modern free versions of old aid routes frequently merely
overlap at certain points and the lines of ascent, though close, may
be significantly different. Where this situation arises, it would be
quite false to apply the old name to both routes. Nevertheless, the
matter is a delicate one, and points of view will inevitably clash.
The final decision, of course, has to rest with the guide-book
writers, who will, I hope, take account of current trends and
opinions rather than stand doggedly by their own personal ideology.
Arni Strapcans : First Published in Crags 3.
Editors'
Note.—( Crags Editor) People are very sensitive. We had a quick dig in the ribs at
some folk in 'Crags' 1 and look what happens. Harness Can-straps
sends us 50,000 words which have to be typed-up, Vesta Bincroft is
now wandering around every climb muttering the words "Here Steve
Bancroft is climbing this 10 foot crack before an unknown crowd".
* See Paul Ross's 'The Great Overhang' and Pete Livesey's 'Footless Crow'.
