In reply to Bruce Hooker:
F*ck, dude.
>
> Cheerful all this talk of death!
Yeah I know what you mean (that's Bristol for you). It's kind of hard to put a positive spin on it, so I too have banned myself from it for the time being.
They had this nightclub night called Extreme for all the `Extreme sports clubs' in the Uni the other day. Total rip off. I just felt like saying `Yeah, people from the climbing club died or nearly got badly injured, that was extreme!', 'Look, that guy's got tattoos, how extreme', `An earing - in a straight guy? EXTREME DUDE!'.
Back on topic, I told my mum the other day how a lot of accidents are down to rushing complacency and fatigue and abseiling and how I always give myself a second chance, citing the example of it being safer to spend the extra 20 minutes to ab off a thread and a bolt rather than just a bolt, even though it meant getting cold and benighted. I did not tell her about the doubts I now have about how safe I was when rigging that up when off belay, nor about when I just abbed off a thread, sling and snap gate. She now tells me about any of her friends' kids she knows who are taking up climbing, and I have now agreed to take out her nephews and maybe even nieces too (my cousins).
Selective ranting is the best plan, e.g. make sure she thinks you're on the right side of the helmet debate..., explain why your belays never fail like the one in Vertical Limit (three cams, bah, I'd have about four wires, some old pegs and a thread if possible), how Black Diamond tried to sue the makers of Cliffhanger for portraying their harnesses as ripping. My BD harness's belt buckle started fraying badly and I still use(d) it and it(s) never ripped. Maybe don't tell her that. I'm sure you've all seen or even corrected some shocking belaying, e.g. down the wall. Once your mum starts comparing you to all the other climbers out there you consider to be unsafe then she'll feel fine. My Dad just professionaly appreciates risk assessment is integral to the sport, but has no doubt heard when I was told to do RAs that the riskiest thing student clubs do was the amount of heavy drinking and putting minibuses in the hands of shit shit drivers.
My sister came to Stanage with me once and she told me she was impressed with my climbing, this was way back when I was a beginner too. No doubt she told our mum as well. And my mum was beaming after, when on holiday near Arco, she saw me `just walk up a slab'. She doesn't have to know how hard or easy it was
.
And at the end of the day going climbing is better than becoming a Jehovah's witness or developing a smack habit like some other cousins of mine so I've potentially had an easy ride.