In reply to ericoides: The author probably found characters like this more interesting:
Sidney Sid Thompson (1914-1992)
He swapped a pension plan for a sports plan
Sid Thompson was famous for two things. One, for being the oldest swinger in town. Two, for having the longest running project of any climber in the world, ever. Depending on the weather, Thompson was a familiar sight in Lakeland, hanging around parasitically at Shepherd’s Crag or Scafell throughout the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s. He was a uniquely incongruous sight amongst the Lifa, Lycra or Stone Monkey uniforms of the day: no one else sported flat cap, ancient charity-shop pullover and a hawser-laid rope coiled around his bony 70-odd year-old frame. The Steptoe of Shepherds would invariably approach ropes of youngsters requesting permission to tie on to the rear and follow them up the route. Most were so gobsmacked by the apparition that they conceded readily, and were tailed with agility up the crag by the strange wrinkled retainer, who would thank them for the ride at the top, then scuttle off in search of new victims.
Thompson’s endearing eccentricity was manifold – from his habit of cycling furiously everywhere (‘I go hell for leather. I work up a lather of sweat. When I started cycling I was 12 stone. Cycling’s helped me bring it down to 9 stone’) to his habit of drinking milk from an old Domestos bottle. It is debatable whether he picked up this latter habit from his days as a public health inspector, although he must have had the cleanest gizzard of any septuagenarian anywhere.
However, the most startling facet of his character was perhaps his obsession with Central Buttress, the classic former HVS on Scafell. Here he used his tried and trusted ploy to climb the route, lying in wait for unsuspecting climbers to pass by and hitch a ride up the crux. He must have spent days, if not months, of his life, just waiting at the launching stance beneath; ‘Sometimes, I’ve waited three hours until it was my turn to climb. Oh, I’ve seen dozens fall off’, he would reminisce happily. This, The Great Flake Pitch (formerly a 5b layback before a hold pulled) was his bete noire, he practised it over 50 times over nearly as many years by his unique top-rope ambush method – but he never did achieve his life’s ambition to lead it. But perhaps this was deliberate; after all, when all your dreams are fulfilled, what is there left? (Answer: Wearing cardigans and watching Trisha).