UKC

Hello everyone,

My name is Russell and I am currently doing my final year project at university. It would be super helpful if you could take a couple of minutes to fill out this survey. There is only seven questions to answer and none of which require any personal information. The questions are aimed at people who have experienced climbing mountains.
I first posted a survey in the Rocktalk forum and I had a fantastic number of responses, though my survey had many flaws which were kindly pointed out. I have changed a few of the questions so I hope this time the survey will make more sense. The reason I have posted in the Hilltalk forum this time is that I think it could be a more relevant for for the questions.
I'd like thank you all in advance for taking the time to read this message and again for filling out the survey.
I will be happy to answer any questions via email russellblackaller444@gmail.com or from comments to this message.

Cheers.

Russell Blackaller

http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/s/72793GWQPL

In reply to RusseyB:

Sorry mate. I gave up when it asked me to list stuff from 1 to 9. Most of my answers were up at the nine end.

Good luck with the project.

In reply to RusseyB:

I found this very difficult.
I didn't understand question 4, and I don't know the answer to question 5, and most of the other questions I couldn't answer because they assumed I climb for a sense of achievement, which I don't. There was only one response in the whole questionaire which mention enjoyment, or 'fun' as you called it.

In reply to RusseyB:

I'm struggling to understand in the context of this survey where hill walking ends and mountain climbing starts ? is the Pyg track on Snowdon considered as 'climbing a mountain'.

Another thing with these surveys, I'm sure I'm not alone in not having a particular preferred method of ascending a mountain - it depends on the mountain and my companions.

In reply to RusseyB: I tried my best... Might be helpful to get a prove reader. I said I did stuff for excitment, but i'm not sure about the hormones!! Do you mean adrenilin?

In reply to David Barratt:

(sorry!)

In reply to RusseyB: I wrote a longish post last night but then deleted it as it was fairly critical. But it is a bad set of questions, e.g. how is the 'traditional' way of climbing a mountain (what ever that is - The Materhorn, something in the South Downs ...?) from alpine. Is 'mixed' a combination of train & foot ?

And what subject are you supposed to be studying ?

In reply to RusseyB:

You need a proof reader, I could not get past the poor English.

Like others found, some of these questions did not make sense.

In reply to freerangecat: If you think adrenaline then great. Hormones was an 'example' as i believe it says on the questionnaire. Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

In reply to RusseyB:
Sorry, got as far as question 6 and couldn't continue - it wants me to rate 9 things, none of which are of any importance to me, in order of precedence. And question 7 wants me to rate 4 things, all of which bare equal.
So rather than just number them from the top down and give you misleading results, I decided not to bother.

In reply to RusseyB:

Sorry I tried, but it kept asking me to complte questions I had already completed!

In reply to Doug: I wrote a longish post last night but then deleted it as it was fairly critical. But it is a bad set of questions, e.g. how is the 'traditional' way of climbing a mountain (what ever that is - The Materhorn, something in the South Downs ...?) from alpine. Is 'mixed' a combination of train & foot ?

And what subject are you supposed to be studying ?

Sorry my questions confused you. I'll try and make some parts clearer. Tradition or Trad is a way to climb using passive and mechanical protection in order to keep you safe. Mixed is usually Ice and Trad climbing mixed on a winter line. Alpine is often very long routes where one might be wearing B2 boots and occasionally have to spend the night out etc.

Hope that helps a bit.

In reply to Trangia: Did you rate every motivation? Sorry you couldn't finish it and thanks for trying.

In reply to lowersharpnose: Sorry you couldn't understand. Thanks for trying never the less.

In reply to Fredt: I was looking for answers about achievement yes. I realize that not every one may have any achievement when and if you don't then never mind but thanks for trying. Sorry that the survey isn't clear enough for you.

In reply to Craig Mc: No worries most of my answers would be up at the 9 end too. Appreciate it and it's a shame you gave up but thanks anyway.

In reply to RusseyB:

Tried again, but same message. The survey doesn't seem to allow for putting equal emphasis on various reasons.

Sorry, but I did try!

In reply to Trangia: Yeah sorry but you have to rate them out of 9. 9 being the most important and so on down to one. Sorry. You're not the only one confused and thanks again.

In reply to RusseyB:

I think that's the problem, I honestly cannot rank the reasons from 1 to 9 in order of importance. A few rank at about 4 on the scale, the rest are about 8. I don't give a shit about competition, approval or affiliation, for example, so how can I rank them in order of importance? They all equally rate about 8 or 9 to me.

In reply to RusseyB:
Sorry Russ. Same problem. Q6 I had seven 9s and two 5s. None of them would class as important and how do you choose between seven 'I couldn't give a monkey's?'

In reply to Ridge: Okay not to worry then. I nearly have enough now anyway. Thanks for your input.

In reply to RusseyB: Well done RusseyB, you have managed to produce another utterly crap survey! Good luck trying to get anything even remotely useful from your poorly thought out set of questions that any sane person will struggle to answer accurately!

In reply to Wiley Coyote: Hahaha fair enough mate. Thanks anyway.

In reply to RusseyB: Had some really awesome responses. Thanks to everyone so far who have completed the survey. Some of them are truly enjoyable to read. Keep them coming. Russ.

In reply to RusseyB:


In this country, a 'trad' ascent is 90 % or more of walking with - if you are lucky - maybe 100m of actual climbing. The mountain is somewhat incidental to the climbing route part in most cases.

In reply to RusseyB:
I couldn't answer the survey.
You asked for me to order responses, and I couldn't.

My experiences do not fit the categories you have devised.

Perhaps one of the lessons from the feedback is that there is stuff going on with how and why people climb mountains that do not fit your theoretical framework.
Another lesson might be to think some more about how you construct a survey.

In reply to almost sane: thanks for the advice. I guess my survey isn't about your experiences, it's about your achievements and the framework is from a sports journal so let's hope it's okay. Sorry it didn't suit you. Thanks for trying to help and for the lessons.

In reply to RusseyB:

Not trying to be over critical, but surely if the framework 'doesn't suit' most people, then the basic premise is flawed? It seems you have a peconceived idea, (cribbed from a sports journal), about why people undertake an activity. The overwhelming response on here seems to be that these motivations don't really figure in most peoples psyche. Surely that should be written up?

In reply to Ridge: Yes it will be put in with my limitations of course. There is only so much I can do to get on with it and although some responses on 'here' maybe critical they're not on other sites. Also I have received a huge amount of respondents who did fill the survey out (more than I need) which in some cases were extremely thoughtful and interesting.
The critical comments on this forum are outweighed by the amount of surveys that are finished. So in that respect it does suit many people.
Don't worry about being over critical. If you feel the need to say something, that's what the comments are for I guess. So thanks.

In reply to Ridge: Also, I am moving to Cumbria at the end of next month. I spend a lot of time climbing and I've ran more than enough fell races so if you do need a partner maybe you'll appreciate my belaying more than my surveys haha. Let me know.