UKC

From Chris Rowlands and Simon Marsh of DMM

"We have read all of the My First Outdoor Lead essays and have come up with a short-list of ten. It was very difficult for us to come up with this list as there were so many good essays and experiences that we could relate to and that were well written. Here they are:."

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/

In reply to Mick Ryan - Editor - UKC:

there's one in there that should be replaced with Fawksey's imho.

Interesting list, only 2 out of my top ten though, but i dont know how to write properly either!

Although "My First Outdoor Lead (14) - Memories Are Made of This
by nwclimber ? Oct/2007" should have been in there, and yes i also agree with CJD that fawskeys' was good too but i dont think i could argue any out of the top 10 to make room either.

In reply to antwan:


I have to say that I think this defo deserves its place - very different and above all frank!!!



...Arms full of bursting, squeezing my way up Suspension Bridge Arête on a crisp packet day. I lied to her, pulled on a nut for a moment, trainers with nowhere to go. No trouble, I'd said. A few fags later, I was chicken-scratching my way up some oily slab, fingers giving way to Newton's law. She'd hooked me at last...

...She told me I was firkin crazy, that the gear was shit, the rock was shit, the climb was shit. That I would have died if I'd fallen off. All I wanted to do was have a spliff and shag her. Right there, underneath the start of New Horizons, pitch two

My First Outdoor Lead (118) – M1, Avon Gorge - 1986
by RJC 07/Jan/2008


"Chicken scratching" - marvelous stuff!!

Si

In reply to Simon: Like i said, i cant argue them out of the top ten cos there all good, but that one was on my top ten anyhows.

In reply to Simon:

I disagree on principle. It's an immutable law of climbing writing - call it Cook's Law perhaps, or maybe Perrin's Law, although he almost gets away with it once or twice - that anything which either deals with sexual relations or tension between climber and belayer, or worse still compares climbing itself to sex in any abstract or metaphorical way, is invariably deeply, deeply, embarrassing.

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Regrettably I'm gong to have to agree with you for once. I won't go so far as to say climbing can't be effectively compared to sex; done carefully and in an artistic, subtle and sensitive way it might be quite poetic.
But climbing compared explicitly to a fantasy bonk is only embarrassing; it's corny and pretentious too.

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:
that anything which either deals with sexual relations or tension between climber and belayer, or worse still compares climbing itself to sex in any abstract or metaphorical way, is invariably deeply, deeply, embarrassing.


C'mon John - its fkn funny!


pull yr heed out yr arse!

;0)

si

In reply to AlisonS:



It must be me then - I think its a great read - corny - maybe - ...pretentious - the opposite !

In reply to Simon: Txt spk too! thatll wind him up a bit more! Lol

In reply to Simon:

It people with silly rules (like don't mix climbing and sex), not you. Not uncommon in literacy critisism. A really good thing about this effort is it produced lots of interesting stuff, not all neccesarily in the top ten. Like route lists, the top ten ain't neccesarily the best.

In reply to Mick Ryan - Editor - UKC: so when do we find out the winner?? or is the number 1 the winner?

In reply to Offwidth:
>Not uncommon in literacy critisism.

I do like a good Freudian slip. Frankly your post could use some literacy criticism, but I'll refrain.

jcm

In reply to Pauline:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=1&year=2008#n42163

In reply to Mick Ryan - Editor - UKC:


My First Outdoor Lead (118) – M1, Avon Gorge - 1986
by RJC 07/Jan/2008


definately my favorite, made laugh alot, bloody boys!

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

It was indeed funny but I've got used to producing such gems now and teaching technical subjects I normally get away with it. When I was bright young thing I believed the bullshit fed to me by some educational traditionalists and often tortured myself in frenzied checking (and even sometimes self loathing) but then I grew up and decided to follow my strengths and go a bit easier on my weaknesses. As far as Rocktalk is concerned I long ago decided to write and not waste time correcting afterwards as I often dont really have the time to post let alone check. Still, word memory is one thing I'd change about myself if I could: I love books, I enjoy word games and both get hindered by this deficiency.

Gotta go now and tell my students they're reports are fuull of gramatecal erors.

In reply to Mick Ryan - Editor - UKC:

I'm really pleased that mine's in the top 10 but am surprised by some of the omissions. Guess the quality and quantity matched and the judges must have had a tough time...I still enjoy reading them all; certainly there's room for a lot more UKC-er based stuff - competitions, columns, reviews

In reply to sarah79:

I suspect the UKC audiences' view on quality here varies more than their seperate views on some grades. I'm glad it happened as I enjoyed many and as a bonus John got a chance to be a victorian schoolmaster.

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Why's that Freudian, JCM?

In reply to AlisonS:



Liked CJD's rude boys of grit. The saucy hussy.

Mick

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Part of my problem with mislpellinge is...no, maybee best not disgussed here.

In reply to Offwidth:

Congrats to the Top 10 -and those who really deserved to be in there too. I'm stunned as well that Fawkesy's effort didn't make it in... (that comment isnt meant to lessen the feeling of happiness the Top 10 should feel at all)

It's been amazing reading all these stories. Cheers UKC.

In reply to broccoligirl: The fact that you like it was worth not being in the top ten! I was just getting over my dissapointment when some muppet remarked that one of my ice climbs in my gallery (Traceys Eyes looked more like the path to a climb than an actual route,

I think UKC should promote a UKC members writing competition each year at the Kendal Film Fetival as the internet and forums exist in the written word, and there is a part of the film festival that is devoted to writing

Any chance Mick? Id be willing to actually roll up my sleeves and help

In reply to Mick Ryan - Editor - UKC:

RJC's I hadn't seen before - that's great stuff, a really good read.

In reply to Fawksey:

Hi Fawksey,

I agree with you.

The natural choice is Epics which has been suggested by many people.

I think the first port of call is to ask the Kendal Mountain Festival committee and Terry Gifford of the Festival of Mountaineering Literature ( http://www.festivalofmountaineeringliterature.co.uk/ ).

We could start it now, publish several a month, then have some literary luvvies do the judging and the winning entries announced at Kendal. Also maybe have some facility on UKC so everyone can vote for their favourites.

I would also like to see them all published in print - which would be straightforward to do I think.

Mick

In reply to Fawksey:




Grand idea !

- there seems to be an encouraging trend towards articles now being internet based for those who can't / don't want to be published in the mags - which IMHO - are going out of fashion anyway.

I'm all for it & unearthing good climbing writing & Literature should be encouraged.

If you think about it - UKC has become a crucible for this over the last few years - with features, articles, reviews and poetry - not to mention the fantastic photography that people put up.

Hopefully the DMM comp will be the start of something & as people realise their talents - it can only be a good thing for us all?!

Cheers

Si

In reply to Mick Ryan - Editor - UKC:

“Are you logged on to Rocktalk?”
“Mmmm.”
“It's bloody fantastic!”
“Rocktalk?”
“Yes, but in particular that bloody DMM essay competition. I’ve read every one and enjoyed them all. The ten finalists are bloody fantastic; bloody fantastic! It was really good of DMM to sponsor it and for UKClimbing to host it – it’s given a lot of people a lot of pleasure.”
“Who do you think will win it?”
“Not a clue, the field’s so strong; but Nicola’s is a personal favourite: fabulous writing.”
“And some of them posted some lovely comments about your entry, Memories Are Made Of This, didn’t they?”
“Yes, they did. I got a real buzz when they took the trouble to respond. There’s some really nice people out there.”
“So, are you glad you entered, after all?”
“Very much so. It’s been viewed over 2300 times and of those only one thousand will have been me. And nobody slagged it off. Yeah, I am glad I entered.”
“Did you come in here just to tell me that?”
“Yes. No. No... Now, why did I come in here..?









“… aaahh, now I remember!









… I still think it was bloody ageist!”





:¬ )

In reply to nwclimber:

Brilliant! Thank you!

In reply to nwclimber:

lol- nice one!

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Didn't Freud say that typoes reflect what you're truly thinking about? I would have thought a post containing an entirely incomprehensible first sentence followed by 'literacy criticism' would have shown to a Freudian that the poster was worried about his illiteracy.

Although mind you I'm not sure Freud was allowing for spellcheckers.

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Freud was a very clever man who regularly talked rubbish. I can forgive him as he was working in a new and very difficult field and made a massive contribution but the world moved on. I wonder what your excuse is for ignoring the much better researched modern position, troilism (sic, to keep the Freudians happy)?

In reply to nwclimber:

Beautiful! Give this man/woman/dog a special prize.

Mick