In reply to catt: Dave is a different style of climber than the first ascentionist (Johnny Dawes - read 'Deep Play' to get a good idea of his style!) and the few others that completed the route.
Johnny Dawes:
"Climbing for me provided a means of self-expression. Ability, too, can mean wider social acceptance, even if only in a superficial "one of the gang" way. To a young, socially immature person, that grew as a cancer, to a stage where my climbing was taken out of my hands to an extent. The end of this lies in photographs, sponsorship, ugly tights and a dead end with a bolted door. Eventually there comes a time when you have nothing to prove. You have made friends through compassion, and that bad side to your climbing disappears. With its departure there is left a strange beast - more able mentally and physically than before, but without the naivete and wonder of youth. Its direction becomes an anguished cry to complete fate within a cycle of time: and afterwards to move on to new, more dilute and comprehensive ambitions.
For me this involved many dangerous yet necessary climbs. The culmination of all this process was the Indian Face. The mechanics and story of this climb trace my liberation from... something?"
from
http://www.johnnydawes.com/Indian_Face.htm
Dave is a different person (obviously!) - it's just not his cup of tea. He doesn't have to justify any of his actions and why should we care?
I enjoy keeping a tab on his activities, learning a thing or two and thinking about what drives a man in such a focussed lifestyle.
Nothing more!