UKC

"From pretentious climbing jargon and lazy walker's cliches to silly marketing guff, we all have pet hates when it comes to outdoor lingo" says Dan Bailey. Here are his. What are yours?

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Can we add "staycation"? It's just "holiday" you twerp.

Along with Fort Bill, can we add 'the Buckle' and 'the Ben'?

Middle age comes to all us survivors eventually Dan. Welcome to the lodge, brother.

But a staycation isn’t a holiday in the traditional sense, as you stay at home?

What about 'wad'? I think it means someone at the forefront of development/performance. I've only ever seen it used on UKC (by non-wads).

The Ben is very common throughout Scotland out with the outdoor scene.

I’ve heard Ben Wyvis and Ben Rinnes both referred to as the Ben by locals.

Can I offer "blue hour" and "alpenglow" from (outdoor) photography?

It’s often used to describe a holiday on our own islands, not just ‘at home’ therefore can actually just be a normal holiday. 

Wonderful - agree with about 90% of them fully. Writing gear reviews and reading people who are deciding what gear to buy, one phrase that comes up regularly that completely irrationally enrages me is "pull the trigger". You are about to buy a nice new goretex jacket or mountain bike, you are not an "SF Operator" or in a sniper team taking out high value targets in the hills Helmand province.

Not fully outdoor jargon, but outdoor adjacent jargon maybe. 

Only by wrong people. Staycation has a specific meaning. The clue is in the first 4 letters.

"Outdoor ambassador" or product name followed by "ambassador". Code for getting free stuff regardless of whether it's any good.

As per the Genralist's reply, just because people misuse the phrase, doesn't negate it's value.

A staycation is taking time off but staying at home, a holiday in the UK is just that, a holiday in the UK (which is the bulk of our family holidays!).

Most likely used by those people inclined to buy ThruDark clothing....

Personal dislikes:

- "flow state" used to mean "I was concentrating"
- "mindful" used to mean "I was concentrating"
- "liberating" used to mean "I had a nice time"
- "climbing is my therapy" used to mean "I enjoy climbing, despite some difficult things in my life"
- "I need to improve my headgame" used to mean "I'm weak and scared because I spend more time reading social media than climbing"
- "trad(itional) climbing" used to mean a peculiar form of climbing involving lots of gear that was only very recently invented
- "projecting" and, sometimes, "sport climbing", used to mean developing an unhealthy obsession for bits of rock you're not able to actually climb
- "training" used to mean fancying around and occasionally drinking some concentrated milk
- "esoteric" used to mean "not in the Peak"
- "smash and grab" used to mean "driving long distances for disproportionately small amounts of climbing"
- "beta" used to mean "knowing how to climb something"
- "kit" instead of "gear" used just because you heard James McHaffie say it once
- "motivation" used to mean "an obsession that makes intense boredom tolerable" (e.g. "I need to find some motivation...")
- "adventure" used to mean "stepping outside"

On the other hand, "mint connies: the rock was boners" is a great expression, simply for being utterly ridiculous.

No, he's right.

staycation

/steɪˈkeɪʃn/

INFORMAL

noun

a holiday spent in one's home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions.

Surely 'Connies' has to be on the list?

oh yes, forgot that one

When I first moved to Scotland I chuckled at the term "out with" and thought it was a spelling mistake!

Anyway, what irritates me is "onwards and upwards" being said every single time we start walking again after a breather. Grrrr! 

No... she's lovely woman and she's getting a bit frail; don't put her on the list.

"Nevis Range", "Spey Valley",   are 2 of my pet hates. "Fort Bill" is and always was Inbhir Lochaidh to me!

Good shout on "whiteout".

I'd add the words that hillwalking types throw in to make "going for a walk" sound hardcore - "nav", "vis", referring to kilometres as "klicks" and particularly "on the hill" said as if you were referring to a desperate survival situation and not, say, going up Great Gable in a light drizzle.

A pet hate of mine is “expedition”. The word itself is fine if used to describe an expedition but 99.9% of the time it’s used to sexy up an Instagram post about any trip or activity taking place over more than 1 day and/or with more than 1 bag of stuff. 

Which surely goes hand in hand with the Norries?

Frequently used by the lecht of all places!

Spooky.

A couple of winters ago, a guide (I think) used the word spooky to describe the snow/potential avalanche conditions in Scotland. Then it seems every description of potentially hazardous conditions had to be described as 'spooky'. Not very imaginative or informative.

Grrr...

Send, stay cation and anything wild. 

Or bluebird day.

Sick rig, used to mean 'nice boulder'.

Which usually it isn't anyway, rather some scrittly, horrible mess.

Spey Valley used to annoy me intensely when I lived in Strathspey. But isn't "Fort Bill" An Gearasdan ?

it’s not so much an outdoor-specific phrase, but one so ubiquitous that it also happens there:

content, for any of: media, art, writing, essay, article, report, review, post, drawing, photo, video, and countless others that are more descriptive. (and reeking less of the peddling middleman whose primary concern is engagement or impressions so that nicer numbers can be shown to advertisers, not enjoyment of, or even respect for the form.)

also, i’m 100% with you on the coloniser and military language, dan. many things are grating, but few grate more than these.

Not some oil extracting giant awaiting repairs in some firth? 

Anyone that I hear using Allez or Venga. Brits shouting at other brits in a UK climbing wall.

I would include the word awesome to describe anything but the universe.

Splendid stuff.

"At what point do product catalogues become an elaborate form of self parody?". Back in the 1980s, I think.  Sticky rubber, goretex, friends and all that is when catalogues all went a bit Jeremy Clarkson.

And to judge from brief experience, Scotland's last wilderness is Cumbernauld.

T.

Very amusing - a good read, nicely done.

My two pet hates in climbing writing are 'splitter cracks' and 'bullet-hard stone', they get trotted out in so many articles - that's just lazy!

Chris

'Considerable buffeting'

I had this problem on an all inclusive holiday.

I'll go a bit wider than your definition - the birth of your first child, courage in the face of overwhelming odds, things like that - but otherwise, just so.

A word that should describe the utterly extraordinary has become used for the mundane, modest and incremental, the opposite of what it should be used for.

I blame John Logie Baird.

T.

Probably be a lot more fun to climb!

Is it OK when applied to super (yeah I know...) -pure crack lines (not that I've been there, but Indian Creek and similar)? A decent crack on gritstone can be great but I'm struggling to think of any so pure that they aren't crossed by horizontal breaks or have other usable holds out on the face and so on. I've done a few granite cracks in Finland where there was either nothing else, or very very little else beside the crack to climb - that what I think of as a splitter.

'The Alpine... Please.' 

Too good!

It's funny how language can evolve. When I first heard 'connies' I retched. Then I got into bouldering and started using it ironically. Now I use it gleefully, rejoicing in the delight of an offensively daft word that conveys meaning in a fun and silly way. As a gritstone boulderer it's all about those connies, whether they be primo, bon or merely favourable.

So there.

"Conquered" certainly is a word that suggests someone where there's quite a gulf in the way we see hillwalking.

Language changes, so I try not to spend too much time harking after the language of yore.

"Wild Camping" is a good example - starting near the turn of the Century wild camping is exactly what the Scottish Access legislation said we were doing under the access codes, so that was taken up widely. Currently it's a near useless term as it also means pulling up the handbrake on a bus sized motorised house or pitching 50kg worth of rave equipment on a loch shore. Go figure.

Another vote for Norries. Grim.

This thread is just EPIC!

Nothing wrong with "The Peaks"

Nobody calls the lake district "The lake"

Change my view

Edit: For those about to say "The lake district has multiple lakes"...the peak district has no peaks. Maybe just "The district"?

I’d add anything that describes climbers as “daredevils” or “adrenalin junkies”.

I do. And North Wale.

shouldn't that be Nipkow?  Though it did not lead to any modern television of course, except for slowscan transmissions from space missions

Aaaaaarrrrgghhhhh noooooo

It's not named after the (lack of) point hills it's the name of the tribe that used to live there. According to the PDNP at least.

No, I’m definitely one of those ‘wrong people’. The UKC dislikers have had their say 😂

Ps. I’d never call it a staycation, but plenty I know have referred to their own UK based holidays as staycations over on Faceyb. Therefore it’s in common use, and so is as valid as any other.

That's just a retro-fit rationalisation though.  There really isn't a simple, logical explanation for why "Peak" is correct and "Peaks" is wrong - it just is!  Language is like that sometimes.

Also it's plainly nonsense to say that there are no peaks in the Peak, there are lots.  It's just that none of them are mountains.

You are quite right, I admit i was 'triggered' there.

'Technical Pants'

No explanation needed surely?

Peaks? There are some minor undulations... is that what you mean?

Only one quibble: ridgeline. Seems a useful term to me - the line of a ridge in profile, surely?

Actually I quite like that.  Yes, good idea.  If it's that or "Peaks" <spits>, please do go with "The District" instead.

Meh, whatever.  Quibbling about the size of the hills is neither here nor there.  They don't have to be big to be peaky, I even have a cap with a peak on it.

The Peak has just as many peaks as the Lake District has lakes 

There is Calver Peak in the Peak and Windermere is the only lake.  

I use Techno Trousers, after Wallace and Gromit

The word "Mega" curdles my soul

Haven’t they indeed?!

I mean the dictionary definition I cut n pasted is worded sufficiently for both you and the other fella to be correct, but apparently that’s not to UKCs approval?!

Ah well, I can but try?!

I like it! A bit like "the County", gives it air of mystique.

How very post truth....

How many times does it need to be said that Bidean nam Bian is the highest peak in Argyll? 😉

Bombproof......"this rucksack/jacket/tent is bombproof"

No it is not !

“Lingo”. Along with “pins” for legs, and anything else from the tiny thesaurus used by many hillwalking magazine writers.

Something might not be literally 'Bombproof', but it is an excellent descriptive phrase to describe how good something is relative to something else.

I'm ok with ridgeline Dan. My personal hate is send, but pushing the envelope come close. Besides, don't you open an envelope?

This is often accompanied by ferocious gusts

Bassenthwaite Lake is the only one with “Lake” in its name.

Windermere is just called Windermere.

I think that’s a perfectly acceptable term as long as it’s not preceded by “literally”.

Not if its from my energy supplier

In that case how about 'burn the envelope'!

I know that a mere is a lake but Windermere is also a reasonably sized town. You might just be able to get away with Lake Windermere if you are distinguishing it from Windermere Town...?

Unless you want to hire an Avenger, the word "hero" shouldn't be in a job advert!

If anyone's still renting out cars that elderly, I quite agree with you.

T.

Yep spot on. It’s often referred to as lake Windermere for that very reason. 

I'll put in a vote for 'CMD'. How difficult is it to say Carn Mor Dearg?

Anyone who wears underpants is going to have to accept they also wear pants. I’m afraid there is no other logical conclusion to be drawn. 

Couldn’t agree more with conquer and would add  “mount” should be forbidden in front of any mountain name where it doesn’t belong (such as mount matterhorn) 

‘Bon cons’ is even worse.

And ‘chill’ as an adjective (not climbing specific but this seems like a good opportunity to get it into Room 101 anyway.

Indeed. In much the same way that someone who has underlings is going to have to accept that they are a ling.

Depends what gear you're talking about.

Protection devices: gear.

Clothing, rucksacks, etc: kit. Been used for decades. Probably long before McHaffie was born.

When did waterproofs become "hard shells" and fleeces become "soft shells" ?

I mean nuts andcams; or, in McHaffie's case, skyhooks, blu-tac and wishful thinking. Nothing serious against it; just wrote that for the craic.

About a decade ago I'd say.

They're not, so they haven't. ;⁠-⁠) More seriously there will be some intersection between fleeces and softshells I guess but it's pretty small. 

Loved this article. Personally I think “hiking” belongs on this list, what’s wrong with going for a walk?

Re. hyperbole though, you need to have a special dispensation for the traditional description of the Inn Pinn….

No, it just sounds cliquey. I passionately hate all such terms.

Along with trail when you mean a path. A trail is what you make in the snow. And a track is not a trail; it is an unpaved road.

American English doesn’t use « holiday » this way, it uses « vacation », and vacating your typical milieu is the critical part of the definition. So if you’re on a vacation but have not vacated your normal surroundings, it’s a reasonable sort of modern jeu des mots to say staycation, if that’s what you mean. It might not make sense in British, but saying « holiday » doesn’t make immediate sense to non-British English speakers either. And as far as I can surmise, « holiday » in British inherently involves a voyage, too. So you’ll need a good word or joke word to cover the experience of being off work/normal schedule without saying holiday (assuming you are living outside the school system and not just saying « half term »). 

Fair enough; it was the only one I didn't agree with...

‘’It’s easier when you’ve got that pulling you up’’

Hahahaha what a comedian!

The bloke(mainly it’s a bloke with female company) that comments that it’s easier for you walking uphill as you have a dog out front on a lead!

I long ago stopped arguing that the dog actually was a hinderance, pulling you off balance or back down etc, and now just reply with a large number, such as 569.

When they ask what I mean, I just tell them that they’re the 569th person to make that comment.

Makes them look a right tawt!

Same time 'soft shells' appeared...

Splitter crack is a term for a clean crack in an otherwise blank bit of rock. It serves a purpose well. Do you have an alternative?

Fastest Known Time.

Get in the ucking sea! Just call it the record or world record. If you think it might be challenged then just wait and see if someone can produce the evidence. Until that time you completely legitimately have the record. It's just a typical 'look at me' Americanism trying to make something more significant than it actually is. 

It is a bit FKT up, isn't it...?

I think you’ll find Bassenthwaite is the only lake.

Re Wild anything. Sploshing has an alternative meaning. 

The term has been widely used in the media for staying in the UK, especially during that first covid summer when foreign travel was difficult.

"This jacket is bombproof compared to this jacket "...no,not having it .

Surprised nobody mentioned "gym" for climbing wall. If a climber tells me they are going to the gym, I assume they are going to a regular gym without a climbing wall. The "wall" was always nicely unambiguous unless you were talking to an non-climber. Unnecessary confusion!

Can't stand "Inn Pinn".

The whole FKT thing has become a big load of bollocks. I know of one FKT that isn't actually the FKT for the route because people have run faster in the race that uses the same route.

No, it's a trip. No self-respecting climber goes on holiday. Makes it sound like fun.

The one that really hit home for me was use of “conquer” which is inevitable in press articles. I’ve written to the editor of Westmorland Gazette - if anyone should know better, they should - several times but no joy. Its use just shows a total lack of respect, and something no climber should ever use, if only to avoid tempting providence on their next visit.

On a different tack, I start to spit feathers whenever Borrowdale Valley turns up. IIRC there’s even an official road sign using this silly tautology just as you leave Keswick.

Nonsense. It's called Lake Windermere by some people because some people are stupid.  See also "staycation" for a UK holiday and " the Borrowdale valley"

Do you think people get confused as to whether they mean the lake or the town when someone says they're going for a sail or going shopping.....

But I don't wear underpants. I wear pants (and trousers[ or sometimes shorts.]

More than 100 posts and not a single mention of ‘questing’…

As far as I know FKT started here in Colorado for a specific reason. National parks and other local areas don’t permit any kind of racing. So rather than draw attention by talking about records, the locals started using FKT. Now it’s spread to the UK.

I really hope we don’t inherit “Connies” from the UK otherwise I’ll probably have to give up climbing.

In other news, Derwent Water is for the toffs and offcomers. Locals call it Keswick Lake.

One that makes me squirm. Not because of the language, more tha ambiguity.

Left side or right side of a crag/cliff etc. 

Is that looking at it or out from it? Next to useless without clarity. 

Good point. Couldn’t be bothered to type “Inaccessible Pinnacle”.

A staycation originally meant taking time off work to stay at home and do your local touristy stuff, eat out, get takeaways etc as you might when on holiday, coined in response to the way hotels etc charge a packet during school holidays so people can't afford to go away.

It seems to have been corrupted to "a holiday in the UK" which is just "a holiday".  "A foreign holiday" is one elsewhere.

I can't think of a phrase where there'd be any ambiguity, though.

"I'm staying in Windermere" clearly doesn't refer to sitting in the lake.

"I'm kayaking on Windermere" clearly doesn't mean you stuck your boat on a skateboard and paddled it along the station platform.

The more common confusion is people thinking Bowness and Windermere (town) are the same place.

It's slightly odd that Windermere Town isn't called something like "Windermere Station" as some similar railway-named settlements are (it was formerly called something else before the coming of the railway).

For the past couple of years the start of the standard route up Ben Chonzie from the Lednock side has had a sign reading "The Ben" with an arrow and, just beneath it, "The Bam" with a painting of Donald Trump.

On the general theme, when I worked on the Outdoors section of the Scotsman 20-odd years ago, I banned any use of the world "majestic".

I'm fine with In Pinn but not with Inn Pinn - doesn't seem right to be sticking an extra letter into a shortening.

or the even more ridiculous “Bon Connie’s” 😂

Top three;

"Road trip". For your 5 day climbing trip using a car. No, no no.

"Glamping". Just No, in every sense.

"Wild" anything, particularly swimming. Boils my blood.

Well you say that, but there’s that time someone told me I’d find plenty of parking in the middle of Windermere…

The upholstery in my Octavia will never be the same again.

Well, other off-licences are available.  They don't insist you buy a six-bottle minimum either.

T.

That's your fault for not realising what they meant and you inadvertently taking part in the 'Windermere Wednesday Evening Dogging Meet' that is held in the little car park just off the High Street.
 

One that grates with me is "carnage" for a crowded situation, e.g., difficult parking or a traffic jam.

He missed the obvious one.
Beeeetah needs to be completely outlawed, until you brits learn to pronounce it properly.
Although I do like the way it makes you sound like complete goobers.

Some people think otherwise:

https://www.thrudark.com/collections/mens-collections

Above I find plenty of reasonable moaning about "pants", which is a very fair target, but even fairer and not yet mentioned is "pant", referring to "pants", referring to "trousers", as if this "pant" only has room for one leg, or has one hole or one panel (one something, in any case, like you're going to put on your "jean", your "cord", your "slack" or your "chino", not that I have any of these either), so that's mine. 

It wasn't the actual term(s), but the fact that it gets overused so much. I guess the obvious alternative would be 'crack'.

Chris

I once heard a US mountain guide describe the summit of Everest as "real estate"  in a documentary 

Nah, it needs to remain in use. Otherwise you can’t abbreviate it to further to “con” and then you can’t say “the con is bonne” and simultaneously disgust English and French speakers 

Incorrect usage there, “rig” refers to the physique of the boulderer.

e.g. “Nice rig m8” - jeez Tom’s been in the gym 

“Rig’s in bad shape” - I’ve been partying too much and eating too many curries recently 

Costa Del Brean (one for the SW locals)

Nonsense Roger. They're all lakes, the faux pas is appending the word lake to the name of the body of water.

I was musing on pairs of pants and trousers the other day. Putting aside the French un pantalon, it's a single garment, not two pieces. Or was it once two individual leg coverings (each a pant, or, indeed, a trouser), which someone then cleverly decided to combine? I think that is true for women's undergarments, and Otzi the ice man had individual leg coverings. And it got me thinking about a shirt, which has two arm coverings, but no one insists we should call this garment shirts. Maybe because a shirt itself has two sleeves?

I did think of one - "I'm walking round Windermere" could be a short stroll with a portion of chips round the town, or it could be a multi-day expedition.

Likewise, I was thinking your earlier "I'm staying in Windermere" could be a stroppy six year old playing in the sandy shallows of the lake, refusing to go back to the b&b with his mum and dad for tea because he's having too much fun. Or even a middle aged lady with a wooly hat on (as seems to be de rigueur) who is really enjoying her wild swim (yes I know) and doesn't want to get out yet.  

Hmm... this did make me chuckle, but are you sure you know who exactly is being pretentious in this article?

The name 'Peak' does not in fact relate to the region's uplands, but is thought to derive from the Pecsaetan, an Anglo-Saxon tribe which settled in the area.

Ref: Friends who live there and multiple sources on Google...

(so perhaps everyone is wrong and it should be The Peak's District)

Hm.  Well it's sliiiightly pretentious this article even being an article, these kind of complaints are usually just a bit of a whinge in The Pub.  (Eg: https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/the_pub/reached_out_to_-_todays_whiney_fi... )

Smug and superior, definitely. But pretentious? Moi?

Yeah, to be fair there are some instances where you’d want to make the distinction.  If your neighbour asked you where you went yesterday, and you’d spent the day relaxing by the lake rather than walking around the town, you’d probably make that clear somehow.

Used to spent a lot of time relaxing by the lake with the family when I was a kid, never went to the town…

On behalf of the orienteers - lay off reentrant.  Basic tool of our trade,

Seriously - I wonder how that word is perceived by entrants (sorry) to the sport? I remember being baffled by it until I found my first one.

Another for the list?

Out with instead of outwith

It's what ticks do.    (questing)

Whiteout - horribly overused. I am amazed and pleased with how few I have experienced.

The Angry Corrie seemed to visit this frequently - a real non favourite from those days was donning waterproofs. 

The "lake" part is already in the name: mere. (Compare Dutch "meer", German "meer", French "mer".) Saying Lake Windemere is like saying Loch Lomond Lake

I used to don my Whillans harness. 

The convention is that anything below the belt is plural (trousers, knickers, leggings, shoes, gaiters), anything above is singular (shirt, vest, cardigan, fleece, jacket, chemise, shift), save where the hands are involved (gloves). The reason is self-evident, the torso and the legs being the dominant elements, overshadowing the groin region and the arms. As well as sounding creepy, "pant" makes an absurd torso of the legs.

Doubtless there are exceptions.

Donning and doffing is still used in formal circles for PPE, but much less so for clothing these days.

I bet most people don't associate the phrase "doff your cap" with simply meaning taking it off.

Edit: Ah, just got your joke

It's a pair of trousers becaue they were originally supplied as two items, one for each leg.

Presumably a pair of scissors because each blade is a scissor?

Hm..  maybe.  But even if that's true it doesn't clear anything up, because it's circular - "Pecsaetan" in that sense would have just meant Peaklanders, ie: those who dwell in the Peak-land.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Pecsaetan

I hope you didn't fall in it.  (and 5 mins on I got the joke)

Meanwhile here is a whiteout.

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1721905

I am told that somebody processed this and found a tiny bit of contrast (not the vignetting)

Which is exactly why I started my post by saying "I know that a mere is a lake".

When they stopped being waterproof.

Describing a days weather/conditions as "Scottish" when not in Scotland... 

Guides referring to clients as 'guests'. 1. You don't own the mountains, it's not your house, they're not yours to be inviting people into for money, you're just a visitor like the rest of us. 2. It's icky weasel wording to downplay that it's a financial transaction. 

"brilliant bit of kit" - it's just such a verbal cliché

"serve your apprenticeship" - in theory the concept has value, but it shouldn't be cudgel to beat people down. Climbing history is replete with many climbers who did no such thing, eg. Eiger north face in their first season in the Alps, and many young climbers now progress incredibly fast in their chosen bit of climbing and couldn't care less about the other bits.

'Wilderness', yes. There's a lot being written on this (as it's mostly a colonial term that ignores longstanding indigenous presence and movement) but generally, misusing the term for anything bigger and greener than your local park devalues the word for when it's really needed for the protection of genuine wilderness.

'wad' - god yes, this makes me cringe every time I see it, which is almost exclusively on UKC. It's all a bit 'head boy' and repressed homoeroticism. And not the good kind...

But 'pants'? Here in Australia 'trousers' sounds old fashioned and stuck up. Pants is the most common term, in and out of climbing.

I always took 'ridgeline' to mean the skyline formed by the crest of the ridge. Meaning, there are other bits of the ridge that are not the ridgeline, such as 50m down from the crest, but still generally on the ridge. It can also maybe denote the general direction or orientation of the ridge, separate to the physical bulk of the ridge itself.

Yes, that bugs me in photo captions: "Liathach looking Alpine". Or "Could be the Alps". Another irritant is a photo of an inversion, where the caption includes the word "inversion", as though if it weren't pointed out you might miss it. Or where the caption bigs either the image up: "Dramatic lighting over Loch Coruisk" or the photographer: "Wild camp on the summit of Ben Nowhere".

This! Whatever happened to jackets and waterproof jackets?!

Pants - depend where you're from. You say it's a re-imported Americanism, but to my West Cumbrian wife they'll always be pants.

"I'm going swimming in Windermere" = going to Windermere town baths or someone's swimming pool there

Isn't the point of this article (collection of words) that the word Peak in the context of Peak-land has nothing to do with it's modern usage relating to pointy hills?

There are UK variations on pants, in some of the UK particularly the North West cities this would be taken to mean underwear, with the slang for trousers being "kecks".  No idea where this originates.  To confuse things further it seems this is used for underwear in some parts of the UK too.

I've never even noticed "wad" being used on here.  Only context I've heard it in is "d**kwad" as an insult.

Rural west midlands when I was a kid, kecks were pants not trousers - as in "you've got skidders in yer kecks!" I also presumed, I'm sure completely wrongly, that it must have something to do with Gypsy-origin term Mush Kecker, which seemed to get used as a neutral to friendly reference to any other person. 

Is that a pun?

That's the 'talk' page behind the Wikipedia article on the Pecsaetan - one contributor says that but it's more like a forum thread than an article as such, so there isn't a single point really.  I just posted the link because I found the discussion there more interesting than the article itself.

My post above was more based on this bit really:
"Is there actually any evidence that the Pecsaetna lived in what we now know as the Peak District at all? The whole notion seems to rely on the similarity of names, but the evidence that the area was 'Peak-land' is based on the fact that the Pecsaetna lived here, while the evidence that the Pecsaenta lived here is derived from knowing that the area is Peak-land."

That does seem possible, though apparently none of the contributors to that discussion felt strongly enough to amend the article itself to reflect that and it still says:
"The area became known locally as the Pecsætan, Peak-set or land of the Peak peoples."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecsaetan

According to the citation, that bit is based on the entry in the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica for 'Derbyshire'.

In terms of wrangling about whether or not the word "Peak" should be pluralised when it's used as an abbreviation of "Peak District" though, you may as well just ignore the Pecsaetan altogether and refer directly to the encyclopedia itself. 

And here it is, discussing the Peak District, and repeatedly referring to it as the "Peak" for short, 40-odd years before the establishment of the national park:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Derbyshire

You probably will from now on..
https://www.jesusandmo.net/comic/effect/

People who definitely aren't native French speakers shouting "aller..Aller...ALLER!!" at their mate climbing a F5+.

Bloc?

What convention is this...?

Socks, gaiters and shoes are pairs because they are separate items. Trousers, pants and leggings are a single item.

As explained above, they probably started out as separate items, like socks, and have retained the plural from then.

The convention is in the use of the plural. Chinos, cords, salopettes, shorts, britches, pantaloons, jogging bottoms, etc.

Send?  I'm not taking the holds off, putting them in a box and passing them to Hermes to be dumped outside someone's house, I'm climbing it.

Yes, really despise that. 

While on the subject, a boulder is a lump of rock, NOT a boulder problem. 

In which case, you should use In Pin. Still don't like it though.

And if you want to disappear even further up your own derrière call the bit of the crag you're on 'Sector *****'. This sort of w@nkery crept into guidebooks in the nineties I think.

Has that crept into the UK? It does make sense on continental sport crags.

OK, here's one I've not seen in the list yet but winds me up (mildly) : Using 'tragic/tragedy" in place of 'unfortunate/misfortune'. It might be showing my age, but I've always stuck with the Greek sense of 'the terminal downfall of a person due to a flaw in their character'. Probably just me though.

I don’t even know what wad means.

Yes. Here in Lancashire Fairy Steps. Ironically, it was my friend Stew Wilson who introduced it in his North of England guide. He does like French crags.

To summit (as a verb)

To freeclimb 

windchill