There are a few that get paid to attend tradeshows or events, but this is obviously different. I get paid to attend tradeshows and events by UKClimbing.com. But I’m not ‘sponsored’ by them!

There are a lot of climbers in the UK who receive equipment support – ie. free gear.

What am I getting at?

Harking back to Adam Long’s Local Hero piece on UKC (see my earlier blog and the original article), I find it strange that some climbers differentiate so strongly between climbers who are ‘sponsored’ and climbers who are not.

Such as this:

“You know, the climber who quietly onsights E6s every time they go out, but isn’t bothered about lowering their ethics to headpoint the big numbers and court the media and the sponsors.”

From Adam’s article.

Or this:

by – kevin stephens on – 07:32 Fri

In reply to UKC News: I and many others haven’t bought Climber for year. It’s content has been limited to articles for beginners and sychophantic articles about sponsered heroes with nothing of interest for vast majority of dedicated climbers leading real lives

Now I respect everyone’s right to slag off the climbing media – of course – and I can see how an overdose of ‘sponsored hero’ might be too much, but is there any difference between a climber who gets three pairs of free shoes per year and a climber who does not?

I spoke to Nick Bullock, a sponsored hero,  someone who “struggles with being sponsored” ethically, but he doesn’t  know why, “it’s just a British thing isn’t it”. I guess he doesn’t want his very pure climbing tinted by commercialism? Unless he gets a free camera of course!

However Nick also said that if a company gave him three free pairs of shoes per year, then he wouldn’t say he was sponsored by them.

Pete Robins is sponsored by 5.10. He receives, I believe, 3 free pairs of shoes per year. He has been on the front of two major DVD’s in the last couple of years, playing a starring role. He has graced the cover of several guidebooks and magazines, and top of the pile, he’s been on UKC of course. So he’s a top climber and he’s ‘in the media’. He’d buy 5.10 shoes anyway, so I’d guess he’s quite pleased with his saving of about £220 a year and more than happy to say he is sponsored by 5.10 if they want some extra coverage. (See this UKC news item)

But it only costs 5.10 probably about £60 in reality to give him those shoes. Great value for them.

I personally have no problem with any of this, and I have a similar deal with Evolv’s distributor Beyond Hope. It is great for me, and I should think it works out for them too. It’s a business deal between the climber and their sponsor.

So where do expedition grants come in?

Recently I have seen that the MCof S have been awarding ‘grant money’ to young rock climbers (see the base of this UKC News). THIS IS GREAT! Traditionally these type of grants have gone to people walking up snowslopes in Greenland, or something… and always to the same people every year…

Anyway, it just struck me that if a climber gets a grant of £1000, which is a pretty usual amount (I have applied for a few of these, but never succeeded in getting one), then that equals 5 years of shoe sponsorship deals (if you count shop price) or 10 years if you count cost price!

So, that’s my point really. A few free pairs of shoes, or a grant cheque. Which is more tainted by commercialism? The MCofS/BMC/whoever want members. A shoe company wants to sell shoes. Climbing would be in a poor state of affairs without the BMC/MCofS you say. Well, it would be without rock shoes too!!

Right – better go photograph some crags!

The report has gone down well, and as I suspected lots of people have asked for more reports like this. A few people have mentioned that it would be a great weekly feature – a low key, unsponsored climber quietly operating at a very high standard.

I agree it would be a fantastic feature. But is it feasible? No. For two reasons:

Is there loads of people out there, doing their thing at this level? No.

Is it possible to obtain several professional quality, timely photographs of each of these non-existent local heroes on a weekly basis? No, of course not.

We are extremely lucky that A) we have awesome climbers like Nige and B) we have awesome photographers like Adam, and the simple fact that they are mates is what made this report happen.

Also, when someone is operating at Nige’s level, we do tend to hear about them for quite some time. If you follow the climbing news closely, his name is not unfamiliar: Check this UKC News Report. And this UKC News Report.

ADVERT: Go buy a photo of Adam’s right now – he once took a photo of a mushroom in Font that I thought was particularly cool, I would say that one wouldn’t be a bad choice.

What would be more feasible, but on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, would be a ‘local hero’ style feature that was more a short bio of a person instead of a up to the minute news report, with a portrait and perhaps a historical photo – which is a feature that Alpinist used to have in their magazine. I suspect they ran out of local heroes!

During the week I managed to squeeze in a big party with lots of drinking and several people being sick, and Sarah and I also went out and bolted half a new route on the Slate, before getting rained on.

So here’s a few photos from the week. My favourite is Betty sleeping in the van in the car park at the NEC – it’s a rock and roll lifestyle…

Guiding at Plas y Brenin - on the way down from Poor man's Peutery

A quick bouldering trip down to Porth Ysgo - trying Tide of Dreams

Sarah cleaning the new route on the slate

Me adding a belay to the top of the new route!

BETTY!!

Sarah getting ready for the party!!

Me in the SkyMasters (thanks to Jordan Buys for taking the pic)

Betty livin' the dream in a carpark near the NEC!

]]> http://jackgeldard.com/2010/03/29/photos-two-contrasting-weekends/feed/ 0 jackgeldard Guiding at Plas y Brenin A quick bouldering trip down to Porth Ysgo - trying Tide of Dreams Sarah cleaning the new route on the slate Me adding a belay to the top of the new route! BETTY!! Sarah getting ready for the party!! Me in the SkyMasters (thanks to Jordan Buys for taking the pic) Betty livin' the dream in a carpark near the NEC! http://jackgeldard.com/2010/02/10/photos-new-routing-in-morocco-tafroute/ http://jackgeldard.com/2010/02/10/photos-new-routing-in-morocco-tafroute/#comments Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:33:30 +0000 jackgeldard http://jackgeldard.com/?p=270 ]]> Just got back from two weeks in Tafroute (2007 UKC Article on the place here) , Morocco.

This is a great place for hanging out and doing mid grade trad climbing with potential for lots of new routes.

I’ll do a proper post on this later this week when I get more photos from the big camera, but here is a quick selection of 3 shots from the compact.

Sarah on 'Crag K'

Sarah embracing the delights of trad in the bird-shit filled chimney.

Jack seconding on the second pitch of an onsight new route, Tafroute

He has just changed his site and now hosts it on his own server. It is worth checking out if you are interested in life in Llanberis and climbing and mountain rescue.

• Check his new site here: Life in the Vertical
• And check his article on UKC: Mountain Rescue the Truth

Good luck Mark! It will be interesting where you take the new site.

After a quick evening hit to Huntsman’s Leap on Friday night with Pete, our team went to the military briefing on the Saturday morning to allow us access to the Range West firing area.

We climbed on Saturday at Range West, which is somewhere I’ve never been before, and it is amazing. Jason and I climbed Tasmanian Devil on Greenham Common, surely one of the best E5′s at Pembroke, then we headed down to Mt. Sion East, keeping to the far right hand end, to be outside the bird restriction zone, marked by a red marker.

It instantly became obvious that there was loads of new routes to do, so I picked a line. Jason tried a direct first pitch, but was stopped by green slime, so he sidled off rightwards to an easy corner, and we missed out the slimy section.

I then took over and in my unfit state battled my way across some big roofs, to a good belay. I only just made it, which made the climb very enjoyable.

The final pitch was much easier, so Jason nipped up it and we headed off to Trevellan for some more normal Pembroke fare.

Obviously this route might have been climbed before, but looking at the up to date file on the Climbers’ Club website, it doesn’t seem to have been. Who knows.

I am really looking forward to going back to Range West when I am fit, without a dodgy finger. Mt. Sion Central is an amazing crag.

Jason named the route Jew-Pac in memory of Mica Dash, who was a good friend of Jason’s.

A couple of pics below.

Jew-Pac, new route at Mt Sion East

Not your usual abseil anchor!

Jason Pickles 'questing' up the last pitch of Jew-Pac