UKH

Hei guys, I want to know if you know of the location of Si O'Conor. He was prolific in climbing & boulders in Skotland. He is staying in Norway with silence & climbing still here for years with many people @ Kabelvåg but our magazine has no contact. He protects the wolf in Svalbard & works on survey [sp]

Tack

Hi Jens,

Kabelvåg on Lofoten? If so maybe try getting in touch with Seth & Sjur at Northern Alpine Guides - they are both Kabelvåg-based and super-active so I imagine would know if he is around there.

He's also a prolific bullshitter isn't he?!

I'm not surprised it was predicted on UKB over 12 years ago this would happen...

"Watch him turn up on Lofoten sooner or later under the guise of Sibjjargkll Connorsen."

Hi Jens, you probably don't know the context of some of the comments on here. 

I am not 100% sure of the details so hopefully someone can come and clarify and correct anything that is wrong in what I write here:


Si O'Conor was "prolific in climbing and boulders in Skotland" in that he used to claim lots of hard boulder problems including first ascents, by publishing self-photographed pictures of himself on the routes, but nobody really seemed to know exactly who he was; he was impossible to contact directly and no witnesses of his many climbing feats could be found. Eventually the UKC (UK Climbing) website - the one we are posting on right now - removed all his photographs and all record of his climbing achievements, after many many many attempts to contact him for an interview and many many many attempts to have his achievements verified. 
It is widely accepted that he made everything up, just to have a laugh at the climbing community. 

Here is a thread about him from 13.5 years ago, it starts as a discussion of his photographs (which actually were very good stylish high contrast b&w pictures) but soon digresses into a discussion of his unproved claims. I think all the links in the thread are long-dead now. This was a few years before he was finally removed from databases etc. 

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/photography/another_si_o%27conor_photo_th...

He also posted on UKBouldering in the guise of a female alto ego.

John Watson who wrote the Bouldering in Scotland guides met up with him and did some his problems, he suddenly found himself climbing 4 grades harder according to Si’s grades. Strangely Si couldn’t do any of the problems and had forgotten where the really hard ones were.

To be fair I expect, despite the bullshit, he could still climb a fair bit harder than a lot of us around here.

I heard he and Rich Simpson went out for a jog together last weekend and ended up beating Kipchoge’s recent marathon time. 

Impressive stuff. 

I agree!

A particularly memorable moment was when John tried a problem of Si's called Atlantic Bridge. Si gave it V13, John thought closer to V4.

I wonder how hard he was climbing...? I was under the impression that he was good for V7/V8 but can't remember now why I had thought that.

This makes great reading  http://sioconor.blogspot.com/

Legend!

I saw it earlier and still can't work out if it is real or not!

https://www.blogger.com/profile/13120764298915276739

Replace Si O'Conor with Jack Reacher in the 02/10/2005 post and its probably spot on.

I thought you were better than that!

It really is some talented writing though, had me gripped  

I do remember his photo's though, they were good, even though heavily staged

Si, that's a blast from the past.

I met him several times, around the same time John did, and in the years before as Glen Brittle was being developed in 2003/2004. Si never had time to climb but appeared strong on the surface. His failure to repeat things (or even come close) raised the suspicions but the reality was he just liked telling a good story, which is why his reports got published.

When Dave Mac came up to repeat some problems in 2004 he broke off holds... which really raised the doubts on them ever being done...

On skye many of his first lines were great looking lines, his grading was just shite, and later he got caught up in his own myth as he was selling the articles and photos to the mags. Some of his original problems were repeated by Mike Adams a few years ago and found to be close on grading  vimeo.com/56216688 even if Si never did them.

Si later moved into full fantasy land with photos of unknown sea-cliff projects (which looked like they we really about 3 ft tall and heavily photoshopped) and then into being the best sea kayak-er in the world on some blog ... and that was nearly 10 years ago.

Saying he did it to have a laugh at the community is a little extreme, he just liked spinning a yarn, and may have been a little delusional... He always had a very eloquent way of describing his adventures. I'm sure he'd be a successful influencer today...

Much better than Rich Simpson... 

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/rock_talk/rich_simpson_vs_si_o'connor_who...

He changed it after he got called out as a liar, that's why all the link names to scottishclimbs / stonecountry are slightly derogatory in the blog... 

Like I said, he had a way with words...

There are still a number of his routes on this site.

And sometimes heavily photoshopped. 

mostly the early ones, on crags moderated by me, and confirmed at the right grades by myself, John Watson and others. Don't let the later V15 extremes of BS detract from some good climbing areas.

Yes, but part of me wonders whether someone who has built a whole new life for himself might deserve another chance.

I wonder if that's true? I wonder what the average max grades for UKC users are? 

I could definitely bang out one of those V4 / V13 problems. 

I might be the Billy Joel I heard being played in the Co-Op earlier, but I'm feeling kind and I agree. 

Bon chance Si! 

Completely agree! he might get into boxing or running....

or was that someone else :0)

Fine to give him another chance but also worth pointing out to those who don't know his past that he used to lie his arse off.

Mind you the interview in the Norwegian mag may well have been very entertaining.

Also if my memory is right he used to getting quite threatening on UKB if anyone questioned him.

V3 is the UKC average apparently...

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/graphs.php#gradetype4

I want to know if anyone has seen Si and "Jens" in the same room? I always hoped it was all some elaborate performance art piece that we didn't really get, and if it was no reason why it couldn't be returning for an encore.

Good point. The English in the OP is peculiar, usually “imperfect” English from a Northern European tales a slightly different form. 

So is the Norwegian. 'Thank you' is spelled Takk, not Tack.

My iPhone autocorrects 'takk' to 'tack'.

That is a very good question. Beat me to it...

A thread featuring both Si O'Connor and Rich Simpson...

Now we just need DJ Viper to crop up with that onsight of Indian Face.

And Louise Watmough

Who?

Thats because norwegian /= swedish. 

and besides, even norwegian /= norwegian as you have bokmål, ny norsk and that kvem (sp?).

someone who had dodgy knees (from memory)

Eereadf uttbseems obvious you me that he’ll be in Texas just now testing Mr Trump’s wall for climb ability.

Keyboard issues - should have proof read that before posting....i never heard of this person but it seems obvious that he’ll be in Texas right now, testing Mr Trump’s nice new wall.

Not just dodgy, brittle

So who is she?

A tragic loss to many activities:

https://surfing-waves.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1722

http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=860412

https://uk.rec.cycling.narkive.com/96FQl7V5/cycling-with-brittle-knees

Can't find her old posts on here, but this should give you an idea:

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/off_belay/funniest_person_on_ukc-14281

It is Halloween, try looking in the mirror and saying her name three times...

Or her ex-boyfriend's name, since it was reportedly revenge hacking by him that put out all these messages. The damage to her name must have exceeded his wildest dreams by now. 

A shame because the little one heard about her as an actual individual suggested she's a reasonably decent sort.

I can't remember that she ever followed up any of her posts, so in that sense she was a classic troll. But there was something brilliantly pointless about the whole thing that elevated it to a higher level. The Dada troll...

See above - it wasn't her. Can't remember where I saw the debunking but it seemed reliable.

I hate to spoil a good story, but I also hate to see someone's dirty tricks being so outrageously successful.

You must have posted that while I was writing... like you say, it rather spoils it if that's the case.

Yes, obviously cross-posted. It was an enormously effective revenge - no-one seems to remember the debunking but everyone remembers the original posts...