Whillans at ‘Treemudrock’- old Brailsford article

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 Bob Kemp 21 Feb 2021

The ‘Footless Crow’ blog reprinted this entertaining 2006 piece by John Brailsford the other day: 
http://footlesscrow.blogspot.com/2021/02/whillans-at-treemudrock.html?m=1

(The Arthur here is presumably Arthur Clarkson, whose death with his son is discussed here:

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/rock_talk/roy_clarkson_7_years_old_the_ol... )

 Rob Exile Ward 21 Feb 2021
In reply to Bob Kemp:

Articles like that are what concern me about Perrins biography. Whillans made - and kept - a large number of friends, which is not an impression you get from the Villain. 

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 Rob Exile Ward 21 Feb 2021
In reply to Bob Kemp:

I can remember the reading about the Clarkson story in the national press  at the time, probably the Sunday Times. I don't remember it being covered in the climbing press at all; even though it might have been just before I had started to scour them all, I don't even remember any references or commentary in later editions either. Perhaps it raised too many awkward questions with no clear cut answers.

FWIW I've always climbed trad with my kids from a young age, certainly before they could reliably hold a leader fall.  I've had one very dodgy moment - Sam slipped on the wet grass slopes above Craig Ddu's Rib and Slab. I was able to hold him on a very hurried Alpine belay round a spike; 9 times out of 10 I would have unroped by then, and he wouldn't have survived. Food for thought. 

 alan moore 21 Feb 2021
In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

> Whillans made - and kept - a large number of friends, which is not an impression you get from the Villain. 

And yet this piece, which is great btw, is another account of Whillans being, well, a bit villainous. Who forgets their shoes and doesn't admit it?

 Mick Ward 22 Feb 2021
In reply to alan moore:

'The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with... Whillans.' (Apologies to my mate Will.)

Mick

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In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

> Articles like that are what concern me about Perrins biography. Whillans made - and kept - a large number of friends, which is not an impression you get from the Villain. 

One of the most obnoxious people I've ever met was well liked by her friends and family.

 Offwidth 22 Feb 2021
In reply to Mick Ward:

Having been to too many funerals, understandable though it may be, I'd say memorials are a bit too focussed on the good. Amazing climbing achievements were made by the good the bad and the ugly. It's impossible to fairly compare the faults of working class brawlers from that time with the less than ideally intentioned privately educated rich (who could much more easily hide their sins).

 Philb1950 22 Feb 2021
In reply to Offwidth:

Stop trying to politicise climbing into a class struggle. It’s entirely the antithesis of this and is based on climbing meritocracy and inclusivity. Back in the day it was even held to be slightly anarchic, heaven forbid by today’s standards.

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OP Bob Kemp 22 Feb 2021
In reply to Philb1950:

> Stop trying to politicise climbing into a class struggle. It’s entirely the antithesis of this and is based on climbing meritocracy and inclusivity. Back in the day it was even held to be slightly anarchic, heaven forbid by today’s standards.

Anarchic? Isn't anarchism political? It looks like you just have a problem with a particular type of politicisation?


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