'Protesting' Climbers En - Route To Costa Blanca

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kingandsona 16 Mar 2018

I know there is another thread currently running on this topic, but I thought that I would separately share my funny or deplorable (depending on which way you look at it) experience last week on my way to The Costa Blanca.

I have been to the Costa four times in the last year and each time I have carried some items of climbing gear in my hand luggage without, it has to be said, any problems up till now.  The main reason is that too much single pitch sport climbing gives me brain death and I like to take a full trad rack and a pair of half ropes so that I can explore other options.  So why do I not get an extra hold bag I hear you ask?  Because I am too mean and don't see why the hell I should when the items in my hand luggage are harmless to man or beast.  Recently I have taken to putting the half ropes into my hand luggage seeing them as the most harmless bit of kit.  (That is if you are not a rule-bound non-logical thinker) 

So I duly turned up with ropes in luggage to Security and was pulled aside.  The conversation went something like this:  "What's this"?  "Looks like a rope to me".   "So what are you going to do with it?"  "It is to aid me in my upward progress on useless hunks of rock - what do you think I want to do with it?"  "Well you might be one of those protesters and want to tie yourself to the aeroplane".  At this point I erupted in peals of uncontrollable laughter.  "So to which part of said aircraft do you think I am going to tie myself after I have painstakingly uncoiled 60 metres of rope in full view of all the supervising staff shepherding us on to the plane?"  No answer, but the retort came: "Can you prove that you are a climber?"  After showing them loads of climbing pictures from my smart phone I was allowed to proceed in utter wonderment.

To my mind the idea of terrorism is not just to kill people.  It is to scare people, fuelled by the oxygen of publicity, so that the maximum inconvenience is caused to Western Society through all the extra procedures that we have to go through.  When we come up against Jobsworths such as those that I encountered I really think that the terrorist has achieved a resounding victory!

 

Post edited at 09:36
17
 bpmclimb 16 Mar 2018
In reply to kingandsona:

 

Why have a cabin luggage allowance at all? What's it for?

You seem to be suggesting that it should be whatever you like, however unusual, as long as you're not obviously a terrorist.

Others might (quite reasonably) think it's for "normal" items you might want with you for your comfort during the flight (food, book, paper, laptop, jumper, etc).

The latter opinion isn't hard to understand, even if it doesn't match your own.

You might decide to save on extra bag costs, take a punt on putting ropes, draws, in your hand luggage, and they might or might not accept it; that's a risk you decide to take. Your entitlement issues stuff, peals of uncontrollable laughter, etc - well it's all pretty irrelevant, really. 

1
 GrahamD 16 Mar 2018
In reply to kingandsona:

Doesn't sound like a 'jobsworth' to me.  A 'jobsworth' would have said stick it in the hold.  End of. 

1
 Martin Bennett 16 Mar 2018
In reply to kingandsona:

Is it groundhog day? We did all this recently didn't we?

 Ridge 16 Mar 2018
In reply to Martin Bennett:

> Is it groundhog day? We did all this recently didn't we?

Word for word. Don't know what it's all about.

Andy Gamisou 17 Mar 2018
In reply to Ridge:

> Word for word. Don't know what it's all about.

I notice that it has been edited a minute after he (presumably) cut and pasted it.  Maybe it's a "spot the difference" puzzle.  No cheating by using a "diff" utility.

 cb_6 17 Mar 2018
In reply to kingandsona:

I used to work at the Houses Of Parliament. If you ever forgot your pass, you had to go through security to get to the pass office and pick up a temporary pass for the day. One day I turned up without my pass, and it happened that I was going to the climbing wall after work and had my rope and harness with me. Needless to say the police on duty weren't too impressed with my explanation given that people have scaled up the Big Ben tower in the past!

 malky_c 17 Mar 2018
In reply to Ridge:

Some kind of spambot? His only other post seems to also take big chunks out of a previous thread (can't work out which one though):

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/off_belay/elisabeth_ii_-_queen_of_england...

 stp 18 Mar 2018
In reply to kingandsona:

Interesting and sad story. I think the whole terrorism thing is largely made up as a way to scare people and justify starting wars. But I'm sure the custom's officials have been properly brainwashed into swallowing it hook line and sinker and are probably genuinely paranoid about it.

I had a very weird experience just a few weeks ago. RyanAir have changed their policy so now large hand luggage goes in the hold anyway (for free). I wasn't too careful with my big bag as I knew it was going in the hold. But it still ended up getting searched with other hand luggage. I was pulled aside when my bag was being searched and realised that in the bag was my Leatherman's penknife, worth about £30. I tried to think how I would keep it as it was too expensive to lose. But it turned out that they weren't interested in that. They rummaged more deeply into my pack and eventually found the offending item. It was.... a tube of toothpaste. Unbelievable. Maybe they thought I was going to try to hijack the plane by threatening to squirt it into the Captain's eye or something. God knows. Anyway I could certainly live with losing a tube of toothpaste. But it get's better. After spending at least 5 mins going through my stuff they gave it back to me in a plastic bag. WTF? I have no clue what they were thinking. The whole episode makes zero sense. But I kept my toothpaste and my knife and as it all ended up in the hold anyway I couldn't have used either item for anything anyway. Totally bizarre experience that makes no sense at all.

 GrahamD 19 Mar 2018
In reply to stp:

I generally have a bit of sympathy for security staff, trying to get through as many people as possible as efficiently as possible.  It only takes one or two entitled people who think the rules under which they bought their ticket don't really apply to them to really gum up the system.

 stp 19 Mar 2018
In reply to GrahamD:

Yeah I'm not blaming the staff. It's those above them that deem harmless, random objects like toothpaste as some kind of terrorist threat that are really causing the problems. But then if the inconvenience caused is part of the propaganda plan then I suppose it's doing it's job.

 Dogwatch 19 Mar 2018
In reply to stp:

> They rummaged more deeply into my pack and eventually found the offending item. It was.... a tube of toothpaste. Unbelievable. Maybe they thought I was going to try to hijack the plane by threatening to squirt it into the Captain's eye or something.

Might be toothpaste. Might be something else. Being in a toothpaste tube doesn't prove it is toothpaste.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_transatlantic_aircraft_plot was the origin of these restrictions.

 

Post edited at 10:41
In reply to kingandsona:

There is some logic to it all unfortunately profit outweighs that logic some of the time, otherwise it would not be possible to take glass bottles on board. If the authorities were serious about passenger safety it seems to me they would ban such items being on sale in duty free.

Al

 stp 19 Mar 2018
In reply to Dogwatch:

So if it was explosives I fail to see how putting them in a plastic bag and giving them back to me could possibly do anything to stop the problem. Even if the thin plastic bag could somehow miraculously contain the explosion there's nothing to stop me simply taking the toothpaste out when onboard the plane.

 wynaptomos 19 Mar 2018
In reply to stp:

> So if it was explosives I fail to see how putting them in a plastic bag and giving them back to me could possibly do anything to stop the problem. Even if the thin plastic bag could somehow miraculously contain the explosion there's nothing to stop me simply taking the toothpaste out when onboard the plane.

I think the point is that separating them from everything else in your bag and putting through the scanners as a separate item they can more easily be eliminated s just toothpaste or whatever.

 Dave Todd 19 Mar 2018
In reply to malky_c:

> Some kind of spambot? His only other post seems to also take big chunks out of a previous thread (can't work out which one though):

You're correct...here's the original...

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/off_belay/elisabeth_ii_-queen_of_england_...

wierd...


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