UKH

Hi everyone,

My name is Poonam and I’m an undergraduate anthropology student at University College London. I’m writing this as I am currently completing my dissertation on rock climbing and I would love to be able to chat to everyone about their experiences of indoor and outdoor climbing in the UK. I would also like to talk about how people use this site as a part of their climbing experience and network. Also if anyone would be willing to participate in a slightly longer interview I’d be extremely grateful, all of your opinions are invaluable to my research!

If anyone has more questions about my research I’d be happy to explain further, I hope to hear from lots of people soon!

Many thanks,

Poonam 

Nice to hear about someone doing an anthropological study of climbing, so on that basis - I better volunteer! Don't climb indoor much, but climb outside most weeks and have been doing so since the start of the 1990s. I'm also a sociology (among other subjects) teacher, which might or might not be a good thing - but critical comments on your methodology are not out of the question.  

I don't live in the UK so guess I'm excluded from your study but thought it worth mentioning Mike Thompson as a mountaineering anthropologist in case you haven't heard of him. He wrote a couple of non-academic articles partly based on his experiences with one or more large Bonington epeditions (eg "Out with the boys again" which was included in "The Games Climbers Play"). More academic papers listed on https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=m7EmH-IAAAAJ&hl=en

Maybe useful for some ideas ?

Please feel free to contact me, rock climbing since 1974. Always happy to talk about climbing.

I’d be happy to help. (Rock climbed from 1966-2009).

Happy to participate. Climber and soon to be PhD student in Human Geography here....

Happy to help. Been climbing trad and sport (indoor and outdoor) for 30 odd years. Climb regularly about 3 times per week. Feel free to get in touch. Always happy to talk about climbing.  

Hi guys,

I just want to thank everyone so much for their responses so far, I can’t wait to speak to you all! I’ll message everyone individually to give you more information about interviews and questions as such.

Thanks,

Poonam

Also happy to help. Longtime climber, academic background in social science (not anthropology though).

Thank you that’s really helpful I haven’t read his work before, I’ll take a look today!

Happy to help, been climbing for 40 or so years. Retired now, so more time for climbing and chatting.A younger brother is a Professor of Anthropology. 

I am happy to be contacted and will add some diversity to your dataset since I am an old lady and of only very basic climbing ability.

I'd be happy to partake as well- I've been climbing for about 6-7 years, albeit mostly in Ireland (moved to Scotland about 18 months ago). I also did my dissertation (from a psychology perspective) on experiences in rock climbing, looking at the personal, social and environmental benefits. I'd be happy to send it on if it might be helpful, even if only for the references. Susan Houge-Mackenzie and Eric Brymer have some interesting work in the area, albeit again psychology based. 

You might have come across it already, but this is an interesting article that might be helpful- 

https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/36401393/Abramson_and_Fletcher_2007_R... 

I'd be happy to talk to you, especially if you need more female participants.