Simon Moore Lecture |
| Date: 11/03/08 Submitted by: Alan Tees Simon Moore Lecture. I went to this MCI event last night with Margaret and Andrew, in Belfast. A few good shots of Elbrus (was Rodders on that trip?) Yosemite, and Greenland, before his epiphany, when he decided to “Cut out all the crap” and concentrate his considerable abilities on the greater technicalities of climbing on the bits that fall off mountains, ie boulders. We were then treated to an extensive tour of the most important and historic? boulders in the USA. 5 hours into the second half (or it seemed like it to me) I became convinced that he only had the wan slide (that of a young man stripped to the waist hanging off the side of a 45 degree overhanging boulder), either that or the boulder was loaded onto a pick up truck and ferried to the various venues, Texas, Colorado etc. He returned to Sheffield (where else) and finished off with a tour of the gritstone “test pieces”, which Peter Cooper would have greatly enjoyed, had he not been required by the admiralty. I know that I am a complete Philistine regarding bouldering, but the level of obsession required to spend six days trying unsuccessfully to climb only four moves along the underside of a rock no more than five feet of the ground, to then be prepared to spend the winter there, to wait for another opportunity in the spring, well, that’s dedication!… I was left wondering was this rather drastic downsizing and specialisation, a search for the very essence of climbing, or merely the indulgence of choosing only your favourite sweeties from the box? (I’ve tried it and you can get sick of Turkish delight!) About 50 managed to find their way to the David Kerr building, (despite the MCI not being aware of the venue when I rang!) |
 |
