Interesting thread, and a great title, KH!
A few years ago I created a ‘ticklist’ on the other channel containing ‘my’ :
new routes. I did it for purely for myself, just to see what I had done. For quite some time it was a work in progress, as I kept remembering other new routes I’d forgotten to put on the list, but I’m reasonably confident they are all on there now.
Of course there are some interesting stats come out of an exercise like this – not least being able to see the relative number of logged (as opposed to actual, as many folks don’t have a logbook) ascents of each route. Strangely, for my routes, it is the hardest ones which tend to be the ones most logged.
Originally my ticklist was private, but later I decided to make it visible to my partners (only). Like the logbooks themselves, you can elect for them to be private, partners only, or public.
Some of my partners were intrigued by my list, and I was able to cajole one good friend to create his own. In fact he has been so prolific that he created 4 lists (!):– The old days (mostly UK routes); Les années françaises (the clue is in the name!); Seconded and Equipped (the latter, I assume, being routes he equipped but never got up). I’ve subscribed to the first 3 lists and was surprised to find I’d done 27%, 17% and 25% respectively. Unfortunately these ticklists are private, which is a shame as they are truly impressive!
Recently another friend has created his own FA ticklist, which is a really eclectic mix. I’ve only done 3 of the 64 routes on that list, but I’d definitely like to do more. But he’s set that one up as partners only, I’m afraid…
There was an interesting debate on UKC a year or so ago, which resulted in some changes to the Logbooks coding. I know Mr Moles of this parish was involved, and may even have influenced the changes. I admit that I was a bit disappointed in how that panned out, not least because a lot of interesting people (or do I mean people with interesting logbooks?) made their logbooks private in the wake of this debate. I know there was some comment from people who were finding the logbooks were affecting them in negative ways, but those were never situations I had experienced.
I often use the logbooks for inspiration, and to see if a route I am interested in doing has been climbed recently. Obviously this is largely irrelevant for sport climbing, but for obscure trad, particularly on mountain crags which inevitably become dirty and overgrown over time, it can be invaluable. It’s great to glean a bit of info too, so it’s always disappointing to see a big route logged but either no comments or the climber being hidden.
My logbook is currently set to partners only, which I think is sensible as I tend to use it as a personal diary with warts and all write ups of the day and what went on. And I certainly wouldn’t want to inflict that on an unsuspecting public.
As for my FAs ticklist, a couple of years ago I suddenly thought – sod it, I’ll make it public. Since when it has drifted into the obscurity it deserves…
