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I agreed Ben had little evidence for his ascents, however I have never said that I don't believe him.
You have confirmed everything I thought of you. Do you honestly believe that comment?
I though you were studying Law? Surely you understand expressing doubt does not necessarily mean outright disbelief. I still maintain there is not enough evidence on this for anyone but Ben to know the truth
Yes. I am studying Law, but the fact remains even if I where to be studying Horticultural science, it still wouldn’t be difficult to remember the occasion/s when I heard you, amongst many others, make outright remarks that Ben is a liar. It also seems I am not alone in hearing these remarks, and Chris has heard you too. Yet you go onto to deny it publically, thus it’s getting silly and should end here. But we both know the truth.
I really don't follow your logic here. Most people present their evidence up front and as a result never have any doubters. You seem to be on some kind of mission to actually create doubters? And then meet them? Why? It seems bizarre.
Again, I believe you are wrong. Most people do not present their evidence up front. Look at any big climbing webpage or magazine; you will often see news reports of people's ascent, but will never see a list of their evidence beneath. Never. I agree this is a shame- I wish climbing was a bit more regulated and that is why I am more than happy to provide evidence if asked. But I would firstly want to know the reasons why the evidence was required, which I believe is far enough as climbing is a personal activity and my ascents mean a lot to me. I would not want to provide evidence for the sole reason of a sick bitter joke.
people present their evidence up front and as a result never have any doubters
For arguments sake, if I were to use your example, I could probably construe doubts about pretty much everyone in the climbing scene; I have never heard or seen any of your 'evidence', does that mean I should have doubts about you? No, it does not. I believe it means I have little interest in your climbing and give you the benefit of the doubt. I am sure that if I paid an interest into your life and wanted to gain evidence regarding your ascents I would not go round Sheffield pubs asking Tom, Dick and Harry. I would just ask you, which would be the only way to get information that was correct, and not formed by 'Chinese whispers'.
On a final note, you claim there are no videos of me climbing, and I should release some videos to clear up any rumors that may, or may not be forming, which in hindsight is a fare point. Yet it doesn’t take a genius to get hold of a substantial amount of footage of me climbing. For example;
Chris Doyle has openly distributed a film called 'Perky Pinky' featuring a me climbing in the school, doing pretty much every hard problem in there (in one session may I add) campussing 1-5-9 about ten times on the trot, and doing 9 one armed pull ups after about 4 hours of solid climbing. Obviously, this is indoor climbing, I am certain you will believe it has not relevance to a 5c arete on the grit. However, your opinion is particularly rare on this one, and I believe this film does my capabilities quite well.
If you look a little further, Doyle also has given out a film called Obsession. Yes, I would be the first to admit that Doyle did not capture my actual ascent of Action Directe. But he did, in the only session of good conditions, film me climb from the second move to the end pretty easily, and go on to climb the first two moves with ease. Obviously not a full ascent, but clearly showing my ability to climb the route with relative ease. This film also shows me walk up a hard 8B, in direct sun making the conditions less than ideal. This ascent led Markus Bock to express amazement, (as this route is renowned for needing perfect conditions for its slopey crux pinch). I also went on to do the single crux move ( a move rated about V13) in one session on an 1 move 8c+ called Vanquish. Again not full ascents, but still showing my capabilities of doing V13 in a session.
I understand you may feel that it is strange that Chris was not there to film Action Directe (just of note, there was five others there, so I am not short of witnesses). But if you talk to me personally, I have very good reasoning, but am not willing to disclose it publicly.
The even eager beaver could also find footage of my climbing a handful of V12/13 boulder problems in the Gunks on the Urban Climber webpage. These where not done in a short session, and again I believe show my ability to climb stuff of this grade with ease.
Not a lot, I agree, but it is a start. I cannot post anything more until I collect my footage from Birmingham (where it is all kept). But out of interest Adam, if I were to provide more footage, what exactly do you believe would help clear things up (i.e. what routes/boulders do I need to provide footage for?), What do I need to show that the above does not show already?
I look forward to your response.