Reasons to be cheerful (about ukb)

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andy popp

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 21, 2005
Messages
5,757
Location
with the Woolybacks
Phew! It's all been a bit torrid, hasn't it. I must be one of the old guard (in actual age and length of membership), and barely deserve to be called a climber any longer, and yet I stick around. There must be a few things I like. Here are a (random) few:

1. Climbing or not I am still am absolute nerd for all the latest climbing news. This is still one of the best places to get it.
2. Fiend's videos, which almost invariably introduce me to some new crag/route/boulder I've never heard of before
3. The incredibly rich and wonderful book thread
4. The fact that a post I made 16 years to ask if it was raining on the east side led to a thread that is still going and is 116 pages long now
5. You can ask almost any question and get a serious, well-informed answer
6. There are old friends

You?
 
Many excellent friendships.

And… Black Dog Club. Chapeau @lagerstarfish for all his (ongoing) work with this.
 
Home from home, I suppose.
Some very stimulating conversations here, about incredibly diverse topics. In a way, that feels like the old bunkhouse trips I remember as a young man. I don’t think the climbing community has changed quite as much as some seem to think.

It’s always been something that seems to attract thoughtful people from a vast spectrum of life.
 
Top thread Andy, I was thinking of starting something similar.

Where to begin.

1. Great knowledge of climbing throughout various styles and eras.

2. Good cutting edge news reporting with remusbot somehow knowing half the significant ascents before they've even happened.

3. Some very high level climbers who can talk the talk to back up walking the walk.

4. Good balance of soul climbers and goal climbers.

5. Good spectrum of climbing genres up for debate.

6. Some fun ethical / grade debates derived from the above.

7. A worryingly high level of intellect and academia from some posters.

8. Good bantz including some derived from the above (Duma; "A 17th century alchemy textbook FD just happened to have lying around")

9. Good focused injury advice, especially if you fused together all the main UkB posters into one I doubt there would be any working organs or limbs left.

10. A useful intolerance of too much banal dross cluttering up threads.

That will do for now.
 
Oldmanmatt said:
Home from home, I suppose.
Some very stimulating conversations here, about incredibly diverse topics. In a way, that feels like the old bunkhouse trips I remember as a young man. I don’t think the climbing community has changed quite as much as some seem to think.

It’s always been something that seems to attract thoughtful people from a vast spectrum of life.
Actually, thinking about it; 35-40 years ago, I was one of the “new breed” ruining the climbing world/life with Lycra, loud colours and the dubious ethics like clipping bolts. Often feeling quite proud of pissing off the old army surplus clad gits.

Who I now miss…
 
Opinions on climbing related topics that are not just regurgitation of recieved wisdom but formed from actual experience is increadibly useful — especially when it differs from, or are out of, my experience.
 
Meeting and climbing with a lot of the original Sheffield crew in my early days, then bumping into them all at odd intervals of the next 20 years! Also meeting many others around the country.

A source of climbing knowledge, particularly around destinations and training long before this info was available on the internet. Got the pdf topo for my first visit to magic wood off here in the early 2000’s and Limestone Cowboys on FB was mainly made up of folk of here too. I would say it remains a great source for informed advice on both of these areas even today.

As others have said, the breadth of knowledge on what is quite a small forum is always amazing. No one has needed contaminated land advice yet, but I stand ready
 
teestub said:
As others have said, the breadth of knowledge on what is quite a small forum is always amazing. No one has needed contaminated land advice yet, but I stand ready

My father was a defendant in one of the biggest court cases on contaminated land in Sweden. The case was so well known that it was used in teaching when my sister studied law some fifteen years later.
 
I usually climb on my own, but when I do arrange to meet up with other people it is with people I have met through UKB

these cunts, for example

GCtDnZKWMAAf1VC
 
Great thread Andy.

I think I’m just over twenty years on here.

Like you, I’m not really climbing any more, but still totally hooked on not only the big news, significant first ascents and repeats, but also the stories of friends I know and people I don’t know on here just going out climbing.

I’ve met, climbed with and made some really good friends off UKB, and lots of old friends of mine are either somewhat regular posters or lurkers who pop up from time to time.

The various film, TV, music and especially the books threads are a real goldmine for the good stuff.

Lots of good, helpful people with a whole range of interests and enormous expertise in all sorts of areas.

Thanks to Bubba for starting the thing and then Shark and Habrich for taking it over.
 
To me it's a rare corner of the Internet where you can have a debate in which people are (usually) thoughtful, respectful and invariably very well informed. I've often found discussions on here thought-provoking or have lead me to change my view.

Despite being a small and obscure forum, it seems to be the first and best place for nerdy climbing news, without much of the dross.

Long live UKB
 
Like Lake Wobegon, on UKB all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and the children are all above average.
 
seankenny said:
Like Lake Wobegon, on UKB all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and the children are all above average.

Oh boy. I found that book, tattered and almost falling apart, on a crappy car boot type thing, in Vallon; one long camping summer. Couple of Francs. Weather had turned and we spent three or four days moping in the tents. I’d never heard of Keillor. I don’t think I uttered much more than a grunt until I turned the last page.

Sorry. I’m all reflective and a bit mazed. I joined the forum, properly, 14 years ago, looking for beta and info about crags etc around BCN where I’d got myself stuck for a year. Then when life went south a couple of months later, it proved to be an unexpected source of support, advice and a lifeline. Also, somewhere I could pour out the weird ramblings my mind threw up, to an understanding and, crucially, not too large an audience.
Often here, there is an honesty amongst strangers, impossible in real life and always someone who has knowledge and experience of almost anything you might need.

Anyway, today is the 15th anniversary of the murder of my partner’s husband, the parole board sent his killer to open conditions last week.
Last week, was the 24 anniversary of my first date with my late wife, on the 12th, it will be 12 years since she died.
My mother was diagnosed with a brain tumour three weeks ago, then had a heart attack two weeks ago, released from hospital on Saturday. Yesterday was my parents 75th birthday. They were born on the same day and have been together since they were 14. I’m 3000 miles away. For the first time, wilfully blind as I am, I know there isn’t long left, neither will cope without the other.

I don’t get to climb much anymore. I think I’m just having a rest, but, I’m starting to feel old. Coming here and debating stupid shite, reading the informed climbing threads, is a surprisingly important and cathartic thing; even Dan (he’ll be back in a month).

I wish there were more female posters, it’s a little out of balance. I do wonder if that’s more that men need somewhere to be honest-ish, without having to actually make eye contact, rather than it being “unwelcoming “.
 
Oldmanmatt said:
Anyway, today is the 15th anniversary of the murder of my partner’s husband, the parole board sent his killer to open conditions last week.
Last week, was the 24 anniversary of my first date with my late wife, on the 12th, it will be 12 years since she died.
My mother was diagnosed with a brain tumour three weeks ago, then had a heart attack two weeks ago, released from hospital on Saturday. Yesterday was my parents 75th birthday. They were born on the same day and have been together since they were 14. I’m 3000 miles away. For the first time, wilfully blind as I am, I know there isn’t long left, neither will cope without the other.

Bloody hell Matt, that is a hell of a lot. Go easy on yourself these days.

And yes, I wish there were more female posters too. I have to accept that some people see and experience this place in a much less positive light than I do.
 

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