Good Manners Cost Nothing

Sunday 10th January 1999 - Coire an t-Sneachda was, as usual, popular. Conditions looked superb, so we chose Spiral Gully whose first belay is shared with Wavelength. Somebody was well up pitch one of Wavelength, so we patiently had coffee and geared-up. As soon as the second moved from the belay, we started up the easy ground.

Sometimes, if not banked out, the slabby section at the foot of the buttress is climbed as an extra pitch. Martin and myself decided that this was the safest option. The steep angle and soft snow would give little chance of self-arrest if a slip occurred. Established on the belay, roped up and ready to go. "That's the peace shattered," Martin groaned.

Two climbers, short-roped together, were making a beeline for us. "They might be going for Wavelength," I muttered. "What's your plans lads?" I shouted at them, while they were still some distance below.

"Spiral Gully," the man shouted back.

"Well, that's what we're doing!" I started up the pitch. Once past the steep part I could see it was easy going for the next fifty or sixty feet to the belay. When I looked down I was horrified to see the two climbers still roped together and soloing right beside my rope. I decided that I had better get to the belay, rather than have a shouting match with no protection. I had just stepped onto the belay ledge and glanced down, when the leader climbed over my rope.

When he arrived on the ledge, I waited for him to say something – these words could very possibly be his last. Silence. "I think you're an impatient git," I screamed in his ear. Silence.

Now he was trying to tap a nut into a badly flared part of the same crack as one of my own belay points. Martin was now climbing and I was keeping an eye on my nut, while the idiot was still trying to tap in his wire a centimetre below mine. A miss-aimed tap glanced my wire.

"Right, that's it, you've had your ***! chance. If you even look at that nut again I'm going to burst you!" Silence. "I want your name and address you little ***!."

"If you've got an attitude like that towards me, I'm not going to converse with you" he replied. I glanced down at his second, who looked terrified. I turned my wrath back to the leader, informing him to keep Spiral Gully; that "we would change our plans, just to get away from you, you incompetent little arsehole!"

With that Martin arrived. "What's happening," he puffed.

"Pure bad manners. We'll just go up Wavelength," I said. Needless to say, the rest of the day passed without incident.

This little incident has been debated, and argued over from Perth through to Skye. Thankfully, this behaviour seems generally uncommon, but not unheard of. I haven't been climbing that long and in ten years this has only happened once. Personally speaking, and on behalf of my local climbing comrades, we would never dream of interfering in someone's climbing day.

Apart from being impolite, to climb directly under a leader, be it summer or winter, is madness. He might dislodge a large block onto your head. To deliberately queue jump over a belay is just stupid. Antagonizing people in an already dangerous situation is just tempting fate. The major consensus amongst my colleagues is that the man concerned should think himself very lucky. Nearly everyone I have asked, including some professionals, have said that given the same situation, the man would have been eating ice axe. In the eyes of the police, the man is guilty of a breach of the peace, but any form of violent retaliation would not be looked upon lightly.

I have since heard a story from Ben Nevis, where two lead climbers, upset with hours of abuse from the pair who were following them, decided that the only course of action left, was to 'excrete' on them. The ploy was very successful. The climbers were left in peace for the rest of the day.

If this worrying trend of road-rage type, queue jumping and general lack of respect towards other climbers is allowed to continue unchecked, then it can only be a matter of time before we see our first fatal accident, or even attempted murder in the mountains. Whymper, Mallory, Professor Collie – all these pioneering spirits of our glorious game, would undoubtedly be horrified at the style in which some of our modern day activists conduct themselves.

Surely we do not have to be told in an official capacity, how to behave towards each other while mountaineering (i.e., climbing highway code). Bodies such as the MCS and the BMC have lavished pages and pages about climbing ethics, bird nesting restrictions, etc. But not a paragraph to be found on climbing etiquette towards other climbers. Perhaps this oversight should be looked into in any future guidebook publications.
(Editors note: MCofS are investigating such information regarding 'groups')

Our little country's mountains and crags deserve more than to be rushed; bagged like some consumable. A little time spent, admiring the sun, dappled clouds, smelling the fresh mountain air, imagining the awesome forces involved in shaping the very handhold you cling to will never be missed. If you enter into our climbing world with the right spirit, respect for both mountain and mountaineer, you will not go un-rewarded.

Be on your guard my friends.

 YOUR COMMENTS 

Stravaiger wrote:
An interesting article and I not only sympathise but agree with Mr. MacKenzie. I've been pursued up moderate rock routes by soloing climbers and indeed on one ascent of a route on the Cobbler, under the polished overhang, I crouched in close to let the chap solo past me and actually get over the overhang while I stood on some pretty dodgy holds. He was quite courteous and I refrained from abuse as the weather was great, it was an easy route and I felt fine leading it! The crags these days seem so crowded it's not worth the bother of gearing up to crawl up a route in fits and starts - it once took us ten hours to do Eagle Ridge on Lochnagar due to the amount of traffic on it and if you don't solo Tower Ridge in mid summer you can forget summiting before nightfall. Perhaps we are seeing a trend creeping in from abroad where intolerance and downright abuse is the norm. Four years ago I climbed the Matterhorn by the Hornli Ridge and by the time we reached the summit we were hoarse from screaming at the guides who were commandeering the route and phyisically pushing their clients down the fixed ropes. It got so bad we eventually took the initiative at each stance and forged our way up the lines. We didn't have the luxury of etiquette and good manners as a thunderstorm was brewing. So, perhaps Mr. Mackenzie's isolated incident isn't as isolated as he thinks. In fact it's rife.

someone else wrote
i'm too evil. i would have reminded those guys how easy it would be to hide their bodies.

annon wrote:
Hey it's the price you pay for being involved in a popular hobby, though over the last 10 years or so it has been reduced to the status of a sport and has attracted a strong element of competitiveness. Which has unfortunately resulted in the kind of action I heard others complain about on their return from the Alps, back in the mid 90's.
Accept it, avoid it and play safe. Because if it's not the idiots at the bottom chasing you up, it's the idiots at the top throwing rocks down.

Bruce Strachan wrote
This type of situation is all to common. It`s becoming more the norm than a strange occurance these days. Just yesterday myself and one of my mates were up the Buchaille and decided on Agag`s, I led up the 1st pitch just behind (I gave him 30ft) the 2nd,but he had some bother so I ended up hanging about, at no time did I try and move through, but the guy who was leading offered to let me lead through to the next stance, this is cool. I`ve seen me soloing on severe`s, and easy v/s`s and staying behind leaders, I`d never try and force them out the road, that`s just bad form,but in most cases (as in the game of golf) it makes sense to let the faster party (or person) through.

I can recall another instance this year in Coire an-t-Sneachda on the Runnell, when our party of 2 spent 5 hours in this gully with only 1.5 hours spent climbing, basically due to the incompetence of the female party 2 ropes ahead of us.. they spent almost 20 minutes searching for a belay at one point, I took about 5 seconds to place a bomb proof rock about 2 feet from their multiple belays, so I`d say a lot of the impatience, or crag rage is founded on the fact that a lot of people who aren`t totally competent are out on the crags taking 5 hours for a 120m grade 2...etc.. but the fact remains you have a crack with them and a laugh and lighten up... never ever try and force your way through, it`s not just bad manners, it`s against the spirit of mountaineering... but there`s always discreet persuassion, if you`re that desperate to get past try a bribe... or go on a climbing wall!!...
ps if you`re holding up a faster party with me in it, please please let us through...it`s not that I`m impatient, just that I hate coming off the hill in pitch blackness... remember the McCinnes rule... the secret of succesful winter climbing is an early start and a fast climbing speed...

Jamie wrote
I think the author is out of order. The other team were effectively climbing paralel to him, not over him, on what is very easy ground - they probably wouldn't even have recognised it as part of the route. Granted, they should have belayed well out of your way, but offloading a string of obscenities isn't doing anyone any good. It's bad manners to overtake unbidden, but equally to allow a faster team to overtake safely shows courtesy and commonsense.

Judith Belford wrote
Sorry to Bruce Strachan, but he IS impatient. It's exactly his type of attitude that puts me off leading on snow or rock and getting the experience that will allow me to make efficient placements of gear. If he's so god almighty wonderful, what was he doing on an easy route like the Runnell? And what kind of other climbers did he expect to find there? Stevie Haston? Crag rage isn't justifiable in the circumstances he describes - it's especially important NOT to get steamed up while some struggling novice does his/her best to learn the job. And by the way, what's the relevance of the grades of the routes he was soloing, or the gender of the team you were following? His remarks say more about him than about their alleged object.

Eddie McHutchison writes
Personally I don't agree with either of the protagonists as both highlight the key failing of the climbing fraternity - arrogance and ego. This is highlighted by agression to those who know less or try to give advice, and a smug certainty that their view is the only one that counts. In short an elitism pervades and meets the needs of a small group of people who find it easier to hide up mountains rather than share their experiences and socialise with people. I've walked up mountains for over 15 years and in the last few started climbing. When climbing I've met experienced climbers who were hesitant to give advice as they had been abused in earlier attempts. I've also met monosyblic climbers that couldn't even acknowledge a salutation or have been abusive or condescending if a conversation was even attempted.

As pointed out this is a minority and probably a side effect of self reliance on the hill and the loner mentality of a few that the sport attracts. However it is an issue that should be addressed by all, especially if any of us get too big for our own climbing boots and start to intrude into other peoples enjoyment of the climbing experience.

Pitch-In