Climbing like this is inherently full of personal risk, but I often choose to do it this way. I don't sue the local crofter whos land is nearby, nor do I go up against the Islands authorities becuase I injure myself through my own actions, I take full responsibility for them. My point is highlighted in a recent thread on Scottish Climbs, about Reuben & Alien Rock being sued for someone elses ineptness, & there seems to be a strange mentality creeping into climbing. This will happen more as climbing & bouldering becomes widely accessable to the masses. People who really should stick to wearing high heels, shopping & playing out their lives on computor games can now walk into a climbing wall, injure themselves, & it's everyone elses fault. The same is true in the mountains when you look at the annual Mountain Rescue Reports & the growing amount of truly ridiculous & avoidable call-outs in comparrison to say, the '60's, which grow steadily each year. Joe Punter can stroll into an outdoor shop of his choosing, buy a load of North Face gear & attempt the Cullin in a winter blizzard. Mr Punter can also freely purchase climbing gear in the same way & take himself into a climbing centre, which works on trust when he signs the disclaimer & asks him if 'he's competent at belaying' ecetera.

You can buy a degree on the internet these days & that's the problem, in the speedy have it all now world, fewer & fewer people care about learning their 2x-table, fewer & fewer people have the humilty to accept they are unskilled at something & start a path of true learning from first base; each wanting to be an immediate Einstien without the work & the journey, in which that experience & it's unwritten detailed intimacies teaches them. Everything is so much more freely available in todays society & theres a short-cut into most avenues of living, but these short-cuts people are taking will ultimately kill them. In attempting to bypass years of experience, years of training & doggedly learned abiltity, they are relying more & more on governing bodies, rules, insurance & tepid guidlines rather than practical ability & realistic self-awarness, be that, individually or in a supervisory capacity over children. This to my mind places climbing & bouldering in a dangerous mythical place, purporting it to be, risk free, pre-packaged excitement of a Centre-Parks type genre, where nobody gets a smashed thigh & pelvis, tendons never snap suddenly & nobody dies violently on a sunny day in a remote part of the country. It's no wonder the uneducated new wave, scream 'law suit!' when they stub a toe. Reading the weather, belay safety, trad-leading, learning to place yourself in a dropzone when bouldering [learning to fall] & mountain awarness, will become brushed aside, GPS instrumentation replacing map & compass skills, common sense replaced by cleverly recited, but fully mis-understood climbing whizz & bang, & it all adds up to a pretty poor future outlook.

None of these climbing, mountaineering, bouldering skills come ready to use in the pocket of a new TNF jacket. Nor do they mystically appear like a Genie from the hologram of a Visa card. Sorry to disappoint those who believed they did. I think the average Saturday climber needs to re-assess their personal motivations & awareness's within climbing & bouldering within what for us, is a lifestyle, not a pastime. Bolts fail, holds fail, ropes fail, crimps fail, placements fail, & occasionally even quickdraws, but none of these fail us as much as our own human abilities. Nor do boulders care where we go or on whom, or how, we land when we leave their holds-into the open air. In the proccess of climbing Trace Element RH, I had to learn it from new, I didn't go in knowing everything & just climb it, nor should a novice at an indoor wall assume they are safe beyond their own ability or unquestionable in their understanding. God help us if these people ever go trad-leading or bouldering in the wilds & break their backs. I fear it will tie the Highland authorities up in years of court appearances & law suits. Have some self-accountabilty & responsibilty for your own actions. I fell out of bed the other week, so that must be Alien Rocks fault as well, I mean, Chaos Theory can prove it....