🚀 go-pugleaf

In ed.general Sam Nelson <sam@ssrl.org.uk> wrote:
> In article <5c2gf1F2v98v7U1@mid.individual.net>,
>  Peter Clinch <p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk> writes:
>> And it's stupid to /undersell/ yourself.

> Oh, I dunno.  My relatively limited experience of rock-climbers (my power-
> weight ratio is all wrong for it---I blame my grandparents) leads me to
> conclude that the ones that make a fuss are the wasters, and the ones that
> don't are worth listening to.

That's true of some climbers, but there have always been a surprising
number of highly articulate eccentrics among climbers. Doug Haston for
example was famously and characteristically dour, but some of his
climbing partners were rather good writers as well as climbers. If you
hang around on mountain summits you'll meet many more intellectuals,
academics, artists, writers, etc. than you will in your local
gymnasium.

With respect to the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, however,
it was designed to attract custom from a much wider clientele than
just the old-time bothy-dossing rock tigers. It has office conference
and shop space to sell, and a variety of gym-type equipment for
fitness and other training, in addition to which the modern indoor
climbing wall has also created its own specific enthusiasts and sport.

One of the interesting ideas of the original founders was to exploit
these "more than just an indoor climbing wall" aspects in order to
finance a much grander facility than just a bigger and better indoor
climbing wall. 

IMHO they succeeded. It *is* impressively grand, enough so to have
attracted a number of international events and fully deserve the
"international" in its name.

-- 
Chris Malcolm        cam@infirmatics.ed.ac.uk              DoD #205
IPAB,  Informatics,  JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]