Ken Wilson's MOUNTAIN Magazine #1 ***the whole enchilada !!!

"At that point, in the mid 1970s, Ken was at the height of his powers, editing Mountain magazine, a publication that captured the Zeitgeist of world mountaineering as nothing had done before."

“On real cliffs with real dangers,” he wrote, “one has to rapidly master the skill and judgment required to avoid accidents. One must find the route, assess the problems, make the moves while also placing reliable protection. In addition, the powerful aura and complexity of cliffs has to be faced, together with descent problems, benightment and bad weather.” To older climbers, he was the guardian of the soul of mountaineering.

"Following the road from Kinlochewe one cannot fail to be impressed by the first view of Beinn Eighe, which towers into the sky on the right. Even without snow it is enlivened by the glint of light on its vast carpet of white quartzite scree. Beside the road the Allt Ghairbhe chatters merrily as it threads the barren moorland. The glen swings round to the right and the glittering blue of Loch Clair comes into view, backed by Sgurr Dubh."

Its critics, and those infrequent visitors from the gritstone-littered northern moors, see it as an overcrowded jungle where no climber leads a route until he has perfected it by numerous tight rope ascents and can play it as a concert pianist fingers a well-known piece; where even Crew and Whillans have been seen off by aging second-rate locals; where the two greatest products of the crag, Boysen and Bonington, have returned after Alpine epics to flounder on a rope so tight that when plucked it really admits an unfailing G sharp.

Harrison's is a microcosm of human strengths and weaknesses, more so than any other crag in Britain. Leading is relatively rare, the difficulty of any climb is purely technical and boldness plays little part. What a climber is prepared to undertake is limited only by his desire not to appear completely foolish or incompetent. The vein, the bold, the flamboyant, the timid, all compete for their place. Crowded hustle is alien to the high mountains, and to try to equate Harrison's with them is a mistake. Harrison's is unique; its fascinations are hidden, not behind mists or long approach marches, but behind its reputation, its difficulty, and above all behind people. It is not a replacement for Wales, which is said to ruin your technique for Harrison's climbing, nor even for gritstone. It stands alone.

He has been climbing mountains since his early teens and his book, “Rock Climbers in Action in Snowdonia”, published in 1965, is a cult book among climbers.

Jones is at present in the Fitzroy area, with Americans Yvonne Choinnard and Lito-Tejada Flores, attempting a big, and so far secret, climb.
Correspondent: Chris Jones