August CMC Club Night - Hugh Logan

Um, in summary: Come along and hear one person talk about how two other people did something that two other people again did.  I think I'll get someone else to go along and they can tell me about it later.

...So Hugh Logan can watch.  I think that is officially postmodern.

Hugh the historian invented the modern era of climbing.  It started in the mid 70's and ended in the mid 80's when Bill Denz died in a small avalanche in the Himalayas. Hugh wrote the first ever Mt Cook guidebook which put him into the position of having to judge and 'grade' the relative merits of the achievements of our Kiwi climbers here.  It was a significant achievement for the time.

Unfortunatley Hughs' commitment to documenting what had been done completely failed to comprehend what type of alpine might be done in the future.  Thus his version of history was overly influenced by the climbs of his peers at the time.  Additionally he deliberately ignored the true story of how events unfolded in order to focus his version of climbing events on a single personality.

As a reaction to this focus on the person, rather than the climb itself, future efforts compensated by concentrating on the climbing itself, instead of the persons involved.

Unfortunately the official recorders have entirely missed out on this fundamental seachange.  How and why this is so is beyond my comprehension, but what it meant was that we were still living in an era or era's where our heroes were all dead  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6yTRq_rJg4

There is nothing we as human beings could do to compare to these heroic guys.  So all a guy could do was try to do something different.  Therefore instead of that macho guts and glory bullshit perhaps there was an opportunity for geekiness and technical ability to shine through as a legitimate alternative?

What happened next, as a reaction to Hugh Logans' version of climbing based around a single personality has not been recognized, but it can be considered as being representative of the post modern era.

Who can forget this?...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZH2fknRMLE&feature=related

At any rate that post '85 era is a long time ago now.  What still keeps it relevant is that since then climbing has decelerated from being a rapid aquisition for new or big routes, to simply being a shadow of it's former self.

How this happened is a mystery.  At least Disco hasn't triumphed over Punk. 

Perhaps apathy has triumphed over what really matters in life, when one sacrificed himself for a greater and aesthetically pure principle.

I'm feeling too exasperated to write anything more now.

I actually tried to name an insignificant little peak Mt Hugh Logan once, but unfortunately the Geographic board rejected it on the grounds that he was still alive, so I called it Chosspile Peak instead.

He's an Aucklander so thats okay Johnny

I LOVE the grimace !!!

Sorry for the confusion. Steve Moffat wore a pair of boots that were crafted based on 100 year old vintage hobnail boots. My understanding was that, compared with other members of the party wearing modern single leathers, he suffered mild frostbite during the reenactment. This may have also been the result of being wet/cold all over in vintage clothing!!