Rock and Snow adventures with John and Richard. Early in our climbing career, John and I would hire Richard Mansfield for a week to work on basic climbing skills for alpine mountaineering, including rock climbing, snow& glacier travel, and ice climbing. Richard was a saint. John and I were fundamentally capable but perpetually out of shape due to our work schedules and constantly tired, hung over, or otherwise distracted. Richard would always yell at John and me, telling us to stop “Faffing About,” – which loosely translates as being too slow and persistently fussing with our gear. We always seemed to be packing and repacking, trying on boots for a proper fit, forgetting a critical piece of kit, and, more often than not, preferring the environs of a cafe, bar, or restaurant to a summit. John and I were the perfect partners. He often joked that our climbing escapades were merely a ruse to buy the latest climbing gear and clothing and to keep Patagonia in business.
Some pre-route rock skills refresher below:
The Index is a lovely rock climb off the Flégère gondola and Index lift. We had a couple of outings over the years, both rock and snow.
Yes, I really used to rock climb!
It’s the same route in the snow below.
I love reviewing these old photos to see the gear John and I used to use and our clothing. The boots were at least three times the weight of current climbing boots. Crampons and axes were heavy steel compared to today’s lightweight alloys. And the clothing is much better than the Granimals colors of yesterday. Our gear reminded Carter of the Volkswagon Harlequin Hatchback 😂.
Sadly, in retrospect, I think Richard deserved better clients. I know he hoped we would get our act together and finally get some proper climbs underway. Somehow, he continued to let us hire him, so I guess we were not all that bad—most certainly his most humorous and good-natured clients.
Fortunately, I got up the Grand Paradisio, Jungfrau, and a few other local good peaks in John’s absence. Somehow, over the years, we managed a fair bit of good climbing but never had any huge summits together. During our three climbing years in Chamonix, we never summited Mont Blanc—a future win for sure. As of 2024, John and I still need to bag Western Europe’s tallest peak.
