Death.

I read this morning that young Northern England climber and UKClimbing regular Ian Jackson had died in a sport climbing lower off / abseiling accident in the Alps... This has provoked some thought.

[ To give some context: Firstly I am pretty intolerant of "the youth of UKC". There seems to be a prominent number of kids on there whose naivety, immaturity, and lack of awareness escalates to irritating heights when they are allowed to spout unchecked shite on a public forum. Secondly I am pretty intolerant of many climbing "accidents" - having been involved with, and traumatised by, a few, I have a hard line on the typical avoidable incompetence that leads to climbing accidents (commonly with gear ripping these days - just this last weekend I was witness to a ridiculous near-miss at Willersley - a 16 year old kid attempting his first VS at this entirely unsuitable crag in front of his father and friend....10m up a steep groove/crack, no gear in as 3-4 bits had fallen out as he passed (!!), nearly coming off when testing a loose hold....thankfully he managed to get safe enough to lower off, and we managed to convey, politely, the utter bloody idiocy of the situation). ]

This situation is different though...

I met Ian briefly at Black Crag in Borrowdale (I was, pre-injury, faffing up Grand Alliance, he was fighting up Prana - and had the decency to acknowledge how fearsome the crux is). He seemed like a youthful but decent guy then - a kid, but one who was firmly into climbing, competent, and knew what he was on about. But, more so, when I read his postings online, he was STILL a decent guy on there. He had the familiar youthful enthusiasm, but with much less of the bullshit and none of the naivety that most of his sub-peers displayed. I - and I do not say this retrospectively, this was how I felt at the time - respected him for that, and respected him as a simply good and keen climber.

Further, a good and keen climber with a solid enough grounding in trad climbing and an early maturity that showed a lot of promise for the future - he was not one of the gear-ripping brigade, he was someone I'd have trusted to go climbing with. But, even the most competent people, we all make mistakes, even if we are 99.9% perfect with our safety-according-to-situation, there is still that 0.1%. And most of the time we get away with that 0.1%. We forget once to do up our belay screwgate....but no-one falls and it stays shut. We accidentally tie into just leg-loops....but realise a short way up and lower safely. We backclip a crucial, directional piece of gear....but don't fall off.

Sadly, occasionally, a minor mistake coincides with a situation where the consequences are disastrous. The luck of the draw, Russian Roulette with 10000 chambers and one bullet....climbing can be made safe almost all of the time, but there's still that small possibility. From the brief description "sport climbing accident, whilst threading a chain", it sounds like Ian just had the bad luck of that small possibility. It could happen to anyone, as it happened in the past, but it happened to him, and now he is dead.

Having met him and interacted online, that is quite a shock. Dead is very final - this kid, whom I remember looking up from the crimps of Prana's crux whilst I was looking down sorting out ab ropes, is now gone forever - and a very harsh price to pay for climbing, for someone who shouldn't have paid it. May he rest in peace, and may the other climbers I know stay alive. It could happen to anyone but please don't let it happen to YOU.