Mountain 141 (Sept/Oct 1991) | Magazine

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Bernard Newman:

Editorial Comment

To Publish or Not to Publish

Some weeks ago the Great Slab at Froggatt was vandalised when someone chipped large positive holds up the line of John Allen's classic route Hair less Heart [sic]. The holds were sub­sequently filled in. When I heard this news I was as hurt and indignant as anyone but decided not to publish the story in Mountain. I did not want to publicise such mindless van­dalism and reward such a per­vert in print. I phoned around my brother (and sister) editors in the domestic magazines tor solidarity.

They ail made sympathetic noises but in the end competitive paranoia prevailed and they all ran the story. So now we know that if you want a knee jerk reaction story to ap­ pear in the mags, just go out and chip a gritstone classic.

As to this latest outrage per­haps a precedent was set on Cloggy by the painting of a picture on Great Wall and the subsequent publicity which accrued.

I approached a group ot climbers at Froggatt for their views on this piece of "art'', they described it as pathetic and disgusting. As to the inscription on the slab: "This guy has no mind." they said, or "soul" for that matter, thought I. If his identity is discovered by the climbing world he probably won't have any "body" either!