[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to the Psycho Vertical podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here I am, not only a week, weekends and another podcast, you're very lucky, back by no demand whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was thinking I'm a big like people who will ask me what I do for a living.
[SPEAKER_00]: I always say like, I write books, and I always add, because it's very good to be self-deprecating, is I write boring books, and the more boring you can make a book, basically the more people buy it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you try and make this like really amazing book with a lot of, you know, like,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't know, you know, I really, you know, are really amazing book.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then it's very hard, like the world full of amazing books.
[SPEAKER_00]: But not many people write like really boring books because you don't think them in the cell, but really it's actually, you know, it's like slow television.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if you, if you make a, you know, a film of just a fire burning in a fireplace, then you know, you got it made or stick a camera on the front of a train and let it
[SPEAKER_00]: drive through nowhere, you know, everyone loves that kind of shit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yes, so I often say that yeah, right, I write really boring books.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the more boring you can make it, the more like technical and anoly can make it, not sexually.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would be too exciting.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not, I've had to read that kind of thing always makes me eyes water.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we had that, I've ever had that story,
[SPEAKER_00]: Who was it, the guy who plays out of Lea Kick, the guy who's like, always be the middle main, that guy, the actor, that old guy, but he's dead now, but he played Dumbledore as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he always used to, is it, is it him?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he always used to make things up, so when people, when people ask him questions, like an interviews, so I think there's one...
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he had some role where he played someone who was gay and, like, oh, he must be really hard for you to play, like, you know, like, a gay character and he was like, oh, no, I used to be gay and they were like, and they were like, really?
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, he's feeling like the royal baller and I was, you know, and I was gay and they were like, what, you know, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know why I did your stop at something so I used to make my eyes water and but you just kind of made it up something like that people if you're like People always think you're telling them the truth that these days you just tell them you know people I think you want to believe it
[SPEAKER_00]: I always have this joke where I say to people I used to be in the circus and the guy and they're like, really?
[SPEAKER_00]: You used to be in the circus, I said, yeah, I wasn't very good, but I was the only one who kept the tent back in the bag and like, no, he's like, one of those jokes that really make me laugh in my head, but nobody gets it because you know, he's a tent in it like a big top, it's very hard to get back in the bag.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you start like explaining it, then it doesn't really work, so yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: a bit like the spell game, and I'll probably mention the spell game before, um, if you all don't really get that get the joke, like what you say.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh come on, no one's infallible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, so the French have no word for entrepreneur, that's like George Bush, that's the George Bushism.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so I thought I was going to do something really boring as boring as I can find.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had this email and I didn't
[SPEAKER_00]: So I do apologize to Oscar who sent me this email because it's not like for you it's not boring but to anybody else who got this email then we're like oh my fuck this is like sort of boring like why are you sending me this email but to me it's like it's not I don't find it boring so yeah anyway Oscar I'm gonna read your email out here
[SPEAKER_00]: So hi Andy, happy new year, mate, and I'm feeling a little bit of a bit not too large, so it's a bit sexualised.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, this, this best, Dennis from New Zealand, not from New Zealand, from Australia.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's basically, he's basically asking my thoughts on Balaklava's
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I get, are you ready for this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you ready for this podcast?
[SPEAKER_00]: Switch off all those other ones you've got Light lined up.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the, this is gonna be fucking great all about all about Balaclava's.
[SPEAKER_00]: So It's basically asking, you want's to make one himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good idea and he's wanting some some feedback on my thoughts on
[SPEAKER_00]: Honballer clabbers, it has got a, that's can what I think of the mount and equipment power stretch baller clover, not show about the fit under the chin over the mouth, etc.
[SPEAKER_00]: Show the dry skin extreme of the ears, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do I think about the capoline one?
[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do I think about the PhD extreme balaclava?
[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice valence.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably people who have not even don't even know what a balaclava valence is.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so he wants to make one and he's asking my opinions and so I thought I'd you know Because he said I'll I'll fill you in Oscar.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll give you some give you my feedback on Balaclava.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this entire podcast is going to be about Balaclava So so I was strapping So so first thing first thing about Balaclava is it's like the last thing you ever think of
[SPEAKER_00]: but it's often the first, it's often the thing that's on your mind the most.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you're climbing, like what are you going to put in your head is really important.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're talking here like winter climbing, winter climbing, winter mountain airing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Balaklava is like really, really an important thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like what are you putting your head is really important?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's not actually true that, you know, if you put a bell, if you put a hat on your head, it saves you like, you know, it's like better than wearing a down suit or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, that's actually true, but that's based on some idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is true that
[SPEAKER_00]: you can definitely regulate your body temperature very effectively by what you put on your head so maybe it's true so you know so say you're so you're getting hot you know if the best thing to do is take your half and you'll you'll cool down quite quickly so maybe it's true
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, and if you're getting cold, if you put on a ball of clover and it's protecting your head, your head more than, you know, that makes like a huge difference.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, so if you extend that, then I would say just as you have like layering layering in your clothing, you should think about layering around your head and I would break that down into
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very hard to get like one piece of clothing that does like head-claw thing that's going to do everything because what like at the the one end But one end you need something that just keeps your your ears warm basically like often when you're wearing a hat
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because you're, because you're, because you, e, e is a very exposed, like, fireman, uh, a fire people, fire, firefighters, they often, they often well, like, really, really highly, fire resistant heat resistant clothing like running into fire and stuff, but they generally, they're e is exposed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason is, is that when they're e is start banning, they know they're like, in a room, which is like, fucking hot, and they're just going to
[SPEAKER_00]: So you have to be careful if you're so well protected, you just like wander into a room which is about to spontaneously combust.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's quite dangerous so you need to expose your ears because your ears are very sensitive and so it's the true, it's kind of true in opposite direction like you're often, you know, if you get your ears frostbitten quite easily because they're just quite thin
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, blood flow to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So often you, the first thing you're protecting is your ears, you know, and things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're, so, so your face.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, so, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and have been like a massive fan of hats.
[SPEAKER_00]: I sort of fleecey hats or that kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because often they're just like a, a step, there's a step between wearing your hat and then putting your
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've often preferred to have a ball of clover that I can sort of roll up a bit like the Royal Marines have stuff like that anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you have like a ball of clover that you can just roll up and use it as a hat so that the classic one would just like a basic power stretch, just style, fleecy ball of clover.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can wear it as a hat and when you get cold, you can like pull it down and you can wear it as a ball of clover.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're going from like a hat basically and the the feathers extreme is where almost all your all your face is protected and you're head and you're along with a pair of goggles then you can have like a full on hurricane force minus 40 winds in your face and you're not going to get but you're not going to get a
[SPEAKER_00]: I prefer me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you can't really do those two things with one balaclava.
[SPEAKER_00]: So often you want to have like you know, like a graduated thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe you might, maybe you might have a very thin light wear balaclava, almost like the wear of like a both for something, which would be like a capoline
[SPEAKER_00]: a little bit still make them, but Patagonia used to make like the other sort of companies do make them but they make like like it's like a cappoline, thermal, underwear kind of basically a wet balaclava and it's good because it packs down to nothing and you can wear it as a balaclava it works it's very good like under a helmet something's very very very thin you can wear it
[SPEAKER_00]: and they're cheap and they're dry really, really quickly and that kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, because often if you're, if you're, if you're going quite, if you're using quite a lot of energy, then you'll often get your head a lot of heat in a normal full-size balaclava.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if it's then windy, then your ears get cold.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just by wearing,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like a base layer, having a base layer balaclava.
[SPEAKER_00]: That kind of tends to work quite well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you can, if you've got a buff, you can also use a buff bit like a balaclava, but it's gonna base layer what on, cause it's kind of cutting the right shape, where it's quite well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you really, so you love your bass layer, so that's your level, that's what you call it, level one, palaclava, stroke, hat, stroke, neck, get, stroke, whatever, you can blow your nose on that web, it can wait for us and it can use it for a discloth or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like quite a useful bit of gear.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you lose your mitten, you can use
[SPEAKER_00]: your spare balaclava on your hand or whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a, you know, it's a quite useful piece of kit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then then on top of that, then you have like your balaclava balaclava, which is a, which is warmer and, you know, is protecting your head.
[SPEAKER_00]: But generally, it doesn't do, it doesn't really do a good job of protecting your face, just because of the shape of balaclava.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not really,
[SPEAKER_00]: cover your face like if you get if you do see ones whether they look like they're designed to cover your face but the generally not generally not very good as just the ordinary balaclava and also the generally not very good at covering your face either they're kind of the worst of both wells so you so that like I'm a massive massive I've always been a massive fan of power stretch because I just think it's like one of the
[SPEAKER_00]: the best fabrics and the kind of the grid fleece like they are one kind of grid fleece is good because it's more breathable than power stretch but it's not as warm because it's not as dense.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm still actually, you know, it's not as bulky.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like a grid style, like Patagonia, R1 Balaklava, is in between a base layer Balaklava and the Balaklava Balaklava, but Power Stretch is like, it's just really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, recently, it's funny, like, when you're, you know, for years, I was sponsored by Patagonia, and then I was, I think I was sponsored by Patagonia,
[SPEAKER_00]: bag house and then and then go and you're again and then Montana something but then eventually you're not sponsored by anyone you always see these these kind of passive aggressive things on Instagram where it's like oh thanks thanks mountain hardware for 30 years of sponsoring me you know shame it's got to end or something or what it looks like the guy the guy's like
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, of going to prison for something, something awful.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, so it's funny when you when you don't get free kit, like my wife's always like, well I didn't get more free kit when you were sponsored by somebody and if I'd known you were going to just pack it all in, then I would have got more kit.
[SPEAKER_00]: But free kit's not that good.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've started buying a lot of old kit that I probably
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean buying it from like e-off e-bear, so we've been buying stuff that I got for free and then probably give it away to somebody because I got other free kit or sold it on e-bear something and now I'm buying it back again so it's kind of weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I think for some reason I'm sure that's like other kit that's as good as kit in the 90s.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for some reason, I think some of the kit in the 90s is better than some of the kit now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it seems like if you got a buy your own kit, your own gear, then robust, robustness and stuff that's kind of that lasts is kind of more important than stuff that's like super super lightware that you've got for free that can just
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a lot of really high-end stuff you'll see in the catalog is just stuff they make for like people response that's nobody else is going to buy it and then it's stuff they give away for free and stuff so so yeah so it's kind of interesting what the what gear you kind of start definitely more careful like if someone's going to write gear reviews ideally to people who buy the stuff that would don't get it for free because they're probably more
[SPEAKER_00]: the more sort of like critical and you know often like things just change because they're because they're meant because they're that's what you have to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to produce new stuff every season.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think in the past things when maybe like a decade before someone to people just get bored of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I go still still say things like, you know, Ron Hill tracksters, you know, I think we still buy them anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they're probably still like the probably the best
[SPEAKER_00]: item of legwear for a lot of stuff, a rock climbing, winter climbing, everything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know what Ronald Traxxters are, they were just like Ron Hill was like a famous marathon runner in the UK and he used to run like a string vest on, but he actually I think you went to university and he did like, um, fact, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: like text styles or something and studied all these new fabrics and then put them into sport clothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So before that, you know, people were running in like cotton shorts and cotton t-shirts and cotton vests and stuff and he kind of really came in and like revolutionized a lot
[SPEAKER_00]: running shorts and and also, and also it's a really, really cool kind of kit and eventually got these sold these company and it just ended up making same as everybody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, Ronald Traxxters, like around the first time I saw my dad wearing a Ronald Traxxters, it would have been like 1980 or something and Ronald Traxxers that looked like tight like leggings, but you don't realize now, but like leggings if we're just not a thing like men didn't well,
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless you were like in the royal ballet or something, like nobody wore leggings.
[SPEAKER_00]: So remember, dad tending her for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like black, you know, tracksuit bottoms on, which were like super tight with like a stripe up the leg.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like, oh my god, my dad's gay or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it was like, he was so weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then slowly became, but there were, I think they were made out of polyester or nylon.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they were very fast, they got wet very quickly, but they dried very quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were like a big improvement.
[SPEAKER_00]: And also they were like their cheap, they were like 15 quid or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the equivalent item of clothing people wearing, then why are the wearing row and bags, which were like a poly cotton trouser, which dried really quickly, but got wet really quickly, which were quite expensive, or like breaches, it was still the day of the breaches,
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, show a style trousers or breaches like this in the UK, so it was before like people were like any kind of tights like that was like a real sort of like late-80s thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so Ronald Traxxters, if you're Ronald Traxxters, if you wore like your
[SPEAKER_00]: probably if you could get the same stuff you had then it's still probably one of the best bass layers probably faster here than any bass layer you can get now because it was, um, it was at Meroclon, and it was polypropylene.
[SPEAKER_00]: and it wasn't very dense.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was, well, it was thick, thick-ish, but it wasn't dense.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it dried very quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you see, if you see like all photographs of fell runners, there would wear like a helly hands and base layer with a cotton t-shirt over the top, which seems a bit weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is the cotton is actually quite good at blocking the wind.
[SPEAKER_00]: and also it helps to suck the moisture out because the wind is sucking the wind is hitting the cotton because it's not fully, it's not fully, it's not fully windproof, it's not fully, it's not pet, anyway, it's permeable.
[SPEAKER_00]: The wind can pass through it, but not fully, so it has a bit of a windproof layer to your base layer, but also as it's passing through it, it's still
[SPEAKER_00]: And your body heat is also like pumping the moisture out and the cotton is sucking the moisture out at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's actually quite a sophisticated thing, but it just really stanked the problems very hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't easy to wash because you couldn't wash it a high temperature because it was polypropylene.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would just melt.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yes, so anyway, what we're talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so some of the, some of the old kit that, the other thing, other classic thing would be like troll, troll, troll trousers, um, trollsters with a trollsters, but they were, they were made out of, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, what's it called?
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I'm not simple, not simple, simple text.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, anyway, they'll made out of this made out of it too.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what Ron, it's what bags of made out of, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or baggy shorts, pack on your bag of shorts and made out of.
[SPEAKER_00]: Supplex.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they're made out of, sublex or some version of sublex, which is nylon, I think, which again,
[SPEAKER_00]: but it's more wind-proofish, but very, very, very tough and dry super quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, I would say...
[SPEAKER_00]: If someone's got a pair of like Patagonia alpenist trousers on shoulder trousers, it's probably cost them like 250 euros or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And someone's got a pair of like 20, 20 euro or 15 euro.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Ron Hill trousers, Ron Hill track, Ron Hill tracksters, or a troll trousers, the troll and the tracks are probably superior for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, look, you don't look great.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like yellow, like bright fluorescent yellow pairs.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the 90s like anything when these now are things black, black and grey, really.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yes or like a lot of the old kit was actually a lot better, so it's one of the current, one of my current bits of clothing I wear a lot is actually a buffalo, buffalo,
[SPEAKER_00]: It was got off eBay, very light, you know, kind of, it's not really compact, but it's small enough, but just like just fiberpile, it's just the best material, it's like ever invented for
[SPEAKER_00]: cold, wet, sort of, or just cold, kind of temperatures.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just amazing, it's amazing stuff, like fleece, it's just shit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the nearest thing to it is power stretch, which is why I like power stretch, but this power stretch isn't as good as a fiber pile.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like I go out,
[SPEAKER_00]: when I'm going like kayaking in the night, I often just wear the where you the be a little jacket just next to my skin and then wear like a gag kayaking gag over the top and you're just like you're just like so comfortable it's like so it's like you know amazing stuff like even when it's saturated you just feel you always feel dry and the other the other thing
[SPEAKER_00]: the other thing, I'm still wearing a game which is like old tech clothing is like the brinja, like mesh kind of clothing, mesh underwear and again like you have no one's no one's making anything as good as that even though you know that's like decades old you know well you know technologies like at you know like a hundred or more years old to just like string string clothing so um you know like it's yeah it's weird we're like a lot of the old materials
[SPEAKER_00]: we just are like our grit but they're just old so people want something new.
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyway, so yeah, so a huge, huge fan of power stretch.
[SPEAKER_00]: And remember the face, the face, power stretch, Balaclav, or I got, which I think was, I think Patagonia, you're actually the first.
[SPEAKER_00]: people, they called it, they didn't call it power stretch, they called it something else activist, activist, fleece, they called it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they were the first people to get power stretch and Patagonie power stretch was a bit thicker than ordinary power stretch.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the, uh, remember got this like power stretch, just would be like,
[SPEAKER_00]: 94 or something 93.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got this Power Stretch Balaklava and I remember climbing in snack to in Scotland in the wintertime and I just I didn't have I needed I was like feeling I was really cold and I got this Power Stretch Balaklava and just put it over my helmet and everything I just pulled it over everything and it couldn't really do that before later I think I think the Balaklava had before a Power Stretch Balaklava was probably some
[SPEAKER_00]: fleece one and before that it would have me like a wool one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a lot of climbers still had these stick woolly balaclavers that were very very popular at the time and again you could wear it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you see all pictures of job round or climbers in the 70s, you'll often see them wearing a hat and the hat is actually just a woolly balaclaver that they're just like rolled it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: which was good, but it was like probably a woolly baller clava.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a probably bit too hot, it was probably bit too thick.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, certainly so, so like a general do it all baller clava, I would say like like power stretches really good, and there's nothing fancy about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if it's super super windy, the wind is going to go through the baller clava and it's going to get
[SPEAKER_00]: like your ears will be warm because you got a ball of clover on but it will if it's if it's if you get it's too extreme then you can have to put your hood up otherwise you're just going to your ears are going to freeze and stuff and so so an alternative to a ball of clover.
[SPEAKER_00]: is having like a hood, like an inside hood, like so you've got your hood on the outside of your helmet that goes over your helmet, but having a top that's got a hood that goes under your helmet, so you know you'd be walking up to the crag, you're going up to winter or something and maybe you'd be wearing your thin capoline
[SPEAKER_00]: then basically a ball of clava and you get there and then you get ready to climb and that's when you put on your power stretch ball of clava You've got like one more ball of clava to go like if it gets really extreme But you're generally just going to put on your nice warm dry power stretch ball of clava or whatever and you put that on
[SPEAKER_00]: But the alternative is you have a jacket that has a built-in hood that's shaped that's close fitting, it's not designed to go over helmet, it's just designed to go over your head.
[SPEAKER_00]: So an example would be a not a good example, but the most common example would be,
[SPEAKER_00]: like mount equipment or a patagonia like those kind of ninja style hooded fleeces which you like made out of R1 or something and you put them on and there's maybe the zippers you got to your chain or maybe it would go a bit higher or something but it's very close fitting and when you got your helmet on if you turn your head like left and right the the the the hood is going with your head where if you put like a big
[SPEAKER_00]: hood over the top of your helmet, generally, if you turn your head left and right, half the time, just be looking into the side of your hood.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, so that's one example.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the ideal, the ideal, um, lay it like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like people must make them, but I can't, I don't know who makes them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the, probably again, like the best example of this would
[SPEAKER_00]: was it vaporized the rap it was the orange rap basically copy of the Marma dry climb Patagonia some things Patagonia had a copy of it as well but it's just it was just
[SPEAKER_00]: polyester, brushed polyester with like a loose outer and, well, buffelormic, the tech light as well, which is the same kind of thing, but the rab, the rab won.
[SPEAKER_00]: So back in the back in there, Jeffield, like rab lived in Jeffield.
[SPEAKER_00]: and Raab had like an amazing bunch of climbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well Raab was a really good climber and Raab had all his generation of climbers who he would be getting information from and ideas, but then he had like a period where he had like rich cross and al-power and just like a ton of really
[SPEAKER_00]: go getting climbers before they became guides and just got shit and just sold out to become guides.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got skiing and cycling in Italy.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they had a really great team of people where they would be giving him feedback all the time on stuff and they came up with this dry climb.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't it not dry climb vaporize top and it had a hood.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the hood might even
[SPEAKER_00]: had cuffs that had velcro on a thing so you could push the cuffs up and it's too cool to cool down add a zip that maybe went down to like, you know, down to like your belly button or something and it was just like the best, it was an absolutely fantastic piece of clothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we don't think we're out making anything like that anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd have to have a look but
[SPEAKER_00]: I just thought, I just thought, I just thought I think they'd hit, and also the material they had, the vaporized material on the outside, was really, really quite tough and dried quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, I seem to remember it was like tough for them per text, it might be in some kind of variation of per text, but it was like a brilliant piece of clothing, and you were just where, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you
[SPEAKER_00]: you wouldn't, you wouldn't wear a ball of clover.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would just wear that under your helmet and you don't need something else on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It got really, really bad, but it was, but it just because I think it was after if you're doing anything like wintery and cold and snowy,
[SPEAKER_00]: like ideally you don't anything that's fleecey that's that's out facing out to the weather because it just the snow just sticks to it and wets it out and it's just something to deal with so like even even things like like line of gloves you know like little thin fleet thinny type line of gloves like they're just a disaster because since you're touching a snow
[SPEAKER_00]: they're just going to pick up the snow and it's going to melt into the glove and it's going to get cold and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: So same with the balaclava, if you're like a really bad weather unless you put your hood up, the snow is going to get in there and it's going to wet out your balaclava and then it's going to soak down into your layers and go down to your base layer and make you cold.
[SPEAKER_00]: So um
[SPEAKER_00]: So the vaporized thing with the hood, who did top was, was a great, because it would just, you know, you see, if you look around, you'll see people wearing similar kind of things where they've pulled up the hood and it goes over the helmet, like a very thin kind of like in a, a top that's on like a jacket.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather than wearing a ball of clover, they've got a thin ball of clover on it and pull this hood up and it goes over the top of the helmet and the idea is it just stops all the spin drift like going down the back of your jacket or something if you just often you've often knack that cup because it's like stretchy and whatever is underneath your outer your outer layer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like amount of equipment seems to make quite a few
[SPEAKER_00]: cuts like jackets tops like that with like a hood on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, the hoods are good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like some people don't like hoods because they just think adds a lot of extra bulk around your neck.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not using it, so I know like Colin Hailey would be either first to wear like non-huddled base, non-huddled layers and then just make, make use of all the clavas instead on the
[SPEAKER_00]: So then on top, so that's your ball of clover, at least the issues of ball of clover are like, if you do a lot of like looking up and looking down, what tends to happen is your ball of clover starts like creeping down over your eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure lots of people have experienced this.
[SPEAKER_00]: you can sort of, you can try and get over it by putting some Velcro on your Balaclava and then some Velcro on the inside you'll be helmet, like the soft Velcro goes on in your helmet somewhere and then you're the hard Velcro goes on the outside of your Balaclava and you just kind of stick them together and it stops, it stops that migrating and often
[SPEAKER_00]: Often you're still having to grab the back of your balaclav and pull it down so you can see what you're see what you're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So usually the more afraid you are, it's probably like the hitchhiker's got the galaxy like when you get really afraid like your glasses just go black so you can't see anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: So usually you get the more afraid you are, the less you're aware of your balaclav so you end up with like the balaclav with like completely covering your eyes so you're just kind of blindly blinded, blinded, climbing and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so then so then so you but your face is always exposed with a with a normal ball of clover and like when you like moving climbing put your hood up whatever it isn't really that big a that big a problem but the you really have to always have some face protection now a lot of climbers don't have any face protection
[SPEAKER_00]: And the difference is, like, if you're in like a, say you've top out on a route and it's like a full on storm, without without without with without but the first protection, you can feel like a real life or death kind of experience and that you're really like.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and we're going to go out of this and it's very, very hard to function, but if you put some face protection on, it transforms that to like, it's probably like going deep sea diving without any timing equipment.
[SPEAKER_00]: and going deep sea diving with like fall on respirator and everything else, you know, it transforms the experience where like actually I can just like stand here and look around and you know, take my time and navigate properly or find the descent properly because you just start,
[SPEAKER_00]: I think something about having your face, you know, as it's all cold, your eyes, all your eyes are all freezing up and you're, you know, it's like an extreme pain having to cover your face with your with your hands or you haven't to bend down and you haven't to put your head inside your your your hold of your jacket and stuff and it's just not conducive to like calm thoughtful slow progress to get out of there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So so face protection can be
[SPEAKER_00]: It can be, you can get balaclava as, well, you know, the classic balaclava with the first protection is your kind of SCS, you know, drug enforcement under cover agent where you just have your eyes, those kind of ones with just your eyes and your mouth showing secret squirrel kind of balaclava's, but they're not, they're not, they're not great really.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can get some like outdoor research, did this thing type, the Gorilla, Gorilla one where you have a Velcro on this big thing that protects your face, but the problem is it's like when you're in really bad weather, the Velcro general just gets like I stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you want to put the face thing on doesn't work, just like flaps around the hitch from the face.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the, some of the, some of the best ones, because you're breathing into this thing, is always gonna get like icy and, you know, it's gonna absorb moisture.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, two of the best ones I've come across is you can buy like a British army art-tick face mask, time of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can probably get one for like five euros or something of some sort of army surplus.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is sharp and it's like very, very, very simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just like a, it's very, very simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a little thing that goes around the back of your head.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, like it's a bit like a surgical mask kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then it has like a bit that goes over your face that's made out of a lightweight material.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole thing like wears nothing, but it really just protect your face.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the idea is you can like velcro off the front part.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the face bit itself, you put that on and that's protecting.
[SPEAKER_00]: most of you face part from your mouth and then there's like another bit that goes on but generally you don't really need to put the other bit on because there's enough protection as it is so like if you were in like
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is 40 degree when maybe you need this other thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can carry it, but you don't really need to use it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then so that's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a good thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't cost very much and it's really, really effective.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're doing like, if you're like a Scottish winter climber or you're climbing in,
[SPEAKER_00]: places where you have to deal with like some really, really bad weather, then that, that is like a really good thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also quite good.
[SPEAKER_00]: It actually protects your sun from the sun as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're in a somewhere where you get a lot of reflective heat or reflection from the snow, and you don't want to get really coffee facing sun cream all the time, then it's actually quite good for that as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, for Alpine stuff, it's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can also wear it with a mask on when you're sleeping and it creates, you're not breathing in as much as cold, cold air, it's like recirculating a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there's like an ice track Australian company, they make like a flower, it's like a
[SPEAKER_00]: made out of a neoprene, like with the fluffy inside, and that's designed for sort of arctic, Antarctic kind of types, and that just kind of goes around your face and velcro's around, which works well, you have to take your ball of clover off.
[SPEAKER_00]: With the other one you have to prove to take your ball of clover off, to put it on, but this one you just put it around, you put it around and protect your nose and your face, and that's really effective.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's other ones like
[SPEAKER_00]: However, it knows once we're like the plastic face thing, ice of enduro, the cold of enduro.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're kind of good, but they're kind of maybe like overkill for like a lot of what a lot of people are doing, but they're kind of popular if you're doing an art-tick kind of kind of things, but
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I think there's a few like bringing you make one where your face is all covered.
[SPEAKER_00]: The old like mountain hardware, ball of clover, that was quite good, but that was like windproof.
[SPEAKER_00]: So windproof, windproofing, I think you're right, you're best to get you windproofing from other things from like, say you're wearing a ball of an alternative to this idea of wearing like a
[SPEAKER_00]: if you're wearing something and you just have a windproof of the top of it underneath your shell like a pair of texts windproof with a hood then you just put the hood on all the ballaclava under your helmet and then that creates this, you know, this like
[SPEAKER_00]: this windproof, insulating, layer underneath your helmet rather than over the top of your helmet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's quite good, as long as it doesn't make too much noise when you move on your head around.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you always want to make sure your ears, you always want to make sure you can hear what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's one problem of wearing too much on your head.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if you put your
[SPEAKER_00]: your ball of clover on, then you win proof on, then you help it on, then you're, a hoodie of your jacket on, then you be late jacket over that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very hard to hear anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you always want to be able to, to, to hear what's going on, like hear the, your partners, calls, and just, just kind of it's good to be aware of, like, what's
[SPEAKER_00]: what's going on and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so those will be three, you're three, you're three by the club, and on top of that maybe like a cap is always quite good, like a just a light way cap with a brim, but
[SPEAKER_00]: because when you're wearing a helmet and when you're wearing a hood like having a cap with the brim makes a huge difference it stops the hood from getting in your eyes or flapping around, keep some of the wind and the rain off your face.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes you don't need to put your goggles on because the cap is like can block some of that, you know, some of that wind and the crap that's
[SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like assume like a hat, even a hat can provide a surprising amount of insulation because a hat is usually like a mesh hat has some sort of wind proofing to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It retains some sort of heat.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you have you have a like,
[SPEAKER_00]: go walking in the in the night and if you have a like hill if you're navigating in the night and you've got your head touch on you realize like how hot your head gets just from having a head touch having the the right the elastic band around your head so you're you know your your head is like very sensitive to to heat and things
[SPEAKER_00]: and anything to add.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's as boring as I can make it, probably.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are only high-tech fabrics probably, probably not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think most of it, most of it, is like basic.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, basic stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you could get like a, if you could find, like, one of my favorite balaclava's, which for amazingly, I've still got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was using it the other day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've had a long time is a, is a brinja balaclava.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just a straight balaclava.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got nothing on your face.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like the, it's the, the, the mesh brinja polypropylene mesh on the inside.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Marie, you know, wool on the outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know why, but is it the fit?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what it is about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I've always really liked that ball of clava.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think because the mesh means, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: it never feels kind of wet next to your skin, never seems to feel like sweaty and also the marina seems to provide like a little bit more like protection or windproofness because once because it's wall, if the wind is like blowing on to the wall, like generally the wall will begin freezing on the outside like if you ever want like
[SPEAKER_00]: tax 9 mits or anything like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: The you end up with like a bit of a like a windproof layer made up of ice on the outside of the wall which is kind of weird but it seems to work and it's good it's like it's not too thick so you can wear it as a hat and you can pull it down and like if you're not like ideally with a balaclava you don't want to be taken it off you want to keep it
[SPEAKER_00]: on your body, so if you're not using it, you want to be stretch enough that you can get your head through the face without destroying the Galaclava.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like some of the old Galaclava, as like you mentioned the PhD one that you've been made, I think was made by Matt and equipment as well, and that was made out of ultra fleece, and ultra fleece, doesn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do they exist anymore?
[SPEAKER_00]: But it
[SPEAKER_00]: a poultry for cars but it was fleecy and it was like it was probably it wasn't very thick but it was a lot more windproof than normal fleece at the time but it wasn't very stretchy either so if you had like a ballerclave and made out of that it was like having like a like a hell met basically but this one had like a valence around it so around the bottom bit where you
[SPEAKER_00]: where your neck was.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had like a bit of violence that went around.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could tuck into your clothing, which is actually based on an old, like, Heli Hansen fiber pile, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably like the old Heli Hansen one was designed for like fishermen, deep sea fishermen in like the North Sea who wanted something where, you know, when you were, there was no gap between your neck and your clothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, sort of the violence kind of took ten.
[SPEAKER_00]: You put your ball of clover on, then you put your cut,
[SPEAKER_00]: and it would make a seal around the round the two of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you make it out of a material that's not really stretchy, you kind of stuck with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once you put it on, you kind of stuck with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't really take it off, so you'll take your helmet off.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's always best not take your helmet off too much if you're like wind-declimbing, because you always get hit on the head.
[SPEAKER_00]: If something, if you haven't got a ball of clavron.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so I think that's it, probably.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm ball of clavers, anything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really, I'm mainly not big fan of black things, that's not racist, black anything that's black, because this fan is really easy to lose it, like a black, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
[SPEAKER_00]: I think my got some blue blue blue power stretch top but it's everything else is black and it's like a very little thing but I often notice like when I You know when the end of the day when you're packing up if you just you should always like when everything's packed up and you've finished
[SPEAKER_00]: you should always then go back and like check everywhere and get them very easily and very find like a black pair of gloves or a black sock or a black something and um so yeah so that that's it okay I must be able to find something more boring to talk about on this thread yeah thread but when I was I remember when I was first got into like out the getting like catalogs or then with the days you get like the north face catalog and it looks through it like oh my
[SPEAKER_00]: And he always imagined that like every single detail of like that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,
[SPEAKER_00]: he'd have found you banging it all out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, thread.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Mac pack and it again like Mac pack and other company that they made like such an amazingly great stuff and the stuff you by now is not in nowhere as good as the stuff they made then but they had thread where it was was it like I think it was night polyester with Nile polyester with cotton on the outside maybe
[SPEAKER_00]: so that when the thread got wet, it would expand and then it would make the the rooksack or more waterproof, because the rooksack sort of waterproof, because it made out of canvas kind of material.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were heavy, but they were really, really tough, like last forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're going to like, again, like eBay, look up
[SPEAKER_00]: Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac, Cascade, Mac, Pactore, what was the other one?
[SPEAKER_00]: Pursuit.
[SPEAKER_00]: They made some absolutely amazing rucksacks that were just so robust and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I bought like a child carrier and it was like their cheap and my wife was like,
[SPEAKER_00]: That looks shit, I wonder, but we need to buy a Osprey Polka Hontis 3 or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the one I bought was like 40 quid, and she wanted buy one that was like 400 quid or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not, there isn't really, yeah, like this one looks, this other one's like twice as heavy.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one you want to buy and it's got all these things like a crash built into it and all that kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, one day came home and there was a polka hauntist too there and the MacPack one was in the bin.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, I was very angry.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should have seen me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The idea of throwing away it in the bin, like a piece of art, like a MacPack baby carrier was terrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, so yeah, I was before I sign off because I've been talking for a while I've run out of boring things to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was thinking of, I wanted to add something to this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was maybe in the tablet a little musical interlude, like who to do in between, because it's actually quite a serious, serious thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was, it was, it was, it was like it, it was about like how people
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, climbers, people you know, how the kind of like losing there are, everyone's been losing their minds for like a very very long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's probably like a, for like a spectrum of mind losing this, but like some some people are just like, I guess I asked someone to write a forward to them up to this book and write in the beyond.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I was like, I had to, I had to friend them on, I won't tell it, I won't say what it was.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was someone who like really respected all my life, like really great person, and you know, you use them in the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I kind of went on to a friend that I'm on Facebook and I went to the Facebook page and they were just like fucking dementia.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were just, they just got insane and I'm sure like how you come across on social media is not how you really are in the in the real world in public like it is a bit like um like I don't think I don't think I don't think I've ever
[SPEAKER_00]: really met someone who I would say was a full-on racist, really.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, well, I have, I have, not in the way you're, not in the way you're aware where we think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, like, I, I, I think it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I say, I have a really good ability to be very agreeable with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you start having, like, one's people feel comfortable with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: They start telling you how they really think about stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm most people don't until you feel comfortable and, you know, they can start saying what's kind of, I think in the past, we were just said what they thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, um, I've got a thing in the Adelaide when I was growing up.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you're basically going to put like a council stick and you would think it would be the exact place where you'd have all these kind of, you know, like working class racist kind of, you know, people radicalize whatever, but it was actually like the complete opposite.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm saying this because like recently
[SPEAKER_00]: my wife was on a walk and there was like an incident on this walk where someone was like outrageously racist and I was like if I was there I would tell this person to just basically fuck off and just go just go off the mountain and we don't want anything to do with you we should might be surprising to some people because some people might think you know like
[SPEAKER_00]: I have like, I'm not racist, I just have a lot, I'm just very skeptical about a lot of modern ideas about stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But growing up, like,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, people who, I don't really, don't really come up, don't make it came across many people up.
[SPEAKER_00]: People who voted like the National Front, which was like the classic far right party in the UK.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were just like, I don't think to deal with them, because they were just, they were just like, it just wasn't really on your radar, really.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because there's a kid like you're,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you were the coolest person in the world's like Michael Jackson or Eddie Murphy or you know, like, you're a prince or whatever, like you lived in a world where you just, you know, you wanted to be black or really.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, so to be racist would be, but then, but I was saying that, I was saying that to the day to my wife like when this racist thing happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said,
[SPEAKER_00]: Said the thing is like, if someone is like really racist to someone, that is not, that is not what I would call racism, I would call that like, like, um, that you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: you have a you're mentally ill because like a good a good racist in my book a good classic racist how you if someone who can be really hold like what you would push risk view was like racist views but they can be but they're best friend other next on there but who they get on with really well is black or something or Asian or something they can they can hold these two things
[SPEAKER_00]: they don't make it personal.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they might say like, oh, there's too many Indian people here, but they could get on great with Indian people and think they're great and, you know, what have gone holiday to India or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they, like, technically they could be, there could be too many Indian people here, but it's not, it's not personal.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this, so when this person was made this thing, I won't go into it, but you made it personal.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like,
[SPEAKER_00]: again, like asking in this guy to do, to write for to my book.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then just thinking like, oh my god, like, this person is, it's like, demanded.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I realize that there's so many people I know who, or basically gone in, gone insane.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I would, I would make this my judgment, because I think in the past, I also went insane.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I was, I think I became radicalized.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't, I didn't get rather classed by the internet or things I was reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got rather classed by things I was seeing and exposed to and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was like good, good radicalization.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was kind of like waking up kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, walk before it was like a thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And but nowadays you see things where people are
[SPEAKER_00]: like there are people who uh it's not it's not good for them like they're showing they're sharing stuff that's like AI it's not real and they just can't see because they're so full of anger and hatred and but they're not actually doing anything about it they're not going to join a political party or giving money to somebody or you know like it's just them
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just not good, and I think, and I hate to see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hate not doing it, isn't like, sometimes I think, because I try not to be like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to stay in my hand, and rather say anything, I do anything, I'll have an opinion.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying not to go clear on the, on the, on the, on the radicalised and just, but when you see other people doing it,
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I often think if you had an algorithm for age and number of ports per day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this could be, you know, I've a lot of American friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it could be like maga or it could be like anti maga, but it's both the same like level of demented, demented, mental, mental, the nurse.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the same with people who were just constantly posting about Ukraine and how, you know, it's just, you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: sometimes you're trying like interact with them a little bit and like oh by the way like you know what to think about there, so whatever, you know with this was me going on for like over a 1,500 days and we still haven't increased our ammo production or something to help you crane or whatever, you might just like give a little park like see how you're doing and it's just like you know that it doesn't matter what you say like no matter how
[SPEAKER_00]: the more you, it's like a cult, you know, like you're part of a cult and anyone who isn't in the cult or questions the cult is like an enemy and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just not a good way to
[SPEAKER_00]: not a good way to be really.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm only saying this, I've seen a few people recently who feel like they're being dragged into this, like the recent like shooting in Minnesota.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, just think it's, there's a, there's a thing that moment where more and more like young people, more more young people sort of like what would that be, like Jen, Jen, whatever, like the
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be coming like increasingly like far right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something like 40% of like young people probably probably boys and men are like far right.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Australia, anywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in my mind, I would say that that's not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say like, they're not far right.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're just like in the middle.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're just, they can, they're so young people are so savvy when it comes to social media.
[SPEAKER_00]: and about manipulation, much more like the worst people of the Zoomers, like they're sharing like AI shit, that's just not real, but they don't realise it and stuff that's not actually correct, it's just manipulated, stuff, and where young people aren't like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so it's like, I don't know what I'm saying here, like if you know, if you know what I'm saying then you don't need to hear it and if you don't understand what I'm saying, then you don't want to hear it if you don't think but sometimes sometimes you feel compelled.
[SPEAKER_00]: to try and say something just because like when Scott Adams died this week and I've always thought Scott Adams was a great person and when he became like controversial you know I was like used to listen to his podcast and I don't think he was just he wasn't controversial he just
[SPEAKER_00]: He had enough money where he didn't have to go along with all the crap that every else has to go along with.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that made him controversial.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even the stuff he lost is, you know, he had 2,000 newspapers publishing his cartoons and they all dropped him because he was supposedly racist, and he was, and it's just, it's just like so saddened stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's like the part of you when he dies and you just see all this shit written about him that you want to write something but again you're you're done and there's part of you's like are you not they're not doing it just because you're a coward or you're not doing it but it's
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's that part of you is like, by not being radicalized or getting angry or sharing all this stuff or you're giving in, is it like land helplessness where you're just, you know, it's the last, the last part of, of being completely compliant, you just, you just, you just give in like you're really here to win all people like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I don't care.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be dead soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I can't go out and do pressing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I think it's almost like an active defiance is to not do anything if you're not mean like we're all we're all compelled Constantly to be outraged and angry and
[SPEAKER_00]: and not to point out like I just saw something then on the BBC that the French have sent like 15 soldiers to to help bolster the defensive green and it's like what the fuck are you talking about like you know I mean it's like you know you're not meant to you know it's just we're just living such terrible terrible time I've actually like I have to be on Facebook to do with like selling books and stuff but um
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually have it now using that freedom, freedom app where you can just block things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have basically have it blocked for like six days at a time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, so like on a Sunday, I can go on Facebook and I can just like post whatever I need to post.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're gonna just get the fuck out of there because like every, every time, it's like probably having sex with their prostitute or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like every time you go on Facebook, you come away and you feel like I'll go into McDonald's, I'm in the McDonald's.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like every time you come away, it's probably probably the same price.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I'm in a big Mac or a hand job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like every time you come away, you feel like you've really let yourself down and you've really like, it's really like, solid experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so I find like, I find like Facebook, you know, Facebook like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Instagram's not quite so bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: I always get like,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I actually, I might actually a big fan of them do mscrolling.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd actually find that like the algorithm is quite good in that you do as long as you don't just like end up with like loads of videos of people getting beaten up or something in London or in the fond that is it is if you can like get it to where you want it to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: It can feed you like a lot of really amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: people telling a story or something but um so I'm not actually that against doomsgrowing as long as you keep control of it but all the other stuff it's just uh it's just terrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: So do a part I do apologize like oh this might be just as boring as the uh as the other bit and um
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so sometimes I feel like I do feel compelled to say something, because I know there's like a lot of people like me who think like me, who just feel very lonely and and put up on and not able to express how they really feel just to feel like they're going mad.
[SPEAKER_00]: So sometimes I feel like I should just say something just on their behalf, but really the
[SPEAKER_00]: mad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well the people who make the most noise are just kind of some mad that it's kind of like what's not what's the point but like I think what I think you do I think eventually you do you you do get a grip you do things I think you know like reality will like will bring you back you know what's it like people living in this like hyper reality and it's not real like everything
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, through the screen or something, it doesn't really match up with reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then sometimes reality will, uh, we're like, you know, does like, does like catch you up.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, just, and I do people just go, just go climbing or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, it seems like, you know, it doesn't, it seems like giving up, but it's probably is just, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: just sort of true really like go and read a book.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do what's telly that's terrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then see I just just focus on balaclava's basically just
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, focus on real, just spend your whole time on an eBay going around trying to find like old shit that used to have and then you sold for nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I have to buy it back for like something.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that's my, so yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I do apologize for that last bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I've just been, you've been on my mind a bit that I don't like, I don't like to see having been someone who was like, formerly radicalized by life.
[SPEAKER_00]: and it was a very destructive thing because people, I think people like
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't know, it's like you end up very confused and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't really know what's going on and it's like a long process to try and build this map of what is really going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it's a positive to be radicalized is a positive.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why you get people who were terrorists.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then like 15 years later they're not terrorists and actually quite saying people because they went through a process of So that's why I don't necessarily think just because it's one person did something like 50 years ago You should think they're still like mental Well, I think it is like a process whether you're like blowing things up or
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like superglue yourself to like a foot run where like you do, uh, there is like, is a process like life is a process.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just, uh, you know, you're locally, you're not the same person you were when you were like 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: Although maybe that's the idea, it's like to, it's to find yourself back.
[SPEAKER_00]: I use this idea that you, um, this is like train line and you get on the train and, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: you're at the station and you go along and you go along and you get to the next station and you're like, oh my god, this is it, this is like, oh this is, this place is always better than the other place, I'm, you know, I really understand things and then you've got to the next station and you're like, oh my god, I didn't know anything about there, but look at this and, you know, it's like this, this long, long progression of like,
[SPEAKER_00]: And then at the end you end it back at the beginning again.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you end up being like ignorant and stupid.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, oh, this is the ideal.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the ideal way to be is not to care.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not to be aware.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just to just to be, you know, safe and stuffing your heart and all that kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that's where I am now at the first station.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyway, so if anybody's got any questions about any the most boring questions, you can find like what kind of
[SPEAKER_00]: not some bolts, so do you use for your crampons, stay in the steel.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's two kinds of stainless steel are.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the most spot.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's like good stainless steel.
[SPEAKER_00]: I stay in the steel like good.
[SPEAKER_00]: The best stainless steel was at three or six.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, the best kind of stainless steel is very soft.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's very easily mangled and stuff, where the other kind of stay in the steel.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got where it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyways, two kinds of stay in the steel.
[SPEAKER_00]: But ideally, the other kind, it's not quite as good, but it's a lot stronger.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so now we've covered that now, we'll have to talk about nuts and bolts and crampons.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of crampons that have nuts and bolts in any way, so that'd be like a vintage crampon.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yes, everybody's got any questions, send them along, and I shall answer them.
[SPEAKER_00]: next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to post this podcast every, I basically can't get any whacked on these days, just for some reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the tooth is better by the way, well, it's not better.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's better than it was.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, thank you for the dentist who sent me a comment about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, it's getting a bit better, training is coming along.
[SPEAKER_00]: And
[SPEAKER_00]: but I've still got two kids to try and, just a little bit of juggle with trying to work, so yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So to do my sub-stack, the follow me on sub-stack, and the kept Patrick, sub-stack, whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Follow me on there and post to sub-stack every week, lots of interesting articles and really, I'm currently writing something about Steve Hasten and New England Blanche, this ice-root and doing New England Blanche, and with Tim Emmett.
[SPEAKER_00]: to remember, this wasn't really an ice climber.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm trying to write that this week and very interesting and if you want to support me then support me via Substack and if you don't want to support me, you go after.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, that's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So until next week, stay safe, stay boring, and unradicalised.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.