Alan – The tagalong

If you are keen click on this link to find out what Alan said about me. While not essential reading to find out about Alan, there may be some cross referencing in my words about him.

Alan tagged along, or was he dragged, to Welly Dam by Rongy soon after he moved down to Bunbury. At some point early on he met Will, she has partaken in our rock antics occasionally, but it isn’t really her thing. Alan comes across as a happy-go-lucky guy, quick thinking and enjoys a good joke.  More often than not he is smiling like a Cheshire cat.  An infectious happiness, whether meant or not, enters the room when he turns up.  He is definitely one of the social crew, as is Will, but that doesn’t mean he is not up for getting out one on one and we have had some good times out, also he is not afraid to explore so is easy to con into trying new places even if they haven’t got the best rock:

For Alan it is about being there, the type of climbing and setting don’t really change how he approaches climbing.  In fact when there is a crew he will happily sit back and watch, encourage, cajole and just chat away the time.  He doesn’t climb hard.  While he has lead a fair bit and even put up some first ascents, as a fair few people I climb with have while they follow me as I scour the area for previously unrecorded lines worth climbing, he isn’t overly keen to push himself.  I wouldn’t say it is a lack of confidence, he has oodles of that, it’s just that climbing isn’t his main focus.  He dips in and out of it, as and when he choices, or life permits, and doesn’t have any particular climbing goals:

What does inspire him are endurance challenges, he has completed the Mundi Bidi mountain bike trail, the Cape to Cape hiking trail and numerous other long hikes and cycling challenges.  Importantly when he has completed these, it has usually been in a time I dare to say that most would find overwhelming.  Some of the crew joined him on the Cape to Cape and while it was a great experience, there wasn’t much kick back time involved.  Long days of walking to complete the hike in the designated time didn’t allow for that.  It’s an interesting observation that he will go so hard with these activities, yet with climbing he is completely chill out:

While he may indicate for months that he is really keen to get out climbing, you never know when that might actually happen.  But whenever it does it is always a fun time, never taken too seriously and just out for the pure enjoyment of it.  If there are more than just the two of us then he is equally happy to enjoy the setting and watch, if we have our eye on something harder.  We will encourage him to give things a bash but he is not one to change his mind once it is set, and simple rebuff our comments in a joking and happy manner until we stop trying:

Outdoors he climbs cautiously, I think it challenges him and he likes that but he has his limits of how far he likes to push it.  I’m not even sure that I have ever seen him take a lead fall.  He is however strong and has good technique, this is proven during our boulder sessions.  During the week and when not working late he will drive out to Peppy Beach or even Busselton to join in on a boulder night and can pull off some impressive moves.  But due to not being his passion, the stamina never lasts the whole session.  He eventually starts to flail about and in his own words his noodle arms just don’t have it: