Glen – the casualty

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

Glen is another one that came from the State Emergency Services fold, I’m not sure how he came upon our climbing crew but I’m certain it wasn’t via Andrew.  Glen is the clown or larrikin and the one you can count on to do something not very sensible.  He never climbs too hard on lead, but will give harder stuff a go if there is a rope above him.  His preference is trad, and with trad the risk of something going wrong is conceivable greater.  However, he does place good gear and when a route permits plenty of it.  So much so that he might wear himself out placing it all:

He’s certainly capable and has been out heaps with us, but he is inconsistent.  Despite having had the encouragement to climb with his mate Leigh at places like Arapiles over east, his well-intended training programs can easily be unhinged by the temptation of a beer or two.  He likes the social side of climbing, isn’t overly keen on early starts and is quite vocal about it.  I have managed to get him to the crag at first light once and he confessed it was very worthwhile, but not so much that he ever wanted to repeat the experience:

He is probably the one that will push hardest for a pit stop at the beer farm after a mornings climbing.  Some are easily swayed by this but I have only succumbed once, with Lou’s insistence that the veggie burger was to die for.  They must have been good as they were sadly sold out and I have not been back since.  Glen is one of the more active people on our local social media group, continually throwing all kinds of random stuff at us.  Needless to say while he loves to get out for a climb he is easily distracted, and if the weather is looking dicey, the start is too early or if the salmon are running he is quick to bail:

The want is certainly there, proven with his mass of climbing equipment and his boulder wall. We went through a few years where we would meet at least one evening a week at either Glen or Lou’s wall. These events became less about training and more about a catch-up and general play on the wall. This suited Glen as he could make use of Lou’s brain to assist with his study, enjoyed jumping on the wall and to boot for a period we started to bring food along too. These session could include copious amounts of raw unrelenting banter. Glen would dish it out in bucketful’s. He could certainly give it out, but he could also take it when the tables were turned and they often were:

One reason that Glen has not been very consistent on rock, is his accident prone nature.  The first major incident I knew of was when he slipped on his boat, which was in his front yard, while wearing thongs.  He cracked his knee and eventually needed surgery.  This started to come good until he kicked a tail gate to close it and aggravated the injury.  He was finally coming good again when down at Cosy Corner poorly thought out protection led to an unfortunate fall, and he broke his foot.  Now I must confess this happened to be on the route I mentioned in Steve’s write-up, and which Dan and I suggested may only be a grade 9.  Having been on it several times now it is probably fair to say it is four or five grades harder.  After he fell and knowing what the likely prognosis was he had the ability to compose and self-rescue himself up the rap line, which was pretty impressive to witness: