Howsie – the explorer

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

While everyone I’m writing about is keen to climb, for some it is more in their thoughts.  Howsie is definitely one who wants to physically get out as much as possible.  He climbed at the PCYC with his brother Mikey, Dazza and Mark.  While I climbed with all of these guys outdoors for a short period, Howsie is the one that this has continued with.  His love for nature and exploring is something that I can relate too, we both get just as much fulfilment from finding interesting animals or weird plants, as we do from our time on rock.  The images in our adventures are testament to that:

Howsie is calm, collected and cool on rock.  Composure and focus are maintained on seemingly blank faces with no protection, or when bolted routes have scary ground fall potential.  Many say that I show this quality, and maybe there have been times, but they are not so frequent these days.  So it is great to get out with someone who will go for it so I can do so with the safety of a rope above me.  Howsie mentioned our early morning before work Welly Dam trips.  The big year was 2016 when we climbed almost every week enduring not just the dark starts and wetness of winter but also sub-freezing temperatures when you couldn’t feel your fingers.  And regardless of this we never walked away from those trips wondering why we bothered:

In fact no conditions are bad conditions for Howsie.  We have been on many trips away.  The thrill of a new location and different rock brings out the kid in Howsie and a childlike excitement begins to surface.  One that can’t be dampened by conditions or fear.  That said while we have both taken risks we have also moderated each other’s, at times, overly confident approach and have never had a bad experience.  Howsie like me will extract every possible moment of climbing out of a day.  That said Howsie will be the one to say he needs to top up his energy levels and have a break, so we would always be prepared with plenty of food and drink to keep us going:

Many of our trips out have been overnight, and camping out is all part of the experience.  Howsie loves a banter in the evening after a day out, and this is one area we do differ as I’ll crash early and then get up early.  While I can sense he is keen to keep talking at night, he has never complained when I’m up first and making a brew!  At times there is a need to cram in just one days climbing, and when you are seeking out new locations the travel time begins to increase.  We have been known to spend a big day at a crag, one for which the round trip travel time has been in excess of six hours.  Getting to the crag for first light and getting home in the dark.  On the journey home feeling weary behind the wheel his keenness to have a chat is very welcome:

It may seem that he spends all of his free moments climbing.  And then some more again as he is always being keen to squeeze just one more climb in before we pack up and head home, something I have not been known to discourage on our trips.  However, he does an impressive job of balancing many passions.  Music takes a lot of his time being an active member in a band, and he also works in the environment profession and does a lot of volunteering.  Then added to that he has Nadia, Fergus and Frank to consider.  Occasionally Nadia has to be the voice of reason that will rightly make Howsie reconsider and adjust where he spends his time: