Wiggins – inspector gadget

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

Wiggins is Mr Nice Guy, he is the gentleman and the sort of person I aspire to be.  He holds values and morals high and is respectful to family and friend alike.  I have never seen him cast a stone and he assesses every situation objectively and responds in a controlled and balanced way.  It’s very impressive.  When it comes to climbing he is systematic, he was the one that trained most with Rongy, on that steep hard boulder wall.  Eventually he built his own, not quite as steep but he used the MoonBoard design and built his wall round it.  Allowing him to develop his skills through a set program:

He is the one that will see a situation and make reference to a book he has read that dissects it, provides ways to manage, control or avoid it.  He has approached climbing as a challenge to be met face on, he will take big falls and will set himself targets.  Through his reading he has made use of various training systems, and has stuck to them proving that that can yield results.  He has however on occasion proven that these system can result in injury, and his training has on occasion prevented him from climbing real rock.  That is not a big issue for Wiggins, he is a man of many talents and is happy to pursue his other interests while maintaining a good social relationship with the climbing folk:

I have a vague memory that it was Wiggins that installed a sense of moral obligation, or was it just basic common sense, that we should always wear a helmet when climbing.  For years I had climbed fearlessly without one, only resorting to the “tin pot” when I knew the territory demanded it.  Such as the big mountain routes in Scotland or loose crumble rock, which I have been known to actually enjoy.  However now I, like so many others in our crew, don’t climb without one.  He definitely likes to aspire to and have a goal, and once it is fixed he will pursue it hard and with a passion.  In this way he has climbed some sustained and bold lines, and once conquered walks away feeling quite simply satisfied and not needing to look back.  He always seems to look forward:

Ever since I have known Wiggins he has had been a collector of gear, he has more gear than he could possible use on any route.  At times he will seek out the obscure and he managed to catch me out at least once when he found some whacky camming wires that were horrendous to place and even worse to get out.  He placed them on lead, after hiding them from me, and I only came across them when I had to get the damn things out!  They never got used again, but I bet they are prized amongst his collection.  He is also well known for his filming and is damn good at it.  Trips out with Wiggins are now more about capturing the spirit of the day, which I can relate to as I am in a way similar with my photography:

We have had some really good trips away, and on each of these he will bring along some of his homebrew.  As with everything Wiggins does he does it well, it is not a sense of pride that he has it is just the way he sees life.  If you are going to do something you make sure you try your best to do it right.  From an early time something else I liked was that he too would want to get back home and not spend the whole day out.  He doesn’t have kids, but valued time with his partner Tara.  This suited me but also proved from an early time that Wiggins is someone that you can trust not just to hold your rope, but also to help you out and treat you with honesty and fairness: