These are personal views so with my BG Club hat off but we were aware of this subject shortly before this thread started.
Most people who engage in athletic endeavour have some target or targets that they use to spur them on. This might be completing their first 10K to running the Marathon Des Sables but it's effectively the same: a goal to aim towards. The Bob Graham Round is, for many, no different.
When I did my round it was on my lifetime achievement "tick list" that I'd drawn up some twenty years earlier and had in all honesty largely forgotten about. It was actually the only run in amongst nine climbs scattered around the UK and the world. I'd drawn the list up as a sort of melee of different public lists from books such as Hard Rock; Extreme Alpine Rock and Rebuffat's 100 Climbs in the Mt Blanc Range but also included other prominent high profile climbs. Mostly I used the list as a form of encouragement to get out and visit different places even if it meant not doing the actual route on my list - I've been to Yosemite Valley for instance but didn't even attempt The Nose on El Capitan.
Tick lists (now often called Bucket Lists) were quite common in climbing at the time, but again as much as a prompt to visit interesting places as the routes on the lists themselves. There were of course those who were blinkered enough that only the routes on "the list" were worthy.
My first attempt on the round was at a time when it really was "under the radar", I knew about it from growing up in The Lakes but had moved away. These forums weren't around at the time and the running club I was a member of weren't long distance fell specialists (it was only after I succeeded that I found out that three members had done the round) so I asked on the UKClimbing forums for help. Partly supporting Graham's point, two strangers stepped forward but unlike his "ships passing in the night" scenario I now know them. On my successful attempt another stranger helped out, I would have returned the favour but injury prevented him from ever attempting the round himself.
I first met Mark Smith of this parish when he asked for help on his winter BG attempt due to one of his pacers getting injured. I think four or five of us turned up at Dunmail Raise on a very cold night to help out. None of us had met Mark before. That to me is the spirit of the Round.
Personally I wouldn't use a commercial service to attempt the Round, to me part of the challenge is organising yourself to do it. Maybe I'm "old skool".
Graham: I don't think I've seen or heard of any Sedan Chairs on the Round.
Club hat on: We are discussing this.
Originally Posted by Bob
These are personal views so with my BG Club hat off but we were aware of this subject shortly before this thread started.
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