The distance between those barriers isn’t consistent, some I can get my well developed swim shoulders through without bleeding too much speed, others I definitely put a hand on.
I found the other main speed killers to be the 3 sets of lights in Chester & entitled tw@s with dogs on extendable leads.
Didn’t count the lights as I only ever do one lap 
Looks like he’s having a strong day today.
He’s also experimented with my suggested alternative route (Francis Lane) 
‘Alpha’ in what way? Or did you just had a mancrush on him?
I did toy with replying to this yesterday, I never saw anything alpha about him, although I’m not sure I even knew of the term back then.
The world of climbing was ( and presumably still is) very hierarchical.
For example, I know a guy who went on to become chairman of the BMC and was a solid low extreme leader. Around this time, he was climbing in France and was completely ignored by a group of young hotshots (he would have been about 30). One day he decided to have a thrash on a route several grades too hard for him, spent a few hours mainly hanging from the bolts and the hotshots then starting speaking to him.
Kenton would have properly fitted the young, arrogant hotshot label. Whether this made him alpha I have no idea 
Obviously, as an older and better climber than him, I ignored him. 
He was talking about Kenton, not Sean. Sorry slight hijack.
He used Francis Lane last year I don’t know why he changed it as that part entering the Ind Est is really rough…I’ll be happy if he continues to use it 
Are you the first from Chester Tri to join him? Do you know if there’s any chat within the club about him? It would be great to see more of you out there.
I mentioned it to him as it’s an easy alternative (i.e. makes a change) and also very quiet. He said he didn’t want to use it because of the road surface but I’ve never thought of it as bad. Good to see he’s keeping his mind working - I think one of his biggest enemies is switching off too much.
There have been a couple of posts on the Chester Tri site and there’s certainly some interest.
Someone called James apparently cycled with him on Saturday after I’d gone home (don’t know him but he posted about Sean on the FB page). Phil, his support had done that a few days before which was I how I got in touch with him.
I’m only really in touch with the cycling side of the club at the moment … and mostly just the grumpy old gits section who are still refusing to grow old gracefully. In other words, I don’t know how many people might be up for supporting.
Lol was more a joke. He had some presence though. My pal was really fawning over him
… self assured is probably a better term. Don’t forget I’m used to hanging round fidgety weirdos who are a heady mix of insecurity and rampant narcissism
You may know the same folk my brother knows then. He was with the BMC for years. Climbing photographer, still haunts the comps etc - he edited Summit etc etc - he’s sacked it in now: currently in Chamonix working for a beer company
That was what I was trying to convey in my post this morning, hero worship in the climbing world has always been a thing. Rites of passage gain you access to a conversation that you wouldn’t have previously been part of.
I was often the best climber at a wall or crag, when that happens eyes are often on you, people want to talk to you etc. It was the same for me meeting the top guys, I still remember the time I went bouldering with Johnny Dawes.
The guy I used as an example was Andy MacNae (now prospective parliamentary candidate for Labour for Rossendale), we keep in touch through FB but used to hang out a lot in London before we both moved north.
I was lucky enough to climb with a lot of very talented people; John Arran and Robin Barker would probably be the best known that I shared ropes with. At some stage I bouldered at a wall with more or less everyone who was any good between 85-95 when I started to move into fell running.
Never met Ben Moon at a crag though, despite going to school with him!
All a long time ago in a universe far, far way …
I think many of us have similar in our history
My brother knows/ has met a few of the aforementioned- yes Andy McNae, Ben Moon etc - do you know Niall
Was Andy the guy that broke his arm in Greenland then had to have it reset in the UK. Brother was on that trip - saying it was grim - Andy had to scoop up the remains of a father who’d also forgotten to take out insurance.
Yes the guy who I was with was really excited about meeting Kenton. My brother did say after that the guy just wanted to be seen in a bar in Chamonix chatting to him! I guess that behaviour is all spheres of activity though.
It’s interesting - I was some way above Kenton in the pecking order so he never really registered with me.
It didn’t help that he broke both ankles being a bit of a tw*t - I was very serious about avoiding anyone who didn’t take safety seriously (not much has changed, I immediately think badly of anyone who wears earphones when cycling).
I learnt to climb at Brunel (was an undergrad there), it was full of talented climbers who mostly hung out at the Southern Sandstone crags and didn’t really ever move out into the big wide world. The exceptions were Neil Gresham (who’s a truely lovely person and who I helped mentor when he was a precocious teen) and Sean Myles.
I used to bump into Sean fairly often and he often climbed with Jerry Moffatt. Every time we said hello, Moffatt would then lean over to Sean and quietly say “who the f*ck was that” … helped me keep my feet on the ground if nothing else 
… so did you get involved in all that farce that was the BMC rebrand?…
Pretty much everything you said is on a par with art shenanigans.
The introductions, the egos, the far less capable but who may have climbed the ladder 
etc etc - can’t be arsed with any of it.
No, hate committees or anything like that.
Keep well clear!
Surely he’s a bit more safety conscious now?! That’s his thing isn’t it - mountain guide. Maybe he just hangs out at base camp and gets his Sherpa pals to do the grunt work while he posts selfies with Oakie
I wouldn’t know … but he’s still alive so he must be
You out riding with him today @Doonhamer ?
Think I’ve seen your mate Wilf putting a couple of shifts in with him over the past couple of days?!