In this CV19 time it isn't always easy to keep up with who you are, or even with things you love. I've been reconnecting with my love of climbing by dreaming my way through guidebooks and rereading A Youth Wasted Climbing, by Dave Chaundy-Smart.

The book is an autobiography and covers Dave's entrance into climbing in 1980s Ontario and then out to the wider world of climbing. He describes the climbing scene I entered as an 18 year old on the limestone cliffs of Milton, Ontario. Reading it, I felt like I was always just out of frame, standing at the bottom of the cliff watching from afar as he and his friends pushing climbing.

In those early small days of climbing, learning was hand-to-hand and Dave was a guy to look up to. Young climbers all knew the names of First Ascentionists and routes were going up all around us. Niko and I would goof and joke and pretend to be Helmut Microys because he was a local hard man and his name was cool. We acted cool when they walked by on the way to their latest projects. It felt big when we first started to get a nod of recognition. “You guys doing Straight Up? Take this red Friend for the roof” We were young kids and we were hanging around the cliffs long enough to be climbers. It was like joining a secret world.

A memory: Spring of 1989 and standing with Niko at the bottom of local 5.9 test piece Cat's Tail; looking up at it and remembering hearing Dave say "If you can climb that, you can climb the Nose." I can still feel the texture of that rock on the back of my hand. Cooler as you reached deeper.

(Dave was right, and Niko climbed the Nose eventually. I never did, a major regret.)

Dave was an Ontario guy that was friends with Peter Croft and lived in the Valley and helped us expand our 25m climb out to the size of the most famous route in the world. A real life person walking around. Climbers like him were my connection to the big world of climbing that would eventually become my life and livelihood.

So, dig into your guidebooks. Find the old issues of climbing magazines you used to pore over. Go through your photos and remember why you love climbing.

(And if you want a sideways path to know a little bit about me, and what climbing was when I started, and why it is I still think of myself as an outsider even though it isn't true anymore, read Dave's book.)

Kenneth

PS As a bonus, it's published by friend of Crag X RM Books [FB @rmbooks INSTA @rm_books]