INTRODUCTION

      The movement of tectonic plates which shaped the continents has not ceased. Even as you read these words the insidious and stealthy crumpling of the earth's crust which built the Alps, The Rockies, The Andies, The Himalayas, Ben An and sundry other raised-up places, continues apace. Tomorrow, the mountain which you climbed some years ago, with such ease and joy, will be a little bit higher, it's majestic flanks will be steeper and the distance between one step and the next will have stretched. You've noticed? Me too.
      The trouble is, not everyone has noticed. Extreme youth inflicts upon its sufferers an inability to detect such creeping changes. They say that a crab can see the movement of the stars. It's like that. You and I have these enhanced perceptions which come (along with wisdom) as we accumulate experience ....
      So study well the words of wisdom you will find here. They are for you. Here you will discover techniques for constructing a belay using a zimmer, for crossing wet places in carpet slippers, for enjoying a good night's sleep when everyone else is stretched sleepless on hard boards and many other gems of technical advice. In short, you will learn low cunning for high places (as someone might have said about the art of politics).


Copyright © Hugh Noble Jan 2000

(NOTE: Having got this far, the author considers himself to be something of an expert in Geriatric survival techniques)