Often in climbing we here of daring ascents, often through second or third hand accounts that then get passed on like rumours through an office, and before long Sally’s having an affair with Frank in IT, and what is her husband going to do if he finds out?
Rumour becomes a fact and then that fact becomes either a myth or legend depending on whether it is good or bad for the individual at the heart of the myth. If we look at two well known climbers Dunne and Dawes. You might argue that whilst legend has fuelled Johnny Dawes mythical status in climbing, for John Dunne the opposite has occurred.
Everything positive I have heard about Dawes has been positive, whilst Dunne has struggle to do anything right if I am to listen to the ‘rumour’ and third hand stories. The problem is though that these rumours are unconfirmable, unless we were actually there the details are lost the instant they happen.
One problem comes from what NLP calls first access, which refers to the fact that when something happens around us, even before we feel, hear and see it our mind will have already filtered that information, and with each telling of the story the details will be altered. Like a constant case of internal Chinese whispers.
I once sat round a table with Johnny Dawes, who recited the first ascent of a desperate Gogarth route, the story was intense and detailed. Everyone was enthralled by the tale. When he finished, Trevor who had sat through the story turns to Johnny with a wry smile and says “Johnny, you lying B*&%$!@, I belayed you on that route’.
The chances are the story was a true one, but happened at a different time on a different route. The problems is do you trust the storyteller, were they there, and if they were do they remember it accurately? Remember its all rumour, myth and legend!