Veteran Oldham climber wins prestigious writing award

Alan Waterhouse, Tony Howard and Paul Seddon - 'the three Trolls’ who started Troll Safety Equipment in 1965

Oldham man Tony Howard, a veteran climber and former climbing kit developer, has won the 2022 Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild Technical Feature Award for Excellence for his article on the Origins of the Climbing Sit Harness in Climber magazine. 

The judges said that the article was ‘surprisingly interesting, a fascinating and well-researched history that was also really well written’. 

Although as a member of OWPG, it is Tony who won the award, he had written it with his old friend and business partner Paul Seddon, who sadly died recently.

Tony said: “Climbing has changed a lot in recent years and the new generations no doubt never wondered about equipment design which mostly took place from the late 50s through to the eighties - before many of today’s climbers were born.

"For them, it’s always been there.

"I thought it was time for a small history lesson before it’s all forgotten.

"Companies like Troll, Clog (now DMM), Wild Country and Mountain Equipment revolutionised climbing in that period.

"They were exciting times."

Tony knows some of this history from first-hand experience, as a partner in Troll and the creator of the first climbing sit-harness with a belay loop back in 1979.

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