Trust

In our sport trust is everything.  If you don't have a partner you can trust then you're looking down the barrel.  

Recently I reached out to a forum memeber here to help me out.  I live in Australia and they live in the USA.  I figured we're all climbers and by nature trust worthy people and also people that are used to trusting others.  I tusted this forum member with a couple of thousand dollars without having ever met them and with no safety systems in place. 

When I told some of my non climbing friends what I had done they thought I was mad, but I never doubted the integrity of this person even though i've never met them.

He was happy to help, communicated with me and went above and beyond in an effort to help a stranger and came through for me with flying colors.

Brian Abram you're a good man and your help has assisted me greatly.  Not only that but your integrity and good will has shown me and others that good people are still out there and human nature is still alive and well.

Thanks mate!

Definitely thought your post was headed in the other direction.  I was sharpening up my pitchfork.  Glad to have been surprised.

If we're dishing out praise to Brian Abram, I'm happy to add on. Solid guy.

Good to hear it worked out, but I'd advise more care in the future. There is another forum member on here who borrowed money to an MP member who claimed they were in need, except the story ended up with the guy stealing the money, never repaying it and possibly outright lying about the conditions of his situation in the first place. There are other stories on MP of climbers who have met up through the website to climb, one partner was critically injured and the other partner just ran off never to be heard of again. I've even personally seen this happen in real life among climbers. There have also been multiple occasions of fraud that has occurred through the for-sale section, some of which even involved the authorities.

While I like to think climbers are a better group than most, there are still plenty of climbers who are not good people and who will not hesitate to lie and cheat their way through life. I think it’s awesome you helped someone in need, but as I said there have been multiple incidents on this very website so I assure you not everyone with an account on here is as trustworthy as we would like.

I trust most people in my community.  And by that I mean climbers and a few other categories.  That doesn't mean I won't look out for danger signals but I'd much rather live in a trusting world than a non trusting one.  In general I find that when you give somebody trust they return it and I'm not just restricting this to climbers.

I've entrusted recently met climbers with the keys to my house while I've been away.

The biggest leap of faith was probably entrusting a random trailer park owner with $2000 wired to his swiss bank account having never had contact with him except via email and one phone call.  The trust was thoroughly worth it.

"I tusted this forum member with a couple of thousand dollars"

Could you provide some details?  I don't understand the kind deed without more context.

I believe what makes a safe climber is the ability to assess risk, and that obviously can translate into situations like this.

Greetings climbing friend!

I am Prince Mumbatumbi of Nigeria.  I have your money.  I like to climb the rock stones.  You like stones as well.  Send me your money.  I will release funds to qualified 5.10 leader.  This is no joke...

Warmest regards ...

Mark Dalen wrote:

Greetings climbing friend!

I am Prince Mumbatumbi of Nigeria.  I have your money.  I like to climb the rock stones.  You like stones as well.  Send me your money.  I will release funds to qualified 5.10 leader.  This is no joke...

Warmest regards ...

Great response! I've never met a real prince before...

Holy crap, I only just saw this when searching my name just like Tradiban did earlier. I'm blushing. You're welcome!

Brian Abram wrote: Holy crap, I only just saw this when searching my name just like Tradiban did earlier. I'm blushing. You're welcome!

I "connect people". That's what I'm good at. God bless!

20 kN wrote:

Good to hear it worked out, but I'd advise more care in the future. ...

Way old thread, ya forgot to mention everyone's least favorite con artist Jeff Caldwell.