"Vivre la difference!"

The name Khyber is unique in UK climbing. It now holds an unassailable position across both sexes in mountaineering’s Who’s Who. 

You will remember Mark Khyber but do you know that the media-heroine, Chrissy, is also a Khyber? I certainly didn’t until very recently, and it’s staggering to find that Chrissy, who is the most vocal in denying her celebrity status, is a climber of equal class. 

Mark, of course, will always be remembered for his audacious solos of Greenland’s Inuition & Eskimobility and the yellow-streaked, politically touchy Lemon Curd in Northern Iraq. I doubt, though, you’ll know much about the real Chrissy other than the glib, fabricated dross repeatedly churned out by the glossy climbing comics.  

When I watch Chrissy climb I can’t help myself seeing Mark’s style, grace and composure, and maybe that’s why she rarely speaks about him: she wants us to see her for who she is: a daring, skilful, competent world-class climber. Take a brilliant Lucinda, dazzling Lucy, peerless Lynn, matchless Libby and an enduring Liv then scrunch them into the DNA melting pot of life with more than a dose of Mark and you’ll end up with Chrissy. Don’t try to make too many comparisons with Mark, though, as she’s far from his shadow. 

She’s tall, leggy and brash; she’s sassy and self-opinionated but what’s most important, she climbs like Roadrunner on speed. It’s as if she’s taken a combination of vitamins, Viagra and Vanceril in a solution of adrenalin. 

You can easily see Mark’s high cheek bones and his ever-present, face-splitting smile in Chrissy, and she shares the same alluring look in her brown eyes like Mark. 

She has the same drive as Mark, edged with the finesse of femininity. Mind you, Chrissy wouldn’t have shown-off for the cameras like Mark! Oh, what a mess he made of himself, that day on the once hidden Palace Boulders in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Having just been given the rocks and a surrounding acre of land by His Majesty, the custodians of the Caledonia Mountaineering Clubs Federation stood back to watch Mark dance over the boulders as the cameras devoured every nuance of his movement. 

Mark’s only mistake was to attempt the unbouldered, horizontal roof that is finished by a rounded, leaning arête and suggest that a photographer position herself underneath for a more dramatic shot. It was some sight as Mark was stretchered off to casualty theatre with half a tripod still impaled in his upper thigh. Chrissy’s now claimed the line, calling it Holyroof. 

We never really saw Mark again. Apparently, he went on to some quasi-spiritual, life changing experience. Six years on we have Chrissy Khyber: not only taking his place but surpassing him in British and world climbing. 

She boulders at V7/F7a+ (Quartz Not — Glen Torridon & Gneiss Touch – Flowerdale Crags) with the typically tenacious, yet dexterous & familiar gritty Khyber power and she leads new routes at E5/5.11 (Cwm On Gals – Yr Moel).