County Climber Spring 2015

Spring 2015

County Climber Magazine of the Northumbrian Mountaineering Club

COUNTY CLIMBER RELAUNCHES

JACOB AND THE AMAZING LEVITATING KARABINER

WAY BACK IN THE DAY

A TALE OF TWO MOUNTAINS

NOTES FROM A HIMALAYAN DIARY EASTERN GRIT

8000 METRES HANGING ON THE KALYMNOS TRAIL

CONTENTS

About the Northumbrian Mountaineering Club The NMC is a meeting point for climbers, fell walkers and mountaineers of all abilities.

Our activities centre on rock-climbing and bouldering in summer, snow and ice climbing in winter and hill-walking in both.

Meets are held regularly throughout the year.

The NMC is not, however, a commercial organization and does not provide instructional courses.

REGULARS

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EDITORIAL

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WEEKEND MEETS

John Spencer gives us the background info on all the latest and greatest articles.

A look forward at what’s coming up on our events calendar. Get your diarys read.

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LOCAL NEWS

36

BOOK REVIEWS

Some more detailed information about the recent rock fall at Bowden Doors.

We take a look at some of the latest and greatest publications.

Copyright The contents of this magazine are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission of the NMC. The views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor or the NMC.

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Cover Shot: John Vaughan leading ‘Pinky and Perky’ (HVS, 5a) on Adrar Iffran, Morocco Photo : John Spencer

Background: The club celebrates another successful meet at Peel Crag Photo : Ian Birtwistle

FEATURES

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JACOB AND THE AMAZING LEVITATING KARABINER Pete Hubbard tells a tale with Biblical overtones.

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WAY BACK IN THE DAY

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A TALE OF TWO MOUNTAINS

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NOTES FROM A HIMALAYAN DIARY

Steve Blake tells an epic tale about a first ascent on Baffin Island.

Ursula grapples with her first two mountains in Peru.

Bryn Roberts offers diary extracts from his trip to Nepal.

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THE KALYMNOS TRAIL

John Spencer reviews the recently published guide to a new walking route on Kalymnos

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NMC Meets

Join the NMC

The NMC Members’ handbook (available to all members) and the NMC website list the dates and locations of all meets.

This magazine lists the meets arranged for the next few months.

You can now subscribe online which is easier and faster.

More information is available at: thenmc.org.uk

Non-members are always welcome to attend meets.

Payment Payment of fees by GoCardlessDirect Debit is preferred; it’s easy to set up, just click here.

Membership Fees • Full £23 • Prospective £15

Photographs by author of article unless otherwise stated.

You can visit our community : WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/GROUPS/THENMC

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and you can visit our official website : WWW.THENMC.ORG.UK

Wall concessions £1 off the standard entry price at: - Sunderland Climbing Centre - Sunderland Wall - Durham Climbing Centre - Climb Newcastle * - Newcastle Climbing Centre Also winter season Wednesday nights at Burnside college, £6 entrance fee, open to NMC members and provisional members only. *Wednesday nights only

Guidebooks NORTHUMBERLAND BOULDERING

NO NOBLER COUNTY

The definitive and comprehensive guide to climbing in Northumberland – much more useful than ‘the other one’.

The sandstone of Northumberland offers some of the best bouldering in the Country, often in a remote and beautiful setting.

£12.50 to members (RRP £18.95) £2 P&P

£12.50 to members (RRP £19.95) £2 P&P

Celebrating the sport of rock climbing in Northumberland, from first hand accounts of nail-booted ascents in the 1940s to bouldering in the 1990s.

CONTACT: John Earl 0191 236 5922

CONTACT: John Earl 0191 236 5922

NORTHUMBERLAND CLIMBING

£2 to members (while stocks last CONTACT: Martin Cooper 0191 252 5707

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EDITORIAL

H

ere it is at last, the late, new-look Spring issue (or, as Adrian Wilson put it in the May Newsletter, the ‘Sprummer’ issue!), and the first thing to say is that it simply would not (and probably could not) have happened without the help of El Presidente Birtwistle. He came to the rescue in my darkest hour as I struggled to get to grips with Adobe InDesign to use with the new template - doubtless a fabulous piece of design software, but not an easy one to learn from scratch. Well I think so.

Anyway, thanks to Ian, you have before you the new issue and a completely new design. It’s not necessarily the final version we will use, so this should be considered ‘work in progress’, but it’s a great start. I rarely get any feedback about the magazine, other than the occasional cheery comment or email. However, in light of this being a new venture, we would particularly like to know what you think, whether positive or negative (but do be constructive!). Email me at: john.spencer@ncl.ac.uk The other thing to say, not so much a moan as a lament, is that it’s been really difficult getting material this time round; I won’t use it as an excuse for the lateness of the Spring issue, but had it actually been published on time (i.e. around the end of March/beginning of April) there would not have been very much for you to read. Thankfully, there was a late surge of interest and we now have ‘an issue’ which I hope you will find interesting and entertaining.

So what do we have for you?

In Local News, Steve Blake explains what’s been happening in the wake of the dry stone wall collapse at Bowden Doors – it’s not just an informative piece, but a heartening tale of collaboration and cooperation between club and landowner.

Meanwhile, Pete Hubbard, a relatively new member of the Club, tells a tale with Biblical overtones set in Coire an’t’Sneachda on the highly successful Feshiebridge winter meet in January.

On page 18 Steve Blake tells a story from his youth, a truly epic tale about a first ascent on Baffin Island forty - yes forty - years ago. His story resonates particularly in light of the awful recent events in Nepal.

In a more light-hearted vein, Ursula grapples on page 28 with her first two mountains, in Peru where she’s doing field-work for her PhD (and climbing a lot!). Despite the discomforts she’s not completely given up on mountaineering, apparently.

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Staying in the higher ranges, NMC stalwart Bryn Roberts (now domiciled in Wales) offers diary extracts and some fetching B&W photos from his trip to Nepal last year, part of the time spent with Graham Williams. Both of them (see below) exhort us to dip into our pockets and make a donation to the disaster appeal.

Martin Cooper compares and contrasts two books by British mountain greats, Martin Boysen, one of the great, understated heroes of British rock-climbing, and the first Briton to reach the summit of all 8000 metre peaks, NMC member Alan Hinkes.

On page 38 EX-NMC member (indeed former president) Andy Birtwistle enthusiastically reviews the latest Rockfax guide to ‘Eastern Grit’.

Sadly there are two obituaries, of Tony Griffiths, former Club President and gentleman, and Gordon Thompson, former County activist and, by all accounts, general hell-raiser. RIP. Finally, I review the recently published guide to a new walking route on Kalymnos, the Kalymnos (!) Trail which should provide some interesting and by no means soft-touch alternatives to clipping those bolts.

Three further things.

First, as stated above, Graham Williams writes: ‘In a previous issue of County Climber I wrote an article about my trip to Nepal last November. I mentioned in the article that we stayed twice in Langtang village and about the warm welcome we received there. That village has now been destroyed by a landslide with considerable loss of life. Nepal is a wonderful country but also very poor, it urgently needs help. The Disasters and Emergency Committee is collecting donations and spreading the money between some of the larger charities. Alternatively you could send a donation to Community Action Nepal, the charity set up

by Doug Scott. Somebody on ukclimbing suggested that everybody who has visted Nepal should donate 1% of the money they spent on the trip. Perhaps we could all think about how much money we spend going climbing every year and how much difference donating a small proportion of that could make.’

Secondly, an apology. In my editing of John Vaughan’s excellent ‘tale of hubris’ (‘Trials and Tribulations in the High Pyrenees’) in the Winter edition of County Climber, I correctly attributed a quotation – ‘‘almost but not quite, entirely unlike what was originally intended’ – to Douglas Adams, but stated it was from a book ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe’. Mr Vaughan was incandescent with rage, not just because he’s a stickler for detail and wants you, dear reader, to have the correct information, but mainly lest you think it was his error. Adams’ seminal book is, of course, ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, and the editor takes full responsibility for the mistake, humbly begs forgiveness and hopes that John’s reputation remains intact.

Lastly I liked this reflection about our wonderful sport from Neil Gresham that was circulating on Facebook a few weeks ago: “I can’t think of many other sports where girls in their early teens and men in their mid forties have equal chances of leading the field...... Nor can I think of other sports where respect and good will are so prevalent amongst participants at all levels. Where the whole game relies on honesty and trust. Where there are few, if any drug cheats. Where there are so few dickheads. Where there’s a rich creative scene with photography, film making and writing. Where the winter version packs such a punch. Where the party scene is as ferocious as the training scene. Where you can play in some of the most beautiful, natural places on earth yet have just as much fun at an indoor facility. Where you can travel the world in search of nirvana and return to find it on your doorstep. In fact I can’t think of any other sports that come close and every day I thank the stars that thirty years ago I found climbing.”

I like to think that County Climber reflects the diversity described in Gresham’s quote. Enjoy the read!

- John Spencer

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WEEKEND MEETS

Saturday 6th June - Sandy Crag day meet - Ian Birtwistle Friday 19th-21st June - Wasdale Head, Keswick - Martin Cooper Saturday 27th June - Rumbling Kern BBQ - Alastair Boardman Friday 3rd-5th July - Annual Dinner at Langdale - Adrian Wilson/Ian Birtwistle Friday 24th-26th July - Meikle Ross, Galloway - John Dalrymple Saturday 2nd August - Wild West Meet, Padda crag - John Dalrymple Friday 21st August - Peak District, Stony Middleton - Alastair Boardman Saturday 12 September - Navigation Skills (TBC) - Peter Hubbard

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AS WE APPROACH THE SUMMER MONTHS A FEW EXCELLENT MEETS APPEAR ON THE HORIZON. AFTER OUR FIRST NEW MEMBERS MEET IN LANGDALE WAS A FULL HOUSE WE’VE DECIDED TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN AND HAVE A PARTY ON TOP...

JOE SPOOR LOOKING OUTWARDS FROM NAPES NEEDLE, PHOTO BY IAN BIRTWISTLE

IAIN JOHNSON ON ORIGINAL ROUTE (SEVERE 4A), RAVEN CRAG PHOTO

BY JDAL

“CLIFFS-OF-MOHER-OBRIENS-FROM-SOUTH” BY BJØRN CHRISTIAN TØRRISSEN. LICENSED UNDER CC BY-SA 3.0

WASDALE & GABLE, WEST LAKES 19-21 JUNE 2015

ANNUAL DINNER, LANGDALE 3-5 JULY 2015

GALLOWAY SEA CLIFFS 24-26 JULY 2015

Venue will be National Trust campsite in Wasdale.

Weather will be marvellous!

This year the NMC’s Annual Dinner is being combined with a Langdale meet!

Camping at the excellent Solway View site, cost is £13 for 2 nights camping.

This is a good location for sea cliff novices, there are two sectors which aren’t very high and have stuff up to HVS. There are other harder sectors too as well as inland cragging at Clifton.

Contact Martin Cooper for details

The Annual Dinner will take place on Saturday 4th July 2015 in the Sticklebarn in Langdale.

All 24 beds have been reserved in Raven Crag Cottage (behind ODG); cost is £27 per person which covers Friday and Saturday night. Book early to avoid disappointment, as places are strictly limited for this excellent weekend!

Contact John Dalrymple for details

To book for cottage: Adrian Wilson To book for dinner: Ian Birtwistle Camping: DIY

The NMC Members’ Handbook (available to all members) and the NMC Facebook Page list the dates and locations of all meets. Or check out our Google Calendar.

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LOCAL NEWS

DRY STONE WALL COLLAPSE AT BOWDEN DOORS

M

ost people who climb in Northumberland will be aware of the collapse of the old wall above Triple Cracks at Bowden Doors. This was first noticed on the 14th February by some NMC members (Steve Blake and Bob Smith) who removed some precarious blocks.

stiles at Bowden and Back Bowden. Overall the meeting was a success with the Agent and Manager supportive of our activities. At the conclusion of the meeting Steve went back to the wall and removed some more material, then made another visit, reducing the remaining debris to the non-existent foundations several tons of masonry were manhandled to the plateau.

The club then broadcasted the incident on social media to make the wider climbing community aware of the hazard posed by the remaining debris. There was no evidence that the collapse was related to climbing; it appeared that the natural pediment the wall’s buttress was built on collapsed, precipitating a progressive catastrophic failure. It would have been impressive to witness!

A further visit took place to discuss the positioning of the fence that will replace the wall, John Dalrymple and Steve attended. The walling team had decided the remaining large blocks were a hazard and had sent them over the edge! The positioning of the fenceline was agreed - it will terminate in the corner between Harvest Bug and Triple Cracks; there are still nut placements for belaying above Triple Cracks. In the end the Land Manager has decided that he will construct the two stiles, one to be at the fence wall junction above Triple Cracks, and one over the wall below.

Clearly the landowner needed to be made aware, and efforts were made to identify who was responsible for the wall. About ten days after the event a meeting was arranged with the Land Agent for the estate who was keen to meet and discuss the wall and some other issues. Steve Blake, John Dalrymple and John Vaughan (in his role as BMC Access Representative) met with the Agent and his Manager. In the meeting it became apparent that a key issue for them was ensuring access for farm vehicles through the Back Bowden gate - it has been blocked in the past by thoughtless parking.

The club offered to provide appropriate signage for the parking, and where necessary some

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While the base is a now a (spectacular) mess, it will weather out, and those boulders on the path are easily moved. Overall our interaction with the Land Agent and Manager was a success, and they are satisfied with the signage we’ll be posting up about parking and crag care, and were grateful of the offer to provide stiles.

So, to conclude, Steve made three visits to the site and did ‘manual labour’, John Dalrymple two, John Vaughan one.

Research into the access status of the land, associated Open Access legislation, and liaison with the BMC was undertaken, along with a bundle of emails calls and texts.

Bowden Doors rockfall [Ian Birtwistle]

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COMMITTEE

El Presidente

B

usy. That’s the word i’d have to use to sum up the year so far. Lots of outdoor meets, a very successful new members meet, access issues to deal with (and very well dealt with, thanks team!), website changes, t-shirts, talks, socials, beer, facebook chat. Oh and lots of climbing too.

We seem to be on something of a roll at the moment All that leads me on nicely to the new version of County Climber! Well we hope you enjoy it.. it’s taken us long enough.

Hopefully a change for the better? If you spot John Spencer rocking in the corner at the bottom of the crag tap him on the shoulder and say thanks.

It’s the decent thing to do after all.

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Steve Blake

Adrian Wilson

Edward Sciberras

Vice President

Membersip Secretary

Dr Social

Andrew Shanks

Eva Diran

John Spencer

General Secretary

Treasurer

Magazine Editor

Committee Members Peter Flegg Alastair Boardman Dan Leadbitter Sonia Byers Peter Hubbard

John Dalyrmple Sarah Follmann

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Jacob and the Amazing

L e v i tat i n g Karabiner

Author : Pete Hubbard Photos : Conrad Onhuki

Before Joseph had started a career in dream interpretation, his father, Jacob, dreamt of an immense staircase that stretched up to the heavens. He saw many angels coming up and down and heard the voice of God from above. It’s commonly known as Jacob’s Ladder. Climbers seem to like the image and there is a Jacob’s Ladder in Snowdonia which is a V Diff, on Table Mountain there is a three pitch climb called Jacob’s Ladder (South African Grade 16), it’s also a 5a sport climb 14

in Dorset, an HVS at Almscliff and a mountain bike route in the Peak district. The one we’re on is on the Mess of Pottage crag (also named for a Genesis reference) up to the left of Coire an t’Sneachda (Coire of the snow) in the Cairngorms.

On this particular Jacob’s Ladder the angels in question were members of the NMC. If God was saying anything, he didn’t speak up loudly enough to be heard over the din of 50 mph winds. After walking in to the coire with the others, Conrad and I reached the crag and climbed the Slant, a straightforward enough Grade II. The snow was fairly soft and axes were mainly for balance. There was a frozen bit Into the cornice Pete Hubbard climbs into the cornice

of turf, though, so I got to bash in my new bit of kit, a BD Sceptre ice piton.

We descended back to the base of the crag and ate lunch. Then we looked up and decided we’d romp up Jacob’s Ladder. The romping went fairly well to begin with and the snow was much harder. We passed Adrian, Dana and, following their rope, met Ed. Further ahead we passed Tom and his daughter Grace. More easy snow-plodding led to the bottom of a cornice where Paul had found a comfortable stance and seemed to be pondering what to do next.

When I got up to him, and had a look at the cornice, I joined in with the pondering. The small notch in the cornice, where previous parties had presumably hacked a way through, was now re-corniced. It didn’t look easy. The other options were a traverse out right on easy ground, but

the route. b m li c to people race.”

“Of all thee only one to climb it with G Tom was th above an exposed cliff, or an equally sketchy looking notch on the left. Or of course we could down-climb the route. Conrad arrived and we got out the rope.

Paul threw some chocks in a crack for a belay and I tied in. I climbed up under the cornice and started bashing through snow with my right arm. With a few rests to let the arm recharge I finally bashed through to some firmer stuff and found an axe placement that held. Then with some delicate footwork I got high enough to slam in my left axe too.

The moment my head poked over the top of the climb a roar of spindrift started battering my face. Now it was time to pedal with the feet and do my best “beached whale” im-

Pondering Pete Hubbard pondering the cornice

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ADRIAN AND DANA FINISHING THE CLIMB

pression. With a belay on a boulder I brought up Conrad and Paul. They each confirmed the not-particularly-happy-with-this-on-a-Grade-1 nature of the climb with plenty of huffing, puffing and choice language. Tom led up next and brought up Grace, an exciting experience for her first winter climb. Ed was next bringing up both Dana (her first time in crampons) and Adrian.

While Adrian was on the edge he offered a belay to a couple of climbers behind him. Attaching a karabiner to the end of the rope he threw it down to them. The karabiner and rope were promptly flown back up to him by the wind. He attached something heavier.

Once we’d all arrived in heaven (in this case the Cairngorm Plateau) we were fairly keen to go back down again. On the way down Ed came out with a quip: “Of all the people to climb the route. Tom was the only one to climb it with Grace.”

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SHow OFF your tRUE COLOuRs Club T-shirts and hoodies are available in a range of sizes.

T-shirts are yellow, hoodies are red.

T-Shirts - 15 Pounds Hoodies - 25 pounds Contact Eva Diran on: 7824627772 ediran@hotmail.com

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Author : Steve Blake Photos : Steve Blake collection

WAY BACK IN THE DAY

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Entry in ‘Mountain Info’ section of Mountain magazine (November 1975)

In 1975 I was lucky enough as a callow 19 year old youth to take part in a trip to the Weasel Valley on Baffin Island, what follows is a somewhat hazy account based on some fuzzy recollections.

Back in 1974 I managed to put a journalist friend in touch with a local, tight knit group of climbers in Newcastle, the Border Climbing Club, a feisty bunch of blokes with a slew of hard alpine climbs behind them. My journo mate (Dick Godfrey) wasn’t much of a climber, but had a yen for organisation and was keen to organise an expedition. The climbers, while as hard as nails, couldn’t get much beyond organising the odd piss-up and argument, and so I played matchmaker. The chemistry worked and after a flurry of debates, some arguments, a lot of drinking and bullshitting, a tornado of paperwork, fundraising, and radio interviews followed.

All with the goal of getting the group to the Nirvana of the day – the Weasel Valley of Baffin Island.

I believe the area had its first real climbing visit in 1953 when Asgard was climbed by a team of Swiss scientists led by Canadian Pat Baird, an influential climber and explorer of the region for nearly 30 years. In 1961 a Cambridge University team explored the Pangnirtun Peninsular and several other trips followed, often with Pat Baird along.

Some credible alpine climbing was done. But the place and its magnificent peaks remained largely unknown until a number of trips were carried out

by Doug Scott, Dennis Henneck and others and written about in Mountain Magazine. The place was clearly a wonderland. And most importantly it looked like there was still a lot left to do.

Overlord [Mark Piche]

E AS HARD IL H W , S R E B IM THE CL ’T GET MUCH N D L U O C , S IL A AS N ING THE ODD IS N A G R O D N O BEY GUMENT. R A D N A P -U S PIS

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Weasel River Panorama Panorama over the Weasel River Valley in Auyuittuq National Park inclu

I’d guess it all took around a year for the planning to turn into a reality. We had identified a suitable team objective, Ulu Peak, a little up from the head of the fjord, but in early summer 1975 only two of the team had any contemporary US Big Wall experience: Kevin McClane, who had several seasons in the Valley and recently had done the Salathe Wall, and his contemporary and competitor, Dave MacDonald who had done the NW Face of Half Dome. The rest of the team (bar me) all had CVs of difficult Western and Eastern Alpine climbs.

Seven other parties were to climb on the Cumberland Peninsular that year, among them Pete Livesey and Jill Law rence from the UK, a team of Japanese climbers and Charlie Porter who was to solo an audacious line on Asgard.

We eventually got off the DC3 at Pangnirtung, having languished for a while in Gander, being put up by a teacher from Sunderland on a VSO tour with the Inuit. We had had an interesting couple of days

Northumbria

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uding Mts. Breideblik, Thor, Northumbria, and Odin.[Dave Hodge - SummitPost]

flow-hopping in the bay outside his prefab butler house before the weather let us move on. In Pang we met up with our freight which had been shipped ahead to the Hudson Bay store and arranged for some canoes to take us and our kit up the fjord. Kevin and Dave (I think) took the manly option of hiking in over a couple of days, with the required ‘super heavy’ loads.

We set up camp at the head of the fjord, the scenery was unreal, huge walls shot up from the alluvial bed of the valley, the huge tongue of a hanging glacier curled out of a cwm opposite the camp, while just to our south Overlord’s three pillars stood guard over the fjord. The base of Ulu, the team’s objective, was tucked away in a cwm above us, but the steep upper wall could be seen, and it did look impressively steep.

I recall we spent a day sorting out the freight and stores and then the ‘A Team’, which did not include

Overlord Route [Rich Prohaska]

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Douglas DC-3 taking off at Pangnirtung Airport [Ansgar Walk]

“THE LEDGE WAS SHAKING VIOLENTLY AND IT CLEAR THAT THE CLIFF WAS BEING RENT APAR

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T WAS RT.”

me, assembled for a poke at Ulu. We all assisted in ferrying gear up to the base of the wall, an impressive hike with some steep scrambling, and then the ‘punters’ – Dick (my journo friend) and I - headed back to the main camp. A few days later the others returned, all a bit crestfallen, having got so far up the wall, when the cracks that would link the lower wall to the upper chimney system stopped. The prospect of a substantial bolt ladder dissuaded them from continuing, and they had bailed.So a somewhat dejected group hung around the campsite for a day or so. One of the ‘senior members’, Ken Rawlinson, had sensed I was itching to go at something and generously suggested we should have a go at the Central Pillar of Overlord. This peak towered above the camp area and comprised of three distinct and huge pillars-come buttresses. The left hand one, the least steep of the three, had been climbed by a Japanese party the year before. The central pillar had been attempted earlier by Doug Scott, but we were aware that they had retreated when Dennis Henneck (?) had been hit by stonefall. The right hand pillar was, as far as we were aware, virgin.

We opted for the central pillar, Ken pulled together the rack, which I recall was memorably light, ‘You’ve got to give it (the mountain) a chance Steve’ he said with a wink. So with a few nuts, sling pegs and krabs, off we went. We set off up the pillar and the climbing naturally drew you to a line on the right hand side. There, after a few pitches of stepping climbing up slabs and grooves, we found the first of a number of pegs and nuts, marking the descent route used by Scott’s party the year before Being summertime we just climbed until we started to get weary, pitch followed pitch and at about 1/3 height we came across a generous rubble-covered ledge that was suitable for a bivi. I think it even had some moss! We cleared space for our bags ate some grub and crashed out, pretty exhausted.

At some point however, I was awoken by a strange sensation, accompanied by the loudest noise I’d ever heard. The ledge was shaking violently and it was clear that the cliff was being rent apart. There was little to do and nowhere to hide, I curled up in my bag making myself as small as possible, while for what seemed an eternity the mountain shook, the vibrations interspersed with what were clearly massive impacts close to our ledge. Eventually the roar subsided, what followed was a smattering of large, but modest in comparison crashes and explosive bangs. I eventually plucked up the courage to poke my head out of my sleeping bag to see two huge columns of dust rising up the couloirs either side of our pillar. The air was thick with the smell of sulphur and almost felt electric, quite possibly static in the dust. Ken too had surfaced and was out of his bag, wide-eyed looking at what had passed. We stood gawping at the clouds of dust, slowly rising up the full height of the south couloir.

He had just started to gabble something, when the relative silence was broken by a noise even louder that the one we had just experienced.

Snapping our heads to the right we saw that the tip of the hanging glacier opposite had broken away and was crashing to the valley floor.

I’m guessing multiple thousands of tons of ice ended up in a huge cone below the fracture. This was spectacle heaped on spectacle! A second or so later we felt the blast of displaced air followed by a relative silence.

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I can't recall what we said, probably something very English like 'That was loud'. We had been very lucky in the selection of our bivi ledge, it was on the crest of the pillar and a vertical wall above us gave some protection, I don't think any stonefall hit the ledge, a miracle given what had broken away.

(and in EBs) off he shot. Cutting buckets for his feet as he went, he carefully worked his way up. Eventually cresting the slope he rolled over the lip and disappeared. It was a nerve-wracking half hour to say the least. I took my socks off and put them on over my EBs, and with him walking down the glacier I set of up the line of holds.........

It took most of the day for the dust to settle, and for us to gather our wits about us and continue. We concluded that there must have been an earthquake to have dislodged materials on both sides of the valley. Later in the trip we met a Japanese party who had been on Thor when it hit, they had been lucky to get off the wall unscathed.

The walk down the glacier in EBs wasn't sooo bad, but lordy, had we cut it pretty fine! Ken had been phenomenal; unflappable, good humoured and never less than 100% certain we would make it. That said, the relief in his eyes when he saw the crack in the back of the ramp pitch was pretty apparent.

We were on the route for another two days with another bivi two thirds of the way up; throughout Ken was in charge, pointing me in the right direction. The quality of the climbing was outstanding, sustained VS (5.6) interspersed with occasional E1/2 (5.9/10). The main difficulties culminated at the top of the pillar.

A hanging belay at the base of a slender ramp that cut up the face for a hundred feet or so. The junction between the ramp and wall was fractured by a good finger crack which guaranteed success. This was important, as by now, 40 odd pitches up, we didn't have enough kit to reach the first of Scott's abseil gear. Up was the only option.

After a couple of days recovering we began shuttling loads up the Weasel Valley with the aim of establishing a camp at Summit Lake. In the interim Dave and Kevin climbed and named Mt Northumbria, and Dennis Lee, and Kevin (I think) did a new line on Turnweather which I can’t find documented anywhere. As we shuttled loads up the valley we passed underneath Thor and met the rather shaken Japanese party who had been trying the face when the earthquake struck. Already stressed by the scale of what they had taken on, the poor rock they were encountering and the difficulty of the climbing, the earthquake had become an understandable ‘last straw’ and they bailed.

So with great relief we cleared this obstacle, then the brêche beyond, and the penultimate pitches which brought us to the summit snowfield. From the valley this sliver of white looked tiny. Up close it transformed into a 200' 45 degree slope of granular ice. However we had neither axes nor crampons! So I set up a rudimentary belay, sitting on a perfect edge of dry granite, with my legs dangling above a 4000' cavernous drop, with the small of my back pressed into the ice. We tied both 9mm ropes together, I gave Ken my Stubai hammer, and with two of these

Some endless shuttling of loads followed, with extended rest days waiting out heavy rain and sleet. There was enough time, and daylight to get through Woody Guthrie’s biography and Lord of the Rings.

The latter was made all the easier to read given we were on the edge, so it seemed, of Mordor. There was much crossing the braided steam that dissected the valley, always exciting as you could hear, and feel, the deadening thud of leg breaking boulders being pushed down stream by the force of the water. After sorting myself out after one such crossing I was

picking up my rucksack, a Karrimor haulbag, when, with an audible phhhhhhht, the yoke holding the straps on separated from the pack. Leaving me with a large, very heavy, red tube – a rucksack no more! Thankfully someone had a sailmaker’s awl and some hefty waxed thread, and after a few hours of work the pack was functional once again.

After a lot of laborious shuttling we eventually got ourselves established at Summit Lake and began to explore. I teamed up with Dennis Lee and we headed up the glacier, dry that year, that led to the base of Asgard. I recall a series of towering walls and buttresses opposite Asgard and we walked along looking for a likely line. Eventually we settled on a pillar with a crack, which led to another crackline in a steep wall and thus to a chimney system, then the clouds and who knows what.

“Uptown” neighbourhood of Pangnirtung [Technicalglitch]

Access to the pillar was protected by a steep slope of neve, perhaps 50 degrees and a couple of hundred feet. We short-roped and moved together up this, kicking steps as we went. I eventually met the junction of ice and rock about 100 feet to the left of the pillar. Nature had conveniently left a six inch gap down which I stuck my arm and waited for Dennis, (who was hot on my heels) to join me. With my arm down the back of the gap I began kicking steps across to the corner, which I had just about reached when, with a loud crack, everything I was standing on gave way, and off I went, down the slope holding on to a large shield of ice.

A second later I came onto the rope and Dennis joined me (with our rudimentary belay) and we shot off down the slope. I managed to get my axe out from between my shoulder blades and began to brake, as Dennis accelerated past me and took the lead in our unwanted race to the glacier. My braking was having some effect at slowing us, but couldn’t stop Dennis going over the final, short vertical wall that led directly to the glacier. It did however, provide him with a soft catch and as I slid down to the lip I found him standing, shaken, if not stirred. Relieved, I slid to the edge of the wall and jumped down beside him and neatly punched a hole through into a crevasse he was standing on! Doh! I don’t recall how I got out, I do recall the small hole I was heading for. Anyways, eventually I did get out and we sorted ourselves out, put our crampons on and headed up the slope to the base of the corner. Despite what had gone before, what followed was pure delight, several pitches of 25

perfect hands on a vertical wall led up towards a chimney system, little edges outside the crack were made for boots, all at about VS/HVS (5.8/9).

However we eventually made it to the base of the chimney system only to discover our dénouement. It was a horribly flared ‘bomb-bay’ leading to an off-width system. The largest piece we had was one No 9 Hex – it just wasn’t going to happen. So we set up the first of several abseils and beat a retreat.

As is usually the case, what had taken several hours to get up seemed to take minutes to get down and before we knew it we were back on the glacier heading back to the Summit lake camp. More bad weather followed, days of rain and sleet, and we generally sat under a tarp trying to stay dry. I fell into an extended torpor in the tent, which didn’t go down well with the rest of the team. These tortured group dynamics are traditionally skimmed over in British climbing literature, and I will follow that line here, other than to say nearly 40 years later that some of them were right tw#ts!

Anyhow when I came out of hibernation Dennis and I attempted a quick ascent of the Scott Henneck route on Killabuk which was behind the camp, a storm unfortunately stopping us several pitches from the top. We endured a miserable, wet bivi in a shallow cave below the corner chimneys which led to the top and eventually bailed.

Soon afterwards we began the long slog out, and on the way met a bloke walking in who had a big reputation, and an even bigger beard – Charlie Porter, shuttling loads en route to Asgard. Now there’s a story. The rest was by comparison an uneventful journey home.

(This is an edited version of a piece originally published on the Supertopo website at: http://www. supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1961019&msg=1975016#msg1975016 Note the Central Pillar was repeated by a Canadian Team in 1998 in a continuous 24 hour push)

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01. Killabuck Taken from Doug Scott's Big Wall Climbing. We reached a recess about half way up the headwall. The retreat involved some hairy abseils to reach the slabs, where an easy escape was possible down the right hand side.

Credit: Doug Scott

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02. Underneath Overlord Credit: Rich Prohaska

03. An early pitch Credit: Rich Prohaska

Postscript 22ND APRIL 2015 John asked me if I could summarise the impact the climb and the trip had on me as a young man, and of course hindsight is a marvellous thing. I think in reality it had less impact than would have been the case had the rock climbing world not been on the cusp of its revolution. A lot was happening in the world of climbing then and our eyes were being opened to a lot of possibilities. While both the process and facilities that supported ‘training’ for climbing were rudimentary they had a huge impact on what we thought was, and what actually was possible. Which, combined with the discovery of the Verdon, made specialising in rock climbing an irresistible lure.

I had two more ‘traditional’ seasons, in ‘76 in the Western Alps followed by the Dolomites, then in 77 with Dennis Lee, the Dollies followed by the Verdon, where we pretty much did most of the established harder climbs. Back home I was improving rapidly and was fencing for the big lines in the County with John Earl and Bob Hutchinson, Bob and Tommy Smith, Paul Stewart, Bill Wayman and others. It was a very exciting time. This local activity was demanding and drew me away from other aspects of the sport - I pretty much stopped winter climbing to continue rock climbing through the winter; trips abroad were exclusively rock climbing in Europe, the draw of the US being stemmed by the rock climbing possibilities in Europe.

I left the area in 1980 and joined the Army. For a couple of years I didn’t do much, being based in the South East, but eventually got going again and got involved in ‘Adventurous Training’. This culminated in myself and a buddy taking a mixed bag of Army climbers to Yosemite. It was a great success with parties doing the Nose, Muir Wall, Regular Route on Half Dome, Washington Column, Lurking Fear and a long list of hard cragging.

At home I set myself the goal of doing at least one grit E5 a year, which I pretty much managed, with a few repeats! Summer holidays with my wife Bron on the continent were invariably motorcycling combined with climbing. Not much that was really hard was done, but we had some real adventures.

We managed a few more trips to Yosemite, and the North West. Late in my military career we spent 18 months in Arizona, living in the lee of the Cochise Stronghold, a fantastic place that’s not well known to UK climbers. I would recommend a visit, it’s unforgettable.

I retired in 2004 and came back to the North East, and pretty much picked up where I left off, mostly developing bouldering venues. But some are very ‘high’ in typical County style - thank god for mats!

I also have the challenge of staying in front of my son - not that we are competitive you understand. I fear that I will eventually lose out to a ruthless combination of gravity, injury and youthful exuberance (But not quite yet, if I have anything to do with it). I suppose I’d finish by saying 1975 was a long time ago - what I’m really excited about is now!

Post-Postscript Hi John, I’ve just been doing some vacuuming and something occurred while lost in the task which is more pertinent to the question you posed originally. As I said in the aritcle, when we were sorting the gear out prior to embarking on the route, Ken weeded it down to a bear minimum, a handful of Hexes, some stoppers, slings and a couple of pegs. He looked at me with a grin and said ‘We’ve got to give it (the mountain) a chance Steve’........ It was a very thin rack. Ken’s words have stayed with me and have underpinned my attitude to both routing and problems, here and outside the County. Our crags are tiny and to get a meaningful adventure we have to give them a chance as well, so no top roping and no beating a problem to death. This has the added benefit of preserving the rock!

Regards, Steve

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Author : Ursula Photos : Ursula collection

A Tale of Two Mountains This is the story of two mountains.

The first two mountains, well my first 2 anyway...

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I lived in Huaraz for 8 months in 2007 and when I left my greatest regret was not having climbed any of the very impressive peaks that surround the town. Fast forward 9 years and I’m back there, doing research for a PhD on mining conflicts. Huaraz is at 3100m altitude and is ringed by two mountain ranges, the Cordillera Blanca is the higher range, most of the mountains are snow-capped. No prizes for guessing how it got its name. In mid-February I got a call from a friend, Rommel, a mountain guide who now lives in Lima and misses the mountains he used to climb dozens of times each year. He asked if I wanted to accompany him on some training trips. Well how could I say no?!

So first, off we went up Vallunaraju, an easy moun-

Vallunaraju

Location: Peru, South America Lat/Lon: 9.4221°S / 77.45642°W Object Title: Vallunaraju Elevation: 18963 ft / 5780 m

Looking up towards the summit and potential trad route on Urus

Vallunaraju is one of the most predominant mountains that can be seen directly from Huaraz as well from Cordillera Negra. It can be easily identified and distinguished from other mountains for its double - headed summit from which the northern summit is the highest one.

The lower of the twin peaks on Vallunaraju

tain that is 5780m high. Rommel’s friend Lolo and his 8 year old son were to accompany us up to base camp at 5000m and to keep an eye on the stuff whilst we went up to the summit. Arriving at base camp was easy, a 3 hour steep trot up from where the taxi left us in Llaca Valley. Mission Lunatica, a 6 pitch 6a/b route, touted as the highest sport climb in the world, and put up by the Hot Rock tour in 2012 (?) was visible across the valley as we ascended, as was the bright blue Llaca Lake. I crunched one half of my sunglasses immediately after stepping out of the taxi so was wandering around squint-eyed.

At base camp we sunned ourselves barefooted until it started to snow at 4pm and we retreated into the tents until tea time. For me it was a loooonnngg night. I’ve never had altitude sickness before but had only drunk 1 litre of water on the climb up and developed a banging, BANGING headache. I was awake ALL night. My herbal valerian did not so much as half droop an eyelid, plus who gets sleepy at 7pm in the eve? I can go two days without sleep if I need to, which is lucky, as that’s exactly what I did. We almost called the plan off, thinking my head might ex29

plode if I went higher, but in the end some combination of pride, curiosity and stupidity got me out of the tent at 2am and we were away by 3. It was my first attempt at a mountain after all.

We slogged higher and higher up the glacier; it wasn’t technical but we were roped together in case of a crevasse fall. Not that I’d be much help in an emergency, the pulley rescue system remains implausible and mysterious to me. We made quite good progress, I was slowish in the grim and sleep-deprived night, but once the sun came up I woke up too and the views were amazing. On leaving base camp the plan had been to just go up a little bit and see how I felt, however once I started moving and getting myself out of breath, I breathed much deeper and my headache all but disappeared. In the end we only went as far as the col which is about 50m below the summit. The mountain has twin peaks and getting to the summit would’ve involved crossing an ice bridge that looked like it might collapse. With hindsight I regret not cutting a path through the pristine snow that led to the slightly lower of the 2 peaks, just so I could fully experience the feeling of getting to the top. However, down we stomped via a few photo opportunities, and after a 40 min lie down we packed up the stuff and lugged our heavy packs back down to where the taxi picked us up.

Rommel had grand plans for the coming season so the following week we headed out again, this time the target was Urus, a lower (5495m) but slightly more difficult peak due to the much lower location of the base camp and mixed climbing (ie basic scrambling) that was involved.

The plan was to rent donkeys but as we were climbing out of season this proved tricky so in the end we did the 12km walk in carrying the packs ourselves.

The approach follows the Ishinca Valley which also boasts excellent sport climbing on what are known as the Ishinca Towers. The walk-in is flat, pretty and with a burbling brook to follow. After a few hours amble we arrived at base camp where the Ishinca Lodge is located at 4300m. Tomato pasta for tea (I’d like to hear about a trip that didn’t involve copious amount of this classic camping foodstuff - where is the creativity in the climbing community?!) No

The view down Llaca Vally on the climb to base camp

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headache this time but daytime sleeping doesn’t suit me so off we marched with me once again sleep-deprived. The ascent to the glacier is long and hard, and after the first couple of hours I was slooooooooowwwww.

Rommel had flattered me early on telling me I climbed fast and calling me a machine.

Ooooops! That quickly changed as we got higher and my pace slowed to a crawl!

There was no way I was giving up before we got to the summit though! It took me 7 hours.

The climbing was a touch more technical than Vallunaraju as there were some scrambly sections as we went through the (seemingly endless) moraine. However, the glaciated part was quite short, with no crevasses to worry about. We went up the central massif which is less frequently climbed than Urus Este and Oeste, arriving in a total white-out, so despite all that effort there was absolutely no view! We also passed an enticing looking mini-crag at about 5250m and I started to wonder about the possibility of climbing a trad route there; the gear looked multitudinous, although somewhat unstable. I asked Rommel if it had been done before. ‘Never’ he said, ‘You’ll get your name in a book if you do that, I’ll help you.’ Great I thought, and off went the daydream machine. A few weeks later I asked a friend who is a rock climber and mountaineer as well (Rommel climbs mountains but not rock) if he knew of any

“ You’ll get your name in a book if you do that, I’ll help you. Great I thought, and off went the daydream machine. ”

ascents there. Sure he said, loads of people have been up, there’s no clear line but it’s been done plenty times before. First ascent dreams crushed, I still intend to give it a go if I ever make it above the strength-sapping hills that lie below it.

Returning from Urus was the most complete exhaustion I’ve felt in my life. I kept sitting down and zoning out and wondering if I could be bothered to get up and start walking again. It took 11 hours for the round trip; Rommel says he’s done it before in 5! To be honest I’m not totally convinced I’m cut out for mountaineering, it seems mainly to consist of Hard Slog. I’ll probably give it a few more tries though, maybe after some running for training and I also think I needed to eat more food. A few handfuls of apricots, 12 almonds and a Twix was probably not sufficient for the energy expended. So the plan isdrink more, eat more, do some running and maybe it will seem like fun… Mountains theoretically have romantic charm that is for sure.

The view at the start of the glacier on Urus

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The village of Namche Bazaar is the gateway to the upper Khubu and occupies a south-facing bowl in the muntains, overlooked by Mt Kongde

The village of Gokyo from the slopes of Gokyo Ri, at 5360m a high point of the trip. The rubble-strewn Ngozumba Glacier is the largest in Nepal, descending from Cho Oyu on the Tibetan border

Author : Bryn Roberts Photos : Bryn Roberts

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Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam seen from erest expeditions have traditionally stopped

Looking towards the snout of the Kh prominent peaks of

m Tengboche, where Evd to receive the blessing of the head lama

humbu glacier with the f Taboche and Cholatse

Notes from a Himalayan diary Nepal, Autumn 2014

In Kathmandu November 2014 I reluctantly said goodbye to Graham after a month’s trekking in the Annapurna and Langtang regions (see previous article), and made plans with our guide, Gyaljin Sherpa, to trek in the Everest and Gokyo area in the wonderful Khumbu region of Nepal.

The following are extracts from the diary and a selection of photos taken on the trek.

26/11 - Up at 4 for 6a.m. flight to Lukla. Cloud delayed flight until 8.30a.m. 16-seater twin-prop aircraft – cosy! Spectacular flight skimming hilltops, with views of Himalayan giants and then landing at Lukla airstrip, only 450m long and on an incline of 12% on side of mountain. Late breakfast at Lukla then easy trek up to Phakding en route to Namche Bazaar.

29/11 - Another amazing day! Cold start as we ascended steep path above Namche and took superb path which traverses around hillside, with panoramic views – Everest, Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Tamserku. Lost height as we descended through trees to the river, then gruelling 600m ascent to Tengboche. Tremendous position, with mountain views, stupas, mani walls and a superb gompa. A lama showed me round, including rooms not normally open to foreigners. Very impressive Buddha in main hall; deities, religious scrolls and thankas. Reluctantly left Tengboche and descended to the more sheltered area at Deboche and comfy lodge.

1/12 – Dengboche, 4,200m. First day of December – cold, crisp morning and blue skies. I was out early but photo-opportunities were limited as the sun took ages to rise from behind Ama Dablam and illuminate the valley and surrounding mountains. After late breakfast , set off in warm sun up ridge above the village.

Numerous stops en route at cairns and prayer flags as I gained

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300m in altitude. Views of tomorrow’s route towards Lobuche with the spectacular Taboche peak and Cholatse and towards the Cho La, and in the other direction the valley of the Imjo Khola leading up to Island Peak, a good objective in itself but dwarfed by the awesome south face of Lhotse. Descended to village and sat in the sun at the bakery with friends met on the trail. It doesn’t come much better than this! Refreshed and looking forward to high-altitude days to come.

2/12 - The days are warm but the nights are long and cold. After two virtually sleepless nights at altitude I’ve decided to miss out Everest base camp and head directly for my main aim of the trek – Gokyo via the Cho La. At Dughla, under the bleak terminal moraine of the Khumbu glacier I wished others luck and headed with Gyaljin towards Dzongla, at 4,800m our last stop before the pass. With a combination of sleep deprivation and altitude I was pretty tired today, but happy with revised plan.

3/12 – Slightly better sleep but still awake much of the time after 2a.m. Warmed up walking up open valley towards the Cho La. Exhausting hour clambering up through boulder field at around the 5000m mark. The gradient mercifully eased off as we put on Kahtoola spikes and crossed a snowfield to reach the Cho La at 5430m – highest point yet. Descended screes and boulder fields to Dragnag, squeezed in between the mountainside and lateral moraine of the Ngozumba glacier. Not much to recommend it except for providing a welcome bed for the night.

4/12 - After really poor night’s sleep decided to take Diamox. Headed across glacier to Gokyo – took an hour and half to find tortuous route through moraines, rubble heaps and glacial lakes. Arrived at Gokyo late morning; fantastic position between glacier and lake. Light lunch, then headed up Gokyo Ri, 5360m. Much easier ascent than yesterday, but still hard breathing at over 5000m. Rewarded with the most amazing panorama from the summit – Everest, Nupse, Lhotse, Makalu and Cholatse to the east; Cho Oyu and Tibet to the north; the Ngozumba glacier and Gokyo way below. Blue skies, light breeze, no snow on top! A real high point of the trip, in many ways...

5/12 – Horrendous night, much of it spent on the toilet! Possible reaction to the Diamox. Exhausted, and decided to miss out Renjo La and lose altitude as fast as possible. Struggled all morning and slept in sun for an hour at Machermo. Much improved in afternoon and we made steady progress along a superb trail with views across the valley, then down through steep woods past lots of ice falls to arrive at Phortse Tenga at 3600m, 1200m lower than Gokyo. Rewarded with the best nights sleep for ages – 9 hours – to wake refreshed and pretty elated after the hard nights at altitude.

The south-west face of Everest, flanked by Nupse and Lhotse from Gokyo Ri

“ The valley of the Imjo Khola leading up to Island Peak, a good objective in itself but dwarfed by the awesome south face of Lhotse. ”

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Buddhist inscription on mani wall at Tengboche

The above extracts maybe give some idea of the ups and downs, both emotionally and physically, of high-altitude trekking. On arrival back in Namche at 3400m it felt like the lowlands. I stayed in Namche for 3 days with some interesting side trips before another spectacular flight back from Lukla. I enjoyed the hospitality of Gyaljin and his family in Kathmandu and in return took them out for a meal.

I’m writing this in the comfort of my house in North Wales. On the television and radio are continuous reports of the worst earthquake in Nepal for 80 years which appears to have wiped out complete villages and sent avalanches through Everest base camp, as well as causing devastation in Kathmandu. Lodges and mountain settlements we stayed in and monuments and temples we visited are ruined. I wonder how the wonderful, resilient and resourceful people we met in the mountains are coping and especially our guide, Gyaljin, who was due to go with a Spanish expedition to Everest at this time. The reconstruction effort will take years in a poor country like Nepal, where transport infrastructure, standards of building construction and sanitary conditions were poor before this disaster struck. The least we can do is make a financial contribution, however small, towards the continuing aid effort.

Knackered, hairy and happy! In Lukla, awaiting flight to Kathmandu and home after 7 weeks trekking amongst the high mountains of the Nepal Himalaya.

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BOOK REVIEWS

8000 Metres

by Alan Hinkes Reviewed by Martin Cooper

On October 16th 1986 Reinhold Messner became the first person to successfully climb all of the world’s 8000 metre mountains. In the same year Al Rouse and Julie Tullis died near the summit of K2 and Alan Hinkes made his fourth visit to the Himalaya, climbing Kishtwar, Alpine style.

Alan Hinkes climbed his first 8000 metre peak, Shishapnangma, in 1987.

By 1986 Martin Boysen had given up big mountain expeditions.

In February 2005 I talked to Alan Hinkes for an hour or so at Waters Cottage, the Fell and Rock hut near Fort William. He was in the Highlands to do some work for a sponsor. At that stage Alan had just one 8000 metre peak left to climb, Kanchenjunga. He had already made one attempt on the mountain. He had made no secret of his ambition to become the first British climber to do all of the 8000ers; it had become an obsession. On that day, however he was giving nothing away about the date or timing of his next attempt. By then he must have been pretty fed up with all of the speculation about whether he could complete the fourteen 8000 metre mountains or not.

In fact, it was only a month later that Alan set off for Kanchenjunga. This time he made the summit, achieving his ambition on May 30th, following which his descent “Became an epic – I sensed that I was slipping into what I term the ‘incident pit’, a dangerous crater that leads to the point of no return – death.” He had been made to work hard right to the end.

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Alan’s book about his achievement was a long time coming. Years before, when he contributed to the NMC’s book No Nobler County, he had said he wasn’t interested in a biography or autobiography. He has always been a man of relatively few words in print. He lets his exploits speak for him. His book on the 8000 metre mountains of the world was to be mainly based on photography with only a few thousand words of text. So what kind of job has he made of it?

I will admit to being biased. I have known Alan, albeit not very well, since the 1990s and I couldn’t wait for the book to come out. As you turn the pages you cannot but be impressed with the scale of the mountaineering achievement. Photograph after photograph convey the utterly stunning landscape of the world’s highest mountains and the incredible feat of climbing them all. That is almost enough. You will look at these pictures again and again. From this point of view, the book is pure inspiration.

Interspersed in each chapter is a brief account of the ascent of each peak, as you would expect. There is enough here to let the reader know that Alan Hinkes had faced adversity over and over again and that, by his own admission, he cheated death on these mountains more than once. Alan also gives us short snippets on, among other things, ‘the death zone’, Mallory and Irvine, photography, equipment and two other Himalayan greats, Kurt Diemberger and Messner himself.

Some readers would probably want more from the writing than Hinkes has given us. His key philosophies do come through (No mountain is worth losing even a digit. Returning safe is the goal; a summit is a bonus.) But he doesn’t enlarge very much on his main ideas or put his own personal achievement into a particularly broad mountaineering or historical context. It certainly isn’t his autobiography. That wasn’t the intention. I’m sure he would say that the visual aspect of the book obviates the need for many words. I think I agree. I do wonder if, at some point, Alan will write at greater length on what drove him to commit so much time, energy and risk to fourteen mountains, how that drive connects to his earlier life and experiences. He has chosen not to do that in this book. For me, that is no weakness but a choice he had the rig ht to make, given the scale of his achievement. I know not everyone will agree. Track him down over a pint in Yorkshire. I’m sure he’ll tell you more.

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Reviewed by Martin Cooper Why Martin Boysen? There is a connection to Alan Hinkes, which I will come to later. I received Boysen’s book, Hanging On, as a Christmas present, started reading it immediately and really enjoyed it, for very different reasons.

Martin Boysen is a well known name in British climbing but, these days, not that well known. What this book demonstrates, however, is that in the 1970s and early 1980s Boysen was around and involved in many of the major British expeditions in various parts of the world. He seemed to be a climber that you would definitely want on your team although he was never the expedition leader or the guy who got to the summit first. I had read a lot about expeditions in these years in the books of Bonington, Boardman, Tasker and others. It was good to get a different perspective from somebody who was not one of the superstar climbers.

In many ways Martin Boysen gives the impression that he is just an ordinary climber, like your own friends at the wall.

It is just that he hung out with some big names. Who else has climbed on the Eiger with Clint Eastwood? He started as a Kent teenager, discovering climbing at Harrison’s and Bowles Rocks (these places still sound gruesome), travelled to North Wales and then went to Manchester University and was now positioned in exactly the right place to attack (mainly) the cliffs of North Wales where he put up routes like Nexus and The Garotte, as well as new routes in the Peak and the Lakes. From here Boysen made the transition to the Dolomites and the Alps, got married and survived a horrendous car accident on the way home from a party one night. Oh, yes I nearly forgot, he just happened to team up with Joe Brown as a teenager on his second visit to Wales and found himself climbing with Tom Patey almost as soon as he arrived in the Alps. He must have been pretty good in his youth.

One of the things I liked about this book was the human element. This is not a book which obsesses about climbing and nothing else. It is quite a personal read. Not everything went well. Boysen’s reactions to being ignored by Bonington for an expedition he fully expected to take part in are dealt with honestly. Boysen was hurt. Equally, he does not gloss over losing friends and climbing partners to early deaths. The death of Mick Burke on Everest in 1975 hit him hard. He had lost a climbing friend who had been with him for fifteen years. One thing Boysen does seem to deal with very briefly is why he actually stopped going on expeditions after his trip to Latok with John Yates and Choe Brooks in 1983. However, he didn’t stop climbing then.

Which brings me back to a link with Alan Hinkes. On the day when I met Alan in February 2005 in Scotland, Martin Boysen was in the hut too. He had arrived with Rab Carrington, hoping to do some ice climbing. The conditions were pretty foul, strong wind and low cloud. Boysen and Carrington set off nonetheless and returned later having nearly made it to the top of a Grade 4 route on Anoch Mor. Boysen backed off halfway up the final pitch. I was impressed. Do the maths yourself. Boysen was born in 1941.

Later in the evening, after Mr. Hinkes had gone there were some scathing comments from the other two climbers. I just listened. Now having had the chance to reflect on their books as well, I still refuse to pass judgement, except to say, same sport: different ball games. Both books are worth a read.

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Reviewed by Andy Birtwistle

My first forays onto Peak Grit were back in 1982 a number of years after I started climbing. Living in Newcastle in those days, Northumbrian fell sandstone was the canvas of rock I learned to climb on and journeys further afield were to the mountain crags of the Lakes, Wales and Scotland.

In those days the only compilation guide was Paul Nunn’s Rock climbing in the Peak District, a hardback mish-mash of limestone and grit with grades such as XS 5c and black and white photo-topos of dubious use, where finding the buttress never mind the route line was a major expedition. How things have changed.

Peak Gritstone East published in 2001 was the first Rockfax guide to cover this popular area and, as mentioned in the introduction to this guide, it proved to be a sea change in the way climbing guides were produced. By dispensing with traditional layouts, and focusing on photo diagrams and lots of colour photographs, the ‘Rockfax style’ has become an extremely popular way of finding ones way around the crags.

The 2006 guide upped the ante but now, if Stanage and the outlying escarpments are the Promised Land for grit addicts, then this new publication is surely their Bible.

This truly is a monstrous tome and my only gripe would be that you need a bigger sack simply to carry it, but thankfully most of the walk-ins are short. So what is it that’s new in this latest offering? We are all now familiar with the Rockfax format and every climber probably has at least one in their library.

Clean, colourful and user-friendly, they are great to browse through at home and their simplicity of layout makes finding your route a doddle. What stands out in the latest book is the sheer quality of crag and action photographs. This has been achieved by using a 24 megapixel camera (the first book was 3) and boy does it show! Each crag has been re-photographed and all bar two photo-topos are new providing stunning detail. Layout has been enhanced to an extent that now it would be extremely difficult not to find a line on any section of the crags.

The quality and diversity of action photographs is inspiring with a few flyers frozen in mid-air providing heart stopping moments. I’m tempted, tongue in cheek, to favour the one of Left Unconquerable on P211 but 70 year old Gordon MacNair cruising Cave Arete gives us all hope and the intense concentration of Neil Kershaw gripping the pebble on Beau Geste provides the spice. In truth there are a few mediocre shots and in my copy the photo-topo of Baslow P447 is slightly out of focus but, hey, this is nit picking, as the only way they stand out is that the others are so good. The real show stealer though is Dan Arkle demonstrating a sequence of unlikely hands off rests on The Rasp at Higgar Tor, so no excuses for pumping out from now on.

The guide, as expected, follows the tried and trusted Rockfax formula, working its way from Wharncliffe in the north to the outlying Shining Cliff in the south.

Tick lists abound for the trainspotters amongst us, with a top 50/ 500, Peaks and Pinnacles and many more, (28 altogether) with even a graded list of ticklists!

In the past I have had a problem or two with the Rockfax commercial professionalism competing with small voluntary Club-based guide production in a certain area. In this case all the definitive guides by the BMC have been out for a while and like many I tend to buy both. Either way a compromise appears to have been reached where both now live quite happily side by side, which can only benefit the climber.

For the local or visitor this is a welcome addition and upgrade, raising the bar even further in quality, detail and layout. Chris Craggs the author and his team have to be thoroughly congratulated for a superb piece of work.

VIEW A SAMPLE OF THE GUIDEBOOK HERE

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OBITUARIES Tony Griffiths

T

ony joined the NMC at the start of his climbing career, making an early impression with his enthusiasm and keenness to get involved. Although he was at first “twinned” with Mike Oswald, a co-teacher at the Royal Grammar School, it soon became clear which of the two was the more resolved to progress ambitiously in the sport. He had suffered from injuries incurred from participation in another “macho” sport, Rugby Union, previously. Whilst his knees gave him trouble on the hills, he never hesitated to dose with severe pain killers in order to take to the mountains. Likewise he was not over endowed with a natural ability for climbing but made up for that by his mental application to acquiring the skills and physical attributes necessary for climbing.

His tenacity in this was evident later when, alongside with the many of us who had to resort to mountain biking to occupy the void created by failing mountain skills, he attacked the sport in the same way.

It was not long after joining the NMC that he attained the ability to climb at VS grade, progressing beyond that eventually. Winter climbing ranks as possibly his high point of achievement, with climbs on Nevis (Point Five, V/5) and Lochnagar (Eagle Ridge VI/6) detailed in his copious diaries. In the Alps Tony spent several seasons in the Dauphine when the trend was to look for better weather for a short Alpine season. He climbed routes such as Pic N.de Cavales in one season and the following year the S. Face on the Aiguille de Midi by the Fissure Madier.

I enjoyed many memorable days in the mountains with Tony, singling out a cloudless day soloing the Snowdon Horseshoe under snow and ice. The following day he was gratified when I fell off an icefall on Clogyn y Grochan. He never allowed emotion to enter into days out on the hills but in later years an insight to his private diaries revealed the pleasure and satisfaction he got from climbing. Always overtly competitive, when the weather put a stop to climbing, he would enjoy a game of chess in the tent, accompanied by a bottle of Teachers, his idiosyncratic tipple, and where on one infamous occasion we both simultaneously became aware that I had been in check for the last few moves!

More senior club members will remember Tony for his stoical stint as NMC President during which he guided the club through a transitional period from which the present healthy club ultimately derived. He presided over the club, serving several stints ‘beyond the call of duty’. Tony was always an establishment person, reflected in his membership of climbing clubs. Beside his membership of the NMC, he was a member of the FRCC and was persuaded by the late Derek Walker to join the Climbers’ Club. Whilst not as devoted as in his membership of the NMC, he served as a FRCC committee member and assisted the NMC team who wrote the FRCC Eastern Crags guide, doing a lot of hard work checking the easier sections.

On probably his most auspicious occasion Tony was in conversation with the Queen at Buckingham Palace during investiture with the MBE. H.M. remarked on his single handed salvation of the RGS Combined Cadet Force from the axe of the establishment. Tony was Officer Commanding with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He never pulled rank on us lesser mortals.

One of the pleasures of visiting Tony during his long illness was leafing through his meticulously kept diaries and unearthing a long forgotten climbing event recorded in detail by Tony. Perhaps the diaries should be part of the NMC archive.

Dave Roberts

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Gordon Thompson

Y

ou could say that Gordon was a bit of a lad. We grew up in the same part of Elswick, but he was a couple of years older so we never hung out together as kids.

From the start he had a reputation for being a tough sort, not to be messed with.

By the time I’d started getting out on the Northumbrian crags Gordon’s northumbrian climbing career had started off as it was to continue, dominated by seeking out new crags and doing new routes. He had already produced a home-spun guide to Wolf Crag, roping in a motley crew of his pals whom he bullied mercilessly. Knowing nothing about local ethics he’d pinched a tin of his dad’s Dulux Exterior Enamel paint and written some route names on the crag - they’re still there to this day at the start of “Family Outing”.

The Wanneys were his favourite bit of moorland, he did routes at Aid Crag, Little Wanney & Buff Castle and developed East Woodburn. A notorious incident occurred on Northumberland Wall where Gordon was accused of chipping an “enormous hold” to bring the climb down to his standard. He vehemently denied this allegation, but many years later when I showed him a photo of the repair he replied “What? That?? It was a loose block in a crack so we broke it up and removed it” . He was adamant it didn’t make the thing any easier. Because of that allegation Gordon developed a deep distrust of the NMC, and I suspect the feeling was mutual.

He never got credit for the first free ascent of Holly Tree corner at Seby’s Cove, which was witnessed by John Gray who became an NMC president.

A bit farther afield he came across Howlerhirst Crag whilst looking for Callerhues. Here’s a page from one of his detailed notebooks - you can see that he didn’t really know what to call the place.

During this era he systematically developed Thrunton Crag and The Belling, both of which have disappeared now - The Belling under Kielder Reservoir and Thrunton under rampant vegetation. There are scores of other small crags documented in his handbooks, some completely fictional, made up during long winter months when he was shepherding at Chattlehope Farm on the shore of Catcleugh Reservoir.

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Howlerhirst crag early sketch A bit farther afield he came across Howlerhirst Crag whilst looking for Callerhues. Here’s a page from one of his detailed notebooks - you can see that he didn’t really know what to call the place.

But Gordons great achievement was what was made of his life after the terrible accident at Kyloe Out, with the care and support of his partner Joan. He was belaying a novice at the top of Twin Cracks, sitting on the front of the fin of rock with the belay well back. Without Gordon knowing the lad decided to go up round the corner, and fell off, pulling Gordon over the side. The rope flicked his head back and broke his neck. There were some NMC members at the crag - Nev Hannaby was one - and they saved Gordons life, keeping him stable for several hours until a rescue could be effected.

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Gordon smoking some of his self-prescribed anti-convulsion medication, purely for medicinal use, honest.

From that moment on Gordon and Joan battled the odds and the authorities to build a life. He produced great artwork, taught his carer to play music, entertained the bar at the Joiners in Morpeth with an endless supply of tall tales. He had a raging row with one of the locals. An “If I was on my legs I’d bloody have you” kind of row. The next night the bloke was minding his own business, propping up the bar, so Gordon took aim in his wheelchair and rammed him from behind.

He had originally been given 5 years to live, but he lasted for over 25 years - I never did find out the exact date of the accident.

We had hilarious raucous evenings at Gordon’s house, drinking beer & whisky and occasionally smoking some of his self-prescribed anti-convulsion medication with his neighbour, a wild clinical psychiatrist. Ever played charades with a quadriplegic?

For the last few years his world was closing in. Pressure sores meant he was unable to travel and would force him to lie on his back for weeks at a time. He never let this beat him, he used his intellect to keep himself occupied. He had a huge and varied collection of music and during one of these periods he got his carer to create scores of weird musical mixes on cassette tapes - he could remember exactly what music he had and where it was in the collection - and we are talking about hundreds of albums here.

By the end swallowing problems meant he couldn’t eat solid food and breathing difficulties meant he couldn’t sing any more. He had simply run out of steam and I could sense he’d had enough of the fight when we met a few days before a chest infection took him away.

RIP Gordon, there’s a big hole on the world where you used to be.

John Dalrymple

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The Kalymnos Trail

Author : John Spencer Photos : John Spencer Collection

I

’ve known Carl Dawson quite a wee while. We were at the same school and started climbing together nearly 50 years ago. He’s always been something of an archivist and compiler, so to speak, with a great eye for detail and an apparent photographic memory. You could ask him about the crux sequence on a route he did 40 years ago and the chances are he’d remember it! In the mid to late 60s, in our early days of climbing, when there were only a limited number of guidebooks, mostly confined to the historic and classic climbing areas, and when the concept of information sources like UKC’s Logbook was pure science fiction, Carl was not averse to (hand)writing his own guidebooks!

Living on the edge of the Peak District, somewhat inevitably he ended up a member of the BMC Guidebook Committee and was sub-editor of the 1988 Moorland Gritstone guide to the Chew Valley, a windswept gnarly locality for sure even by Northumberland standards of windswept gnarliness! This was, I believe, a groundbreaker, being one of the first guidebooks to be produced with a word processor, thus at the time of publication was more up-to-date than previous guides had been

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able to be. His piece-de-resistance, however, was the compilation of the selected guide On Peak Rock, published in 1993, and in my opinion one of the most interesting and entertaining guides around. If you haven’t seen it, and are intending climbing in the Peak district, and even if you’re not, check it out. It covers both grit and limestone, trad and sport, and amongst other charming idiosyncrasies, venues are grouped not by geography but by categories such as ‘Escape from the heat’, ‘Winter warmth’, ‘Grit for thugs’ and ‘Families and picnics’. A nice touch I always thought.

Anyway, when he started to visit and climb on Kalymnos in the early 00s, culminating in purchase of a small house in Massouri, it was no surprise to see him getting involved in the production of the climbing guides. He also spotted a gap in the market i.e. a need for information about exploring the mountains and/or the more remote corners of the island. Thus, fuelled by the ‘strong belief that the old trails of Kalymnos deserve preserving’, came about the soon-to-be-published The Kalymnos Trail: A guide to a multi-day hiking trail around the Aegean island of Kalymnos, of which Carl is the author.

What Trail, a Kalymnian cognoscente might ask? To quote the Introduction, it links many of the most interesting places on the island: ‘...mountain tops, remote beaches, archaeological sites, caves, lively villages and ancient castles and towns, via a continuous link along the best footpaths (monopátia) on the island.’ The Trail is ‘only’ 100 kilometres in length, but traverses some very tough and demand-

ing territory on paths ranging from goat trails to climber’s tracks to ancient cobbled pathways, with stretches of rough, trackless terrain in between. It’s not a long route on paper, but in the kind of terrain it covers distances deceive – you can forget Naismith’s rule for a start! It is not a route, apparently, for the ‘casual’ walker.

The guide breaks the trail down into 10 sections, including one on Telendos, each stage ending at a road head, often a village. In theory it would be possible to do the trail as a continuous hike, but accommodation at the road heads is not guaranteed, indeed sometimes non-existent, and in theory ‘wild camping’ is illegal. The biggest challenge, however, would be water, what with there being no substantial watercourses, undrinkable domestic water (too salty) and public water taps (such as the one on the main street in Masouri) few and far between; it would thus be necessary to leave caches of water at some of the road heads.

Transport to and from the start and finish of the stages also needs be considered. Although strategic use of local buses and/or taxis would serve the purpose, the most convenient means would be the ubiquitous Kalymnos scooter; the journey time to the road heads from a central base on either the west coast or near the capital Pothia, the official start and finish of the Trail, is rarely greater than 30 minutes, apparently.

The Introduction to the guide provides background information about the island, its landscape, both human and geological, wildlife, and the wider historical and cultural context. There is a helpful section on ‘Practicalities’ including a strategy for undertaking the Trail. Each stage is individually graded, from Easy to Very Hard, and the text includes information boxes highlighting interesting or important features encountered en route. There is also information at the end of the guide about other walking routes on the island, listed according to difficulty, and information about useful books and websites.

I visited Kalymnos with John Vaughan in November (not such a bad time to visit, incidentally, as the crowds have died down and the weather is pretty good, albeit cooler and more likely to rain than earlier in the season). The guide was in an advanced stage of production, with final proofs almost ready to send to the publishers and with just a few details to check and photos to take. We joined Carl and his wife Cath on our ‘rest’ day to walk Stage 5, ‘The Climbers’ Traverse’. Graded ‘Hard’ it’s a mere 7.9km, but pretty hard (!) going. It was a cool (for Kalymnos) and breezy day which made for pleasant walking.

Hanging around in the Grande Grotta

First we drove with two scooters to the head of the Arginonda-Vathy road pass, where the stage ends, leaving one of them by the roadside and returning to Masouri. The path starts from the middle of the village and climbs steeply up to the line of crags above the village, familiar to and popular with Kalymnos regulars, and along to the Grande Grotta where the guide exhorts one to ‘stare in awe.’ There were

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Emerging onto the mountain rim

several parties hanging around (literally), working various routes in this most iconic venue. No dilly-dallying for us today, though (and certainly no attempting any of the outrageously overhanging lines – I groaned just thinking about the effort required to haul my creaking body off the ground and onto a route, never mind making any progress!).

We continued traversing under the rocks, turning into a wide gully that led up past a couple of the higher climbing sectors (Jurassic Park and Olympic Wall), and eventually to the mountain rim. From here, leaving behind great views to Masouri and Telendos, we followed a dry stream bed to a col, and crossed open ground to another saddle heading in the direction of the

Carl photographing Ruth on the scramble approach to Jurassic Park

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The Kaly trail map

The Juniper Ridge

The route links many of the most intresting places on the island; mountain tops and monasteries, cliffs and castles, beachs and Byzantine ruins.

One of the many stunning ridge walks the route takes on the island.

Summit of Hondhro Kephali (c 560m) - loosely translated as ‘Fat Head’

summit of Hondhro Kephali (c 560m, so qualifying for ‘Marilyn’ status!). A hard-to-find ‘kalderíni’, an ancient track with stone lined edges, zig-zagged to the summit of the mountain, the name of which translates loosely as ‘Fat Head’ (make of that what you will!).

A choice of routes then followed: drop down to a continuation branch of the kalderíni, or follow the ridge. We followed the slabby ridge over several further summits, tough going in parts because of the jumble of sharp rocks and dense juniper thickets, with great views down to Vathy and of the surrounding mountains including the cloud-shrouded summit of Prophitis Ilias, the highest point of the island (at 676m a Graham!). The ridge eventually led down to the road and our bike. It was a great walk, continually interesting and not too arduous, but it did feel like a ‘good day out’. It certainly whet my appetite to experience more of the Trail on future visits. As for the guidebook description of the stage, it gaveas just the right amount of detail without spelling it out step by step, possibly rendering it cumbersome to use.

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BOTH THE TRAIL AND THE GUIDE ARE CLEARLY LABOURS OF LOVE The finished product looks and feels really good; it’s compact (just about fits into a trouser pocket, and definitely into a cagoule), nicely laid-out and very well illustrated. It feels as though it should take a modest amount of battering. It’s ‘no frills’ in the sense that it gets straight to the point although the route is very clearly described throughout; indeed the author apologises about it being ‘over-described’ (the intention being to not only to aid the walker, but also to help preserve the Kalymnian wildscape) but it feels about the right level of detail to me. The Trail now has it’s own Facebook page.

Both the Trail and the guide are clearly labours of love. The difference with your usual guidebook, whether for climbing or walking, is that it did not ‘simply’ require collation of existing information; Carl had to create the Trail in the first place. Not from scratch obviously, but it involved a lot of leg and map-work to join it all together. Also much building of cairns, daubing of (mostly green) paint on strategic boulders, photography, discussions with local farmers and landowners over access, sensitive negotiations with Greek ornithologists about protected species, and so on. The stated aim of the guide is ‘to provide the determined and careful trekker with the information needed for a successful, and informed, completion of the Kalymnos Trail.’ From my perusal of the proofs and experience of walking just the one stage, there’s no doubt it will achieve its aim. Make sure you have a copy with you on your next trip to the island. http://www.terrainmaps.gr/#products-books ISBN: 978-960-9456-97-5

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Have you sent us a postcard yet?

EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING TO WRITE ABOUT, WHATEVER THEIR LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE AND ALL CONTRIBUTIONS TO COUNTY CLIMBER ARE WELCOME!

Whether about rock-climbing (trad or sport), bouldering, winter climbing or hill-walking, or indeed anything to do with ‘the great outdoors’, especially Northumberland. Contributions from new members are particularly welcome.

It doesn’t have to be a ‘story’ either, so for example a report about a visit to a new location, or a new take on an old one would fit the bill. Reviews of guides or books, films or festivals are welcome. From time to time people submit mainly photographs (see below) accompanied by only the briefest of text, and these can be published as a ‘photo-essay’. And don’t limit yourself to prose in responding to your inner muse - poems are also welcome.

The Editor would be happy to discuss ideas for articles, comment on rough drafts, or work with you to produce the finished article.

Regarding photographs, please send as high a resoultion as possible, although photos, depending on format, may need to be resized. If you are using other peoples’ photos in your article, please ensure you have sought permission.

Please contact the Editor at and/or send submission to: john.spencer@ncl.ac.uk 51

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