Latest News & Events Diary

Now his hard work is over and, teamed up with his wife Claire, Dave has produced a film about his ascent.

UKClimbing.com have reviewed the film and you can read the complete review on the Gear Page.

From the review:

“The film documents the obsession of Dave MacLeod and his struggle to find, train for and finally climb one of the most important routes in recent British climbing history. On another level it also documents what it takes to operate at the highest standard of rock climbing. The simple fact that Claire and Dave MacLeod have chosen to make and sell their own film shows the diverse skill set needed to succeed as a full time climber in today's media hungry market...”

"...A few lines from MacLeod feel like real gems of insight in to his obsession and let his likeable and honest character shine through the screen. I engaged with his revelation that he found the prospect of leading the route extremely scary...”

Dave and Claire have also released a trailer for their film, which is embedded below:

Jerry Moffatt and his Ghost

With my friend and climbing partner, Greg Rimmer, we enjoyed the films but even better was rubbing shoulders with all our climbing heros in the bar; characters that we had read about in CRAGS and MOUNTAIN magazine: Ron Fawcett, Pete Livesey, Steve Bancroft, Paul Nunn, John Sheard, Chris Gibb, John Allen, Pete Crew, Geoff Birtles, Tim Lewis, Al Evans, Dave Knighton, Al Rouse, Ken Wilson, Bernard Newman.....

These were some of the climbers that defined our early climbing experience just like Chris Sharma, Dave MacLeod, and Steve McClure do for many young climbers today.

The 1980's saw a new boy on the block, Jerry Moffatt......I can see the CRAG magazine headlines now, Strawberries Repeated....17 year old Jerry Moffatt has repeated Strawberries, the first route to be graded 7a........Obviously his name is worth watching out for..., and he was, even today Jerry Moffatt is a cult figure among many young climbers. Not just for his ascents of Master's Wall and Liquid Amber, but more so for his devotion and obsession to bouldering and training, and pushing forward world climbing standards like his contempories, Ben Moon and Wolfgang Gullich.

Then there was Dawes who heralded a new paradigm on slate, grit, quartzite and mountain rhyolite: The Quarrryman, End of The Affair, Gaia, Conan The Librarian and of course Indian Face.

If you were active in the the Eighties and a little before there are four biographies being published in the next year that are going to be essential reading. Johnny Dawes is holed up in his garret in North Wales busy on his autobiography, Robert Seymour is working on a biography of Pete Livesey.

But first up is Jerry Moffatt. Sheffield based publisher Vertebrate Publishing have announced that, Moffatt's biography provisionally titled, 'The Ace: 20 years on top of the pack' will be available January 2009.

Vertebrate Publishing have sent us an short excerpt and a press release. And following the Moffatt book, being ghost written by Niall Grimes, Colin Wells is working on a biography of the other Master of Rock, Ron Fawcett.

UKCLIMBING.COM PREVIEW:Jerry Moffatt's Biography....and Ron Fawcett's which includes How Jeremy Moffatt became Jerry Moffat.

I'm looking forward to all four of these books, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Bill Pattison

Bill Pattison (MBE) of Gosforth, Wasdale (Cumbria) started climbing when he was 17 and he obviously listens to his mum Jeannie who is a sprightly 107. She tells him, "If you don't do it now, you ain't going to get another chance."

Bill, who is now 74, started climbing in 1951 at age 17. He was on an outing with a Methodist Youth Group to the Lake District and was so inspired by the crags of Wasdale he made a solo ascent of Napes Needle, in nailed boots of course. This was his first ever rock climb. Bill was team leader of Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team for 22 years and later President, and has climbed all over Europe, the Alps, along with Scotland (twenty two seasons on Skye) and Wales. Professionally he was Director of Nurse Education at West Cumberland Hospital until he retired at 57.

Earlier this year on his birthday, 7th February, Bill belayed by his wife Lynn (aged 55) onsighted three 6a+ sport routes at the Arico Gorge, Tenerife. Bill and Lynn escape the winter rains by spending a couple of months on Tenerife each winter.

But Bill is not just a sport climber, last week he soloed an E2 on Hare Crag, Cumbria.

Bill's recent ascents and life in general is even more impressive when you consider that at age 65 he suffered a heart attack whilst soloing on Wallowbarrow Crag in the Duddon Valley. On his sixth route of the day he felt a tightening of his chest. He climbed to flat ground, layed down and breathed deeply, then drove himself to West Cumberland Hospital for treatment.

Bill's advice for a long and active climbing life, "Listen to your mother".

Adele was leading a group of British, Nepali, New Zealand and Australian Climbers on an expedition organised by Jagged Globe, the UK-based expedition company.

This is Adele's third 8,000 metre peak in less than a year. Preceding Manaslu, Adele climbed Cho Oyu (8,201m) in October 2007 and Everest (8,848m) in May this year.

The ascent of Manaslu was made despite atrocious weather conditions caused by a lingering and turbulent monsoon that is still active in the Himalaya. A few days ago the expedition was set back by heavy snowfall, forcing the team to retreat to advance base-camp. The actual summit push went smoothly and according to plan.

The news report on the Jagged Globe website describes the conditions:

“For once the weather was cooperative and while clouds lay on the surrounding mountains there was clear skies and no wind. This led to a straightforward climb through the undulating snow slopes and up to the summit...”

The only other British ascent of Manaslu prior to the Jagged Globe expedition was made by Alan Hinkes, in 1988. Alan went on to climb all 14 eight thousand metre peaks – a feat as yet unmatched by any other British mountaineer.

Source: Jagged Globe Website

click to enlarge

The hardest redpoint from a British junior prior to this was Leah Crane's ascent of Orion, also in Kalymnos. This was originally graded 8a, but was subsequently downgraded to 7c+, which nonetheless was still the hardest to date. There is no chance of Daniboy being downgraded and it is widely regarded as being a hard 8a.

The route is 20 metres high and overhangs continuously. The climbing style is powerful moves between reasonable but widely spaced handholds. Kitty worked it over 2 days and did it first redpoint on her third day.

Two Onsights On The Same Day

Perhaps more astonishing was that in the same day she also onsighted Spartacus 7b+ and The Beginning at the End 7c! The 7c onsight is almost certainly the hardest by someone her age from Britain and this surely marks the most impressive day's sport climbing by a British junior.

The ascents were all the more impressive considering that Kitty can count her total number of days on rock prior to the Kalymnos trip on both hands!

Neil Gresham who was with Kitty in Kalymnos commented that he had never seen anybody make an 8a look so easy and that he was thinking of tapping her up for a few coaching tips!

Chuck Fryberger comments on his website:

“Skyler has taken dyno climbing somewhere it hasn't been before... to him it's not really a party trick for gym sessions or for laughs. Get this: He trains alongside the Denver Nuggets. His vertical leap is over 30" which is pretty good even by NBA standards...”

Zion, which is around 2.6 metres in length has awkward foothold positions making it more difficult to leap. Given that the record Skyler set recently at the Cliffhanger competition in Sheffield was 2.65 metres, Zion is obviously very hard and a very big dyno.

Source: Chuck Fryberger's Blog