20.06.08 -
FESTIVAL TIME
Festival time. Here in Bath we have
had some real treats. Best of all was the world
premiere, in the Abbey, of Dhafer Youssef’s new work for
strings, piano and his own hauntingly expressive voice.
And the oud, which originated in Iraq and travelled west
to Anadalucia, where it became the lute and guitar.
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Stephen enjoying another fine May day on Eagle Front,
Buttermere |
The stunning penultimate pitch of Eagle Front with a
hint of rain for added excitement. |
My own recent festival slot was at the Keswick
Mountain Festival (talking, not singing) and was an
excuse to fit in some climbing. With Stephen Reid, owner
of the excellent Needlesports shop, I spent a
character-building finger-numbing afternoon on
Buttermere’s Eagle Front, climbing eight magnificent
pitches through mild drizzle.
Chris Bonington and Liam trying to find out where the
route goes.
Better weather on the Sunday, when I joined Chris
Bonington and his nephew Liam in Borrowdale to do DDT on
Goat Crag. The last time Chris and I roped together was
on the first ascent of Panch Chuli V in 1992, when I
came uncomfortably close to dying. Borrowdale was less
traumatic, but we did manage to arrange a little drama
on the way down, when the abseil ropes ended up hanging
in space, ten feet short of the ground. It gave me a
good chance to practise my prussiking and, with help
from some students nearby, we re-arranged the ropes to
get safely off the crag.
Liam’s first free abseil – off Goat Crag, with the ropes
now reaching the ground.
Onward, a few days later, to North Wales, with Frank
Cannings. We enjoyed four days of classic routes, each
of which reminded me yet again just how bold and
visionary some of those old and not-so-old pioneers
(Frank included) were.
Frank Cannings, the great Southwest sea cliff pioneer,
dodging waves on Anglesey.
On Anglesey we dodged the waves,
failing to keep shoes and trousers dry, on the long
traverse to the foot of Boysen’s soaring Scavenger. We
weren’t quite sure whether the tide was coming in or
out, and when it began to drizzle on the crux and I
contemplated failure, I began to have horrible visions
of a cold shivery benightment. But the rain relented and
we escaped conventionally, over the top.
The next day we fought the bracing east wind on
Menlove Edwards’s classic thirties route on Dinas Mot –
Western Slabs – followed by the top bit of Black Spring,
before retreating to the gentler calm of Nant Gwynant
for an evening romp up Oxine.
Wheelchair racers on Snowdon raising money for the
spinal injuries charity Backup.
On the Saturday we fond ourselves in a melee of
wheelchairs heading very fast up Snowdon – a big race in
aid of Backup, the spinal injuries charity. Each
wheelchair sported a gallant team of polar-style
manhaulers. Feeling a bit pathetic, carrying just a
rucksack each, we branched right for Cloggy to do a
route I hadn’t done for twenty-six years – Longlands.
Frank Cannings on Longland’s Climb,
Cloggy.
Having recently written it up for the new book, First
Ascent, I was even more awed than usual at the brilliant
vision of Jack Longland, Fred Piggott, Frank Smythe et
al, climbing it in 1928 – especially Longland, leading
the whole route with only the shakiest protection.
Astounding.
Frank Cannings on Longland’s Climb,
Cloggy
Lovely walk back over the top to Ynys Ettys, with the
hawthorn blossom gleaming in lower Cwm Glas and a
nestful of meadow pipit fledglings tucked in a hollow
beside the path. The next morning we just managed to fit
in one more route before the rain arrived and we drove
home. The route was Cemetery Gates which I last did in
1975 and what a treat it was to come back. Slotting in
nuts every few feet – and still jibbering a touch on the
hard bits – I thought of Brown and Whillans on the first
ascent, pulling off loose rock and earth and vegetation,
holding on with one hand while hammering in pitons with
the other, climbing in old plimsolls … how easy we have
it now. |
