theclimbers’club Journal 2011 theclimbers’club Journal 2011 Contents ALPS AND THE HIMALAYA THE HOME FRONT Shelter from the Storm. By Dick Turnbull P.10 A Midwinter Night’s Dream. By Geoff Bennett P.90 Pensioner’s Alpine Holiday. By Colin Beechey P.16 Further Certifi cation. By Nick Hinchliffe P.96 Himalayan Extreme for Beginners. By Dave Turnbull P.23 Welsh Fix. By Sarah Clough P.100 No Blends! By Dick Isherwood P.28 One Flew Over the Bilberry Ledge. By Martin Whitaker P.105 Whatever Happened to? By Nick Bullock P.108 A Winter Day at Harrison’s. By Steve Dean P.112 PEOPLE Climbing with Brasher. By George Band P.36 FAR HORIZONS The Dragon of Carnmore. By Dave Atkinson P.42 Climbing With Strangers. By Brian Wilkinson P.48 Trekking in the Simien Mountains. By Rya Tibawi P.120 Climbing Infl uences and Characters. By James McHaffi e P.53 Spitkoppe - an Old Climber’s Dream. By Ian Howell P.128 Joe Brown at Eighty. By John Cleare P.60 Madagascar - an African Yosemite. By Pete O’Donovan P.134 Rock Climbing around St Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Desert. By Malcolm Phelps P.142 FIRST ASCENTS Summer Shale in Cornwall. By Mick Fowler P.68 OBITUARIES A Desert Nirvana. By Paul Ross P.74 The First Ascent of Vector. By Claude Davies P.78 George Band OBE. 1929 - 2011 P.150 Three Rescues and a Late Dinner. By Tony Moulam P.82 Alan Blackshaw OBE. 1933 - 2011 P.154 Ben Wintringham. 1947 - 2011 P.158 Chris Astill. 1956 - 2009 P.160 Ed Grindley. 1948 - 2010 P.163 Edward Addison Wrangham OBE. 1922 - 2010 P.164 John Brownsort. 1933 - 2011 P.166 Tim Oliver. 1956 - 2011 P.168 David Limbert. 1928 - 2009 P.169 Don Brown. 1930 - 2009 P.170 Cover: Christian Bickel on pitch 3 of ‘Voie Plaisir des Guides Suisses’ (100m 6b+) in Madagascar. Photographer: Pete O’Donovan Inside Front Cover: The Meije Traverse from the Aigle Hut. Photographer: Colin Beechey Previous Page: Creag Meaghaidh. Photographer: John Cleare These Pages: Skiing on High Street and Black Mount vista. Photographer: John Cleare Back Cover: Snowdon Horseshoe. Photographer: John Cleare President Fiona Sanders Vice Presidents Steve Andrews, Bernard Newman and Richard Wheeldon Hon Secretary Roy Lemmon Hon Treasurer David Lanceley Hon Membership Secretary Andy Bullock Hon Meets Secretary Brian Bigger Huts Management Sub Committee Chair Neil Hewertson Publications Sub Committee Steve Andrews (Acting Chair) Committee Members Maggie Bass, Astrid Saxby, Steve Scott, Peter Steward, Gerry Martyn, Tony Scott, Trevor Langhorne, Philippa Watson Hon Archivist David Medcalf Hut Bookings Secretary Chris (Boris) Gilbert Website Manager Tony Scott Librarian Peter Spalton Journal Editorial Team John Yates - Editor Dick Isherwood - Associate Editor, Liz Cripps - Associate Editor, Justin Shiels - Associate Editor, David Medcalf - Obituaries Editor Marcus Wray - Design & Art Direction 6 Editor’s Note By John Yates our years ago Iain Peters reflected in this While many will see the advent of sponsorship Left: column on the nature and role of the Club and commercial marketing as an entirely backward Jimmy ‘big guns’ F Journal. He traced the trajectory of a debate step, who today goes out climbing without kit that McCormack runs it that begins with those who would see the Journal is the result of intensive research, investment and out on the Cromlech’s pickled in aspic, never to change in style, content product development? Who can read John Cleare’s Lord of the Flies or format, and ends with those for whom a paper wonderful account of working with Joe Brown during (E6 6a). medium in a digital age is utterly redundant, and who the dawning of the television age and not think would have the Journal consigned to the recycling that this was perhaps the beginning of the end for a Photographer: bin. That there is such a debate within the Club is climbing culture unaffected by the power of modern Jack Geldard not a symptom of malady or dysfunction. Quite the communications? The challenge for today’s sponsored opposite: it speaks of a Club whose members have heroes, as Nick Bullock reminds us, is how to divergent opinions; who relish a good argument; retain a sense of personal integrity when faced with and who thrive on the dialectic of discussion. If the commercial pressures that are often pulling in the Journal is a part of this conversation then it serves a opposite direction. This may be easier to accomplish vital purpose as both a sounding board and reflecting than many imagine. Alex Honnold’s lonely exploits mirror. in Zion and Yosemite, for instance, owe nothing to No matter how heated the argument, or how the demands of the designer labels that he wears, passionate the debate, we are all united by a desire to and all to his own inner confidence and the joy he see the Club thrive and prosper in a way that upholds experiences moving freely over hard rock without a our values and keeps us relevant in a rapidly changing rope. world. The 2011 Journal is a part of that Club- In the end it comes down to a question of character; wide conversation. At times, as in Sarah Clough’s which is the theme of James McHaffie’s essay on the reflective piece, this conversation is conducted in a people who have most influenced the direction he quiet and introspective a manner. Her meditation has taken in climbing. Anyone who fears that the on the power of the hills and mountains to inspire on-sight, adventure tradition, has been killed off and invigorate, will strike a chord with many. On by commercialism and the spread of the health and other occasions the tone is sharper and more acerbic. safety culture, should take heart from Caff’s piece. Nick Hinchliffe’s no-punches-pulled assault on the Likewise, Dave Turnbull’s understated account of his parasitic paper qualifications industry that has been first ascent of Gojung with Mick Fowler only a month spawned by the growth of climbing as an indoor ago, is testimony to the tenacity of our Club members sporting activity is a much-needed polemic. in seeking out new challenges in parts of the world His voice finds an echo in Nick Bullock’s own (Everest in particular) that have been over-run by the lament for a time when climbing produced characters commercial ethic and the pursuit of profit. The image and heroes, rather than celebrities and superstars. of Turnbull cocooned in a tent on the 6,300 metre Bullock’s call to arms is a valuable reminder that summit betrays the feeling of exhaustion and anxiety climbing and the spirit of rebellion and rule breaking the two men must have experienced as a snow storm have often gone hand in hand. raged outside and the prospect of a safe descent 7 seemed to grow ever more distant. both died doing the sport they loved. The tributes The same pair, earlier in the year, found adventure from Club members that poured in for Chris were closer to home, discovering not only a new route, but too many to include in the Journal, but we hope that also a new crag. The photographs that accompany what we have published is a fitting recognition of his Mick Fowler’s account of their ascent (with Steve contribution to the life of the Club. Sustad) of The Cushion Man (XS) are as twisted and Lastly, it remains to say that this Journal would not contorted as the logic that seems to drive people to have been possible without the work of one man: climb this kind of stuff. Tim Oliver. Tim relinquished the editorship of the Another image of a summiteer also stands out in Journal only when the bulk of the work had been this issue, but in this one there is no sign of snow. done. Looking back at the thorough and efficient At 74-years-old, Ian Howell could be forgiven for way he handed everything over to me, it seems, in wanting to hang up his boots. But there he is on top retrospect, that he was clearing his desk of unfinished of Namibia’s Matterhorn, having just climbed a direct business before completing the last act of his life. I VS/HVS variation on the Normal Route with two like to think that he would have approved of what young climbers – one Canadian, the other Australian we have done. Dick Isherwood, another CC member – who he had met in the campsite. In a similar vein, exiled in the States, who was a key member of Tim’s another pensioner who thought that his big mountain tightly knit team, has been a wonderful support in days might be over, Colin Beechey, provides an editing and commenting on the articles. We have inspiring tale of his adventures in the Ecrins and the not always agreed on matters of style and content, Oberland. Age, it seems is no barrier to big days and but his advice, wisdom and knowledge are such that I big ambitions. have often – more often than he may think – deferred Indeed, the sweep of the stories in this Journal takes to his opinion. Ian Smith, a past CC President, us climbing in the Sinai, trekking in Ethiopia, and to has also been a wealth of advice and support, from vertical cliff faces in Madagascar. All of which goes scanning and cleaning ancient images to holding to show that this is a Club with a healthy appetite for my hand through the minefield of Club politics he adventure and a willingness to seek out somewhere has, on more than one occasion, saved me from great and something different.