UKH

Eric repeats his first ever alpine route on the Vajolet towers - tonight at 8pm on BBC2 Wales

Solo?

I suspect not - but I don't know that many "alpinists" who would genuinely entertain soloing the Delgado even in their prime let alone at 82

Yes - solo!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007vy8

Definitely on a rope in the trailer, looks like a good watch.

"Without ropes!" or similar is what has been excitedly announced on the trailers on the telly here but, if ebdon has seen a rope (I didn't watch the trailer closely), it'll be interesting to see what happens. Regardless of ropes or anything else it will hopefully be good viewing - Eric's doing well for 82.

I'm probably wrong, I often am, I just couldn't believe he solo it at 82!

Not that it matters either way looks like a good programme.

Just a plug for the very entertaining and enlightening autobiography of Eric Jones - "A Life on the Edge".

Can I post a link to this, for example:

http://shop.thebmc.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=223_207&products_id=719...

Not only the solo climbs but parachuting, base-jumping and filming Messner and Habeler in action in the Himalayas.

Good on Eric if he's soloing the Delagokante! He can be very insightful and it should be a very worthwhile watch if his past TV appearances are anything to go by.

The Delago wasn't my first ever Alpine climb, but it was my first one in the Dolomites. AIR, you may as well solo it as well-protected it ain't. I expect no roped climber shuns clipping the cemented-in peg on the arete though,  probably more from the sheer novelty of finally coming across a half decent bit of pro than from any abiding sense of self-preservation.

Just watched the programme. Brilliant. What a man Eric is. I've had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times.

One question that kept going through my mind. How do you descend? From what I could see there is nothing in the way of a path on which to do so and, presumably, if you solo it (sans rope) you can't abseil.

Can somebody tell me please

You're right, there's no walk-off. It's an abseil descent.  The safety crew would have pre-rigged one I would assume.

What a great man! When Gordon and I had our first solid month climbing on our own and learning the ropes, we were camping for part of the time in Nant Peris where Eric had a caravan.  He could not have been more helpful towards beginners like ourselves. One time when we were in a lay-by in Llanberis he showed us how to place nuts (the first hexes had just come out) with the aid of a dry-stone wall. Then on 15th August 1968 (from my climbing log-book):

"It was raining in Llanberis so we went down to Tremadoc, where it was monsoonal. While we were surveying the scene, Eric Jones asked us if we would like to 'do a climb at Hyll-Drem'. Despite the downpour, the climb itself [Hardd, which he led] was almost dry, although coming round the overhangs was like emerging through a waterfall. Also during the climb, a one Arthur Barker of the Marquess Club in Stevenage asked us to join [their club] - he had spotted our Herts reg. number plate."

All seems a very long time ago!

Gosh, John, I was just composing a very similar post, 120 miles away, when you pipped me at the post ... yes, it all seems aeons ago.

I thought the Eric Jones film was great, a massive improvement on normal Saturday night viewing.

Sorry, I'm going off topic now but was just wondering if you guys are planning on making an autobiography please? I'd certainly read it, having read Fiva.

Thanks for highlighting this. What an excellent and thoughtful documentary. What a legend!

Lovely film,  I was quite surprised with the ending,  clearly highlighting one of the reasons he's still here after all he's done.

Really enjoyable programme, covered a bit of everything.

Eric looked like James Bond when his wedding day photo was shown with him in his DJ and bow tie.

But come on....... did he solo it? ?

(I can't watch it here)

Several/many years ago a mate & I were camped at Eric's. Sunday first thing there was a tap on our tent door and Eric gave us each a mug of tea. Dave settled back with the immortal comment: 'How often do you get a cuppa in bed from a man who's soloed the North face of the Eiger!' You could walk down a busy street and not meet a nicer man than Eric.

Yes, but possibly/probably two separate shortish books: one on childhood, climbing days and later mountain photography days; another on my time in the film industry.

Your memory is maybe selective... he'll have relieved you of 50p for camping at the same time! 

OK great thanks. I look forward to it.

Great programme. Eiger Solo was a favourite of mine.  What a guy.

Would either or both of the two people who have disliked this post care to explain why?

Great documentary but it's bugging the hell out of me not being able to figure the crag and climb 09:20 into the film! Anyone know it?

I'm not watching again but at one point I thought he was soloing Main Wall on Cyrn Las.

I thought that as well, but in the end convinced myself it wasn't because I couldn't seem to place great gully I think it's called, to the left. Although I think it's a similar grade to the ultimate objective.

No, it is main wall. Just a funny viewing angle. Thanks for the spot!

I 1st met Erick when he was 1/2 of the Corwen Kids when he showed me how to spot salmon at Nant Peris..    No Salmon left to spot now but hes still the same all round nice guy. The climb's and sky diving put him in a class in his own.......Nice to see him at Smilers Wake last week.

No he didn't; bad weather was forecast and his heart wasn't in it. Bit of an elegiac ending in fact.

What surprises me is that the film started with him soloing Cemetery Gates in 1980. Well I started climbing c1970 and Eric was already famous for soloing harder things than that back then - in fact the film glossed over his climbing in the 70s which was pretty awesome - e.g. solo first ascent of Central Pillar of the Brouillard.

It surprised me how excellent a documentary about a sensible mountaineering decision could be.

It wouldn't have made good tv filming me and John deciding not to do Spiral Stairs because the weather looked a bit iffy.

Any other good documentaries about backing off stuff?

OK thanks. So do you know if he was he actually intending to solo it or was he simply going to climb it? . 

Yes, I remember his solo exploits back then. I always got the idea that Eric actually soloed at his limit. 

He did climb it On lead several times over the last 2 years preparing for the planned solo.

He clearly intended to solo it. His roped ascent was planned as a final practise for his intended solo the following day. With bad weather forecast for the solo ascent day, it sowed seeds of doubt in his mind. In the film he describes all the thoughts and emotions that plagued him, preventing any sleep the night before his intended solo ascent.

He explains that he eventually realised, while lying awake in the refugio, that the "controlled red mist" that had sustained and which had been the key factor in his solo climbing up to that point, was no longer there; the flame had stopped flickering and had, at long last, gone out.....

Jon, he'd gone to solo it the previous year. Wanted late in the season to avoid crowds - understandable. Weather crapped out. Went back to the UK. Came back again, also late in the season - same rationale. However a very slender weather window. His mate, the cameraman, seemed super-supportive - but it most have been stressful for him and his son. So what do you do... go for it, regardless?  Leave it??  Come back, yet again, next year???

In my view, the greatest measure of the soloist's art is the ability to walk away. When Croft said to Honnold, "You made 100% the right decision!" in Free Solo, there was a lifetime's climbing wisdom in that seemingly artless statement. There's no doubt in my mind that Eric Jones made the right decision. He seems to have a boldness that eludes the rest of us. He also seems to have highly enviable degrees of self-insight and maturity.

Generally I thought this was a superb film. The interviewing was very well done indeed. People were really honest. It's not easy for partners of people out risking their lives on a regular basis. This is perhaps a shadow side of climbing that's rarely articulated.

To step down from such high levels of risk, in such a controlled manner, was extremely impressive. People have always held Eric Jones in great esteem and this really showed the measure of the man.

Mick

Mick, I agree with all of that. I thought his wife's face on its own told a lot of the story. It all felt very "honest".

As I posted on UKB, I still can't believe they had him soloing Cemetery Gates in the damp live on terrestrial TV on a Saturday afternoon. I was too young to have watched it live but the footage of him drying holds with his hanky is something else. "The original Alex Honnold but in proper mountains", to paraphrase my wife.

The only thing I didn't like was the obtrusive "dramatic" background music. But that seems to be par for the course these days.