UKH

In early May I will have been climbing with Colin (the Hat) Binks for 55 years. We first climbed at Brimham in 1968 when I took him up Birch Tree Wall (VS 4c) at Brimham, Colin in his farming boots.

I was just wondering if there are any longer-lasting teams out there - Brian and Eileen Evans initially came to mind though I don't know their actual stats.

Chris

Not anywhere near 55 years but I still climb occasionally with half a dozen of my 1976 university cohort and Mrs G and I will have been climbing together for 40 years this summer. 

Is Colin a Nidderdale Farmer? 

Brimham and all that.

North Yorkshire born and bred, I was from near Richmond and Colin from over near Northallerton. Brimham was our nearest 'proper rocks' way back then,

Chris

Think I met Colin at Scugdale a few years back, climbing with Andy Something and Mr Marr. We'll done that man.

A mere 35 years since I started out with my Dad on Corner Buttress at Wintours Leap.

Yes yes all very impressive but what have you ever done... 

.....on

Oh I'll get me coat....

I started off caving in the seventies with Brian Evans. I'm not sure if he still climbs with Aileen (or at all). I remember as a teenager, after a caving trip, he showed us these photo albums full of him climbing with the likes of Allan Austin and Joe Brown. That's when I realised he was part of the history of climbing. Another climbing couple I know are Stew and Maggie Wilson who've been 'at it' since the sixties.

You know another couple of similar vintage. Debbie and me. Also since 1968, but didn’t keep a record till a bit later.

As for Brian and Aileen, I don’t think it’s a secret that Brian’s not been so well for a couple of years and I think they may have stopped climbing. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if their partnership was near 60 years.

Yes, of course! Perhaps you can take it as a compliment that you didn't spring to mind when I thought of 'pair of old fogies' ..... ?

Yes, I noticed in the Cicerone piece Brian looked frail which was sad to see. It is probably nearly ten years since I last bumped into them climbing, in the French Jura and they were still lapping it up,

Chris

I'm enjoying this thread.

I climb, my wife climbs and we've been climbing together since we met 15 years ago. My kids both climb. They have been for longer than they can remember.

An awful lot of my original partners have either stopped climbing or we've moved away from where we used to climb or both.

However, one of my first climbing partners is bringing his family to Font this Easter and we are all set to climb together once more. He hasn't climbed for years now. I'm just really looking forward to climbing with him again and sharing our love with his family. 

I've climbed  with a friend I roomed with at university back in1974. Sometimes many times a year ...but then an interlude for professional or family reasons.

I was at the Count House for a week last year and there was a group of 3 climbers from the Oread MC. They had climbed the second ascent of the Old Man of Hoy together in 1967, had repeated it in 2017 and met every year for a climbing trip. They were great company in the hut, and out climbing everyday. Don’t know their names but one of them was called “Snod”.

As an aside, I think they were still using a 1967 cooking recipe book( liver and onions, bangers and mash…)

Sorry to break your record Chris, but the octogenarians still have it I think!  Been climbing with Chris Jackson again today (second time this week) and that makes more than 60 years since we first climbed together in 1962, and we had both been climbing for a few years at home and, in my case at least, in the Alps before that!

Gerry Langsley

I'm not sure indoors qualifies - joke btw - great effort,

Chris

I believe the other two would have been "Bot" (the worst vegetarian I have ever met) and a chap called John Mountain. I don't know John really but Snod and Bot are both great company!

Nice one 

Hi Spenser, and Martin, yes the Old Man team was at the Count House. Snod, Gobbo and Rance. (Bott was not there but is indeed one of our cronies). 

Rance will be known to the older climbing community, as Terry King. He was 17 in 1967 and was at the sharp end, as he always was! 

el Gobbo’s elder daughter here

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10155965096767437&type=3 In case anyone would like to see the 1967 photos! 
 

…and that’s Uncle Snoddy to you 🤣

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156625893287437&set=a.1015057...

Love these gents

Ah, not met Rance before and I had forgotten your nickname.

OK, fair point, but I was also climbing outdoor with Mike Mortimer in late 1962, and still climb outdoors with him at times, sometimes even in Kalymnos! He isn't 80 until next year though so not an octogenarian.

Gerry

What's wrong with liver and onions and bangers and mash? 

Rance is getting a new hip in a week or so but we aim to be at the count house mid September. 

Snod 

As a nice aside for a mutual late friend of ours, my father climbed with Dave Gregory in the 1950s, probably 1956/57 or so, and I climbed with him on a few trips with you in the 2010s I think. Can't put any exact dates on it but there is probably a 60-year gap there which says a lot about Dave Gregory's continuing involvement in climbing. 

Alan

What Calvin Torrans and Claire? They must have been going a good while? Not sure exactly how long for but true Irish Legends?!

55 years at it and still getting caught in the rain - slow learners

What’s new?

Colin Rowe and Bill Parker climbing in Red Rocks today and have been climbing together for 50 years. I was 17 and leading Pincushion at Tremadog. Bill and I share the same birthday and he was 16. I was in the Royal Marines and we continued to climb together when we were at the University of Wales Bangor. Yesterday we did Geronimo 560' 5.6 in Juniper Canyon. You couldn't ask for a better climbing partner and friend than William (Bill) Edward Parker.

Legends indeed! Would think they started climbing together around 1975. Calvin was very active from about 1967. A few years ago Clare brought out her autobiography, 'Uncoiling the Ropes'. It's well worth reading. 

Mick 

Love it! If you can't go out and get piss wet through, well, what's the world coming to?

Mick 

I took my 13 year old nephew Ted (Son of Bill or SOB as I am calling him) up Nightcap and Gronk in Avon with my other climbing partner Richard Nadin who is 76 now I think??? It was a grand day... would be interesting to know his longest standing partnership as I think he's been climbing since his late teens?

Ahh I’ll be sure to try and get hold of a copy! I met them both a few years ago! Really nice people!😀

I started climbing with Dave Jones when I went to college in 1972 - we climbed together for a few years but then more or less lost contact.

I met up with him at Kendal after we moved here in 2021, and we've been climbing a fair bit together since, so that's a 50 year partnership, but with a 40 year gap in the middle. Ah well.

I'm still pretty much climbing mates (as well as generally) with my university cohort from the mid 70s on. Perhaps I ought to get out more. 

At least you are out there trying to climb, hope you are enjoying the solitude of an early trip to Kaly.

Well done you guys; I think I am on a life sentence?

If not more!

Mick