UKC

An interview with Mark Vallance, founder of Wild Country and the man who brought friends to the world.

Watch the video: http://www.ukclimbing.com/videos/play.php?i=4215

In reply to UKC Videos:

marvellous. Thank you

In reply to UKC Videos:

Great video and great testament to Mark's work and vision. Has anyone tried tracking down the Tomorrow's World footage? I've heard it referenced a few times now but never heard of anyone seeing it recently.

Is the route Wide Country by Ferguson on the Cobbler? I seem to remember that from my Glasgow youth although the routes in that sector were all to hard for me!

In reply to TobyA:

I thought he was referring to the route in Eldorado Canyon. 

In reply to UKC Videos:

Wonderful. Thanks

In reply to jon:

I'm sure you're right Jon. It does seem though that there are two, No match for climb id:61193, 5.11b in Eldorado Canyon and Wide Country (E5 6b) E5 on the Cobbler, so I'm not getting too forgetful with age!

Edit: the Cobbler one says first climbed in 1994 so doesn't make sense. I think it has a neighbour called Wild Country (you lose the route find function on edit!) which might be an earlier Cubby route. Perhaps named because Friends made it possible?

In reply to TobyA:

Are you thinking of Cubby's Wild Country ?

In reply to Doug:

Snap.

In reply to TobyA:

The FFA of the Eldo one was by Ferguson (and Erikson and Peterson) so I guess it was that one he was referring to.

In reply to UKC Videos:

What a lovely interview! 

btw I have searched and been unable to find the BBC Tomorrow's World in late January 1978 episode featuring Friends. 

Here's a link to a nice 1978 Climbers' Club Journal article 'I Get High' by Mark Vallance http://www.climbers-club.co.uk/journal/original/1978%20Journal-p14-18.pdf in which he discusses the origins of Friends.

And a link to a couple of reviews of MV's book 'Wild Country: The Man Who Made Friends' http://footlesscrow.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/wild-country-two-reviews.html

In reply to UKC Videos:

Fantastic. Great bit of history that I hardly knew. And a bold and honest entrepreneur