UKH

Does anybody know where I might be able to find the film of Ron Fawcett soloing Vector? There's a snippet of it at the start of the Rock Athlete Lord of of the Flies episode on youtube, but I recall (maybe wrongly?) having seen more of it at some point.

There's a bit longer footage of it in episode 1 of Rock Athlete here

youtube.com/watch?v=tdRfqD125-g&

It starts at about 25mins in though its all in slow motion.

I always thought that was Ron on Tensor, it doesn't look like Vector. I haven't been to Tremadog for years though!

Is it definitely slow motion? Or does he have a deliberate and flowing climbing style?

You're right, it's not Vector.

Yes, definitely not Vector. But the most startling thing about this Rock Athlete video clip is just how incoherent is the commentary. When the commentator is talking about Ron Fawcett between 25:24 and 26:00, he's virtually incomprehensible. I think a transcript would be deeply embarrassing. How did they ever go ahead with recording this virtual nonsense?

Yes you may well be right, I can't remember what either of them looks like!

On further reflection I think the footage of Ron soloing Vector was part of a series by Leo Dickinson called Pushing the Limits. He solos the route and meets up with Eric Jones at the top.

It might be the Extreme Rock programme here but I can't find it on You Tube.

https://www.mntnfilm.com/en/filmography/leo-dickinson/page:2

I've got an old VHS recording of it in a box somewhere.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth

It makes complete sense to me

Does this really make sense to you? As a piece of English it's just so embarrassingly ill-expressed/incoherent:

'If climbing is going to stay in Britain in the sense that new generations to come can learn about themselves, the solo climbing shown here, which is one summit of the sport, will show us, as well as huge physical skills, the sort of nerve that anyone wanted to do it at all. Climbing is, after all, climbing, and wouldn’t be so without risk, without controlled fear, and as the sport keeps drawing us back to remember, without the very most that a man can give.'

That does look a lot like verbal diarrhea.

That's my problem with it. I'd be most grateful if someone could translate it into ordinary, simple English, so that we can at least begin to understand what he's getting at.

You've got a point. That is absolute bollocks.

Roughly translates as 'Bugger me, I wouldn't do that for a big clock'

Bot generated.

If you type something out in the abstract, as you have done above (and miss a bit out) it might look a bit odd, but in the context of the whole film where it belongs then yes, it makes sense to me.

You're supposed to be the man of words, watch the whole film (it's very good) and see if that helps.

Most writers aspire to communicate as much as possible through the few words they have. This somehow manages to use as many words as possible to communicate absolutely nothing.

I suppose, given the state of the country under Boris and his entourage, you could hardly blame climbing now if it packed up its stuff and moved somewhere friendlier.

Agreed Gordon.

If you’d like to infuriate yourself further, just cast an eye over this recent piece of professional  journalism;

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/ryanair-flight-delayed-...

Ah yes, I remember that. Ron pops up and Eric just happens to be sitting right there. Amazing coincidence!

Yes that bit was quite funny, Ron has to feign surprise at meeting Eric at the top, who then invites him to the cafe for a brew!

Yes I think you might be right about the Leo Dickinson series! I’ve been after the footage of Ron climbing Darius for year but to no avail!

I seem to recall there is also a film of Jimmy Jewell soloing it produced by Alun Hughes.

I've seen a lot worse. Had to chuckle at the Ryanair comment on the flight delay, which was due to a lack of operable toilet: "The low cost airline also apologised for any inconvenience."

That’s inadvertently a good one!

It was the writer’s development of the story in that Birmingham Mail link I found amusing... The headline, sub header, picture caption, first sentence of the article and second sentence of the article all say the same thing.

Gordon is a man of sentences. The commentary is by a man of words. A poorly arranged assemblage but words nevertheless. 

You're an editor, aren't you? Edit out the subclauses of the first sentence.

"'If climbing is going to stay in Britain [...], the solo climbing shown here, [...] will show us [...] the sort of nerve that anyone wanted, to do it at all."

Verbal commentary is often somewhat rambling, with lots of subclauses inserted into the basic narrative.

True enough. And extracting the words, text form, stripping away all intonation and the accompanying video will make it lose it's subtlety, humour and meaning.

Still doesn't make sense! 

I remember our family watching the Sid Perou and Leo Dickinson stuff on a Friday night when I were a lad. We didn't notice the commentary TBH…

Agree, sounds like he's talking out of his bot.

maybe it all makes more sense at 1.5x speed or maybe the narrator was on the same gear as the musical score guys;?

Thanks for saving me the bother of having to explain it, frankly, I couldn't be arsed. Why he should fixate on 30 seconds of commentary with his usual 'the end of the world is nigh' demeanor instead of just enjoying one of the best climbing documentaries ever made is beyond me. Life's too short etc.

in its place and time the verbal commentary was just back ground noise, they were brilliant to me nearly 50 years ago

The sequence at the end of the Verdon film holds up pretty well. The voice over stops and we are just treated to a half naked, moustachioed rock athlete powering up with an early 80s synth soundtrack. It’s a great bit of film. 

Yes, as a teenager just getting into climbing the Rock Athlete films were an inspiration to me. They are obviously 'of their time' but still stand up well today and are a great record of where climbing was at just before sport climbing burst onto the scene in the mid 80s.

I got into the sport watching Tom Proctor climbing green death at Millstone, think it was a tv program called Rock Sport.

It was shown on a Saturday morning I think. Tom was seconded by Roger Baxter Jones if my memory is correct.  1978 at a guess?

It was 1973, introduced by John Earle and also featuring Jack Street, Geoff Birtles and Dennis Grey.

Ah yes, John Earle. Ron James was also on doing a route at Ilkley. Don't remember it being as early as 73, maybe I saw a repeat?

I remember these programmes but they are all mixed together in my memory. Was Ron James pegging something, or was that someone else or a different programme?

I think that was at some quarry on Dartmoor?

I've just looked up Foggintor and there is a route called Rockface, now HVS 5b, so presumably that was it.

Hmmm, first ascent Pat Littlejohn.

I seem to remember another pegging incident on those programmes where the presenter casually says 'oh, there's someone climbing now' and the camera pans around to a climber pegging a steep crack - maybe London Wall???

Ron James climbed a route in the quarry at Ilkley, S or VS, grade, definitely no pegging.

FFA anyway.  I’ve definitely seen a photo somewhere.  Iain Peters will know.

That must've been a different episode; Ron James definitely isn't on the one I'm thinking of.

Me too.