UKC

Was it Catherine Destivelle  chalking up on The Devil's Tower, Wolfgang hanging out on Separate Reality, Honnold on Half Dome or Bancroft on Strapadichtomy?

I'd like to hear the shots that you most liked and why.

I can't recall where (in Classic Rock?) but some bloke getting p1ssed wet through on something like Clachaig Gully or The Chasm. And he was laughing.

My brother had this as a poster when we’re lads in the 80s.

Sad I never achieved the heady heights of Yocum Ridge. Inspiring.

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Addicted_to_Danger.html?id=eKGZ6saSA...

What an absolute corker

Glad you agree 😊

Something of a cliché, but for me it's always been Scott's picture of Haston on Everest, that hint of space exploration with the oxygen mask and tubes, all his weight wearily on his left leg, Santana's Moonflower cover spread out in the background and the knowledge of the night shortly to come.

https://images.ctfassets.net/pjshm78m9jt4/99042_header/bb15998b7ed2cc0ea764...

I actually held that tranny in my hand years back. IIRC it made the cover of the Sunday Times colour supp. For those of a certain generation, my personal favourite would be Cleare's b&w piccy of Pete Crew (or was it Rusty Bailie?) bridged across Cenotaph Corner. There was a copy of this on a poster advertising Crew & Harris's climbing courses, on the inside of the old Gorwysfa Hotel (now the hostel at Pen y Pass). Sometime in the 1960s.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.climbing-photography....

Jethro Kiernan's one of Johnny D on Poetry Pink (E5 6b) is a personal fav. I prefer the drone one where he is making a move amongst a sea of slate, but the one where he is padding up the rainbow with the view down to the power station is rad too. 

Edit: - this one https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/rainbow_slab_area-637/poetry_pink-...

If I remember right that is Rusty B.

When I first started climbing it would probably have been one of the covers of Mountain but I no longer have them. Of those I can (partly) remember, there was a photo of John Syrett leading a new (?) route at Almscliffe which just looked ridiculous to someone barely climbing VS. And some of the Scottish winter & Alpine shots always attracted me, wasn't there one of Glover's Chimney ?

Shame there isn't an on line archive of Mountain but I suspect there would be considerable copyright issues to anyone who tried

The ones that instantly come to mind are where the personality of the protagonist shines through, rather than just a stunning-looking climb. 

https://www.desnivel.com/images/2020/04/le-menestrel.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ULRZOeIGADQ/RoAHkIrVfQI/AAAAAAAAAP4/7acnj7xhsH4/s...

Don't know where there's a copy of the image, but Jimmy Jewel soloing the Axe in what looks like bright yellow ron hills.  The light, the location and the contrast between the brightness of the climber and the background.

This picture? 1989 Cloggy guidebook.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/Clogwyn-Dur-Arddu-Paul-Williams-Leicester/309684...

Surprised no one has mentioned Ben Moon on Agincourt:

https://climbing-history.org/climb/460/agincourt
 

John Long bouldering in Colorado isn’t the most amazing picture ever, but it inspired Moffat to go all the way to America and just… go bouldering! Not entirely a bouldering trip obviously but who else was doing that in 1983? And modern climbing was born - so a great picture by influence if not ascetics. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/climbing/comments/db0clt/john_long_looking_like_ar...

Paul Ross and Hamish McInnes on the Bonatti Pillar. Proper photojournalism as much as a “climbing photo”:

https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/120200020/paul-ross-and-hamish-mcinne...

https://www.fjords.com/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/TROLL_WALL_PIONEERS...

Has a certain something 

Good Lord, what’s that? They look like trawlermen photoshopped on to a crag.

jcm

Yes, fully kitted out in the middle of Lidl.

First ascent attempt of troll wall. Tony Howard and team

This always blew my mind. Pollitt at his finest on the second ascent of The Bells the Bells. I've climbed next to the route and know how thin it is.https://images.app.goo.gl/pxSPVUsnHyTmxbT98

Looks like your average trip down Alum Pot

Maybe the Strapadictomy or Great Wall ones from Hard Rock.

But a more recent one is Cubby's one Of Jules Lines on Realm of the Senses. It was on a calendar I had, but I can't find it online.

That is a classic, the look on the guy's face, the tangled wet ropes, the feeling that their day is not going to improve much. Been there done that 

Crap 60s gear! Thank god for Goretex!

My favourite of Johnny Dawes on Poetry in Pink (different picture)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johnny_Dawes_on_Poetry_Pink.jpg#/me...

Such a hard one to answer but nothing posted so far does much for me tbh. I really rate Simon Carter and Jim Thornburg, both of whom have superb feeds on IG and are worth checking out.

Simon Carter's gallery: https://www.onsight.com.au/product-category/prints/

Jim Thornburg's: https://www.jimthornburg.com

Do you mean Pic 1 from Dave Jones’ Rock Climbing in Britain?

For me it would have to be one of the many iconic photos of Gaston Rebuffat, probably this one https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Gaston-REBUFFAT-escaladant-le-gros-rogno/...

They're just so evocative of the time, the danger, the derring-do of the climbers of the time.  The grainy look only adds to the feel.  

Must be said, the one I've picked here loses points for not featuring that jumper, but more than makes up for it with run out.

I don't have the book, Phil. Could be? I think the bloke was holding his hands out (feeling the rain) and had an unusual (made up?) name - Billy something?

http://billbirkett.com/bill-birkett/product/nowt-fleein-thing%E2%80%A8-fine...

This one for me 😀

The cover of The Great Mountain crags of Scotland, of Dave McLeod on Dalriada:

https://www.stonecountrypress.co.uk/2014/11/great-mountain-crags-of-scotlan...

Ohhh yeah Jim Thornburg's crack shots are mind blowing as were the Heinz Zac ones in Yosemite of the Huber brothers.

https://www.planetmountain.com/en/photos/alexander-huber-interview/2495?s=3

Billy Bollweevil rings a bell. So many great photos in the book. The one of Cubby on Requiem stands out.

Any cover of Mountain magazine or anything from early Patagonia catalogues could be a contender but my personal all time favourite, also in Rock Climbing in Britain, is the grainy B/W of Rob Matheson, Ed Cleasby and ?John Eastham sitting on Crn Las after the first ascent of Lubyanka. Long hair, bandanas, dodgy moustaches and totally badass. Much cooler than the Bridwell/Long/Westbay El Cap photo. When I saw that pic as a lost youth, I wanted to be like them.

I have always admired Hamish Frost's ability to capture both the climber and the situation they are in:

https://www.hamishfrost.com/2023/5/12/sb1y8lmsz0htj17sjub3y44y072kli

https://www.hamishfrost.com/2019/2/13/greg-boswell-climbing-anubis-xii12

I thought the pic of a young Ron Fawcett on Sentinel Crack was absolutely outstanding and inspirational 

Inspirational, yes, it inspired me never to attempt Sentinel Crack (E3 5c) ha ha ha

Edit, if you click on the climb name just above and then on 'photos', the Ron Fawcett photo is the 3rd photo

Yea they’re good, but you weren’t asked to pick a gallery. You’re not playing properly.

Are you able to pinpoint your favourite out of these? And why?

This is Mega.

This is my favourite.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/204139795580235317/

That could possibly be the last climbing photo ever ... There is a copy on Voyager 2 as it travels beyond our solar system ... for ever, basically.

That's easy. It's on this forum.

"Recovering from a lightning strike on the Matterhorn. Summer 1973." by Tony Marr

Guilty as charged,  apologies. I'll have a hunt although many of Hamish Frost's linked to above are probably better! But there was also a shot on here somewhere from the Verdon of a couple of athletic, young wads in bright colours on a multi pitch route that was amazing,  I'll try and find that one too.

That's the guy! Is it actually his real name?

No idea, I haven't seen that book in decades. I ought to buy it, it was one of the first climbing books I looked at and it was very inspiring.

It's a great book. Billy Bollweavil is on Idwal Slabs Ordinary and knee deep in a stream bed.

That shot of Robbie on St Kilda is just spectacular 

all these replies and not yet one wag referencing Isabelle Patissier "bouldering" in Sardinia! What's happened to UKC?  

I'll raise you the front cover of Sun Rock.

Wasn't it a lookalike on the inside page who aroused more interest?

They're just silly. Vaguely amusing possibly, but, to me, staged and worthless as climbing photos.

When I was young I saw a photo labelled “Rusty Bailey bombing The Gates”.  I has no idea what those words meant but I knew I wanted some of it. 

I remember when just starting my friend had a poster of Phil D soloing Right Wall, pretty inspiring

I first saw this picture when I was new into climbing and it haunted me as picture of despair. The look on the climbers face says it all.

Staged, yes, but a good portion of the photos people rave about are people headpointing something they've practiced multiple times while a photographer hangs on ab in a pre-arranged position to get the best shot. Is that not staged? The only difference is they're a bit less daft but climbers take themselves too seriously nowadays. 

I've always quite liked this one...

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/472737292110183395/  

No.  Not despair.  Determination.

That is a hilarious or awful photo, can't decide. Thanks anyway. Those birds are BIG. I've had some very close encounters with Herring Gulls at Gogarth though not touched by them 

Before I read your post it was Bancroft that came to mind. The best thing about it is his face - so relaxed.

Although, I always liked the shot of Dunne on Breathless as well.

As a counterpoint to relaxed face's... I had a poster of Neil Gresham on equilibrium for years when I was young which i thought was the coolest thing ever, doesn’t do a lot for me now, the thought of hard grit makes me shudder but a classic of its era 

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a62753e8c56a8174aa18dbc/1519...

Isn't this the one where it was recreated for the magazine photo and there's a toprope round the corner?

Christ, this thread is pissing all over my favorite photo proverbial chips what with that, and Robert pointing out I had got totally the wrong route on my Ben Bransby one earlier.

Sorry mate. Pretend I never said anything and that Gresh face is genuine. 

Obviously photoshopped.

A lot less daft, but I agree there are a lot of photos which seem to lack authenticity, the climb perhaps being done for the photo rather than a photographer capturing something real as it happens.

Mostly a bit too cliched for me. Verging on "climbing porn".

For me the picture of Joe brown, nat Allen and ???, depicts the joy and comradery.

The one of Armstrong and whillance  under the Vikings for the BBC prog, the chutzpah of hard onsight climbing 

That's the one that first sprang to mind for me too.  Magnificent shot.

T.

You‘ve nailed it. The best climbing photo isn’t about set-up aesthetics, it has to be about technical photographic perfection combined with the capturing of an amazing moment with an incredible story behind it. That‘s why Doug Scott‘s photo of Haston on the summit of Everest wins for me hands down. If you read Doug‘s account in The Games etc, you realize that during his moving description of the view from the summit he actually took at least one glove off and took this technically perfect photo at 8800m, capturing both the beauty of the moment and the incredibility of it. Destivelle chalking up in the sun or (admittedly impressive and very well photographed) Gritstone heroics just don‘t kick me in the guts like this one does.

Heres a good one taken by Jimmy Chin of Sonnie Trotter

https://twitter.com/jimkchin/status/1694757236818448641/photo/1

Just a little bit posed? Technically good, but does nothing for me.

I was once bouldering at the Col des Montets near Chamonix and found myself on the same boulder as Isabelle Patissier, just a few feet away. She was wearing a one piece, body-hugging leotard, which was most distracting. I can't remember anything else about the bouldering.

Met Jimmy and Paul as they were coming down with us going up - It was taken very early in the morning for the light. Paul talking ten to the dozen and Jimmy just grinning. And yes - the finest climbing trousers - bright yellow Ron Hills. He'd brought a new pair for the route!

When I started climbing around 1981, there was one common feature in the climbing houses of virtually everyone I knew. The poster of Ron on L’Horla ‘remember last summer’ that came inside Crags magazine issue 1. That’s one of the images that inspired a generation. Nobody could work out why Ron was leading it as he could solo it, but it made a great image. It marked the end of climbing as puntering in the rain, sunny day, shorts, ripped from training, brave new world….

Dennis Hennek on North America Wall, from the cover of Mountain in the mid 70s. 

No, it's short for Cuthbertson... 

We were at Buoux in the late 80s. Catherine Destiville turned up with her dad and some family members and started up the route next to us. I can't remember the route but it involved a full on "splits" move about 3m up. I looked up, as anyone would, slightly starstruck, to admire her movement over the rock and I swear, the crotch of her one piece, body-hugging leotard "disappeared" momentarily . I also can't remember anything about the climbing.

E

One more reason why I always wear Ronhills

Is this it?

Yes - that's 'Billy Bollweevil' and it is the greatest climbing photo ever taken. No clinging one-piece leotards disappearing up French @rse cracks required!

Lovely unreconstructed comment!

You're going to get some stick for it!

The best climbing photo, IMHO, isn't of climbing at all. It's that iconic photo of Billy Westbay, Jim Bridwell, and John Long, stood in the meadow, in front of El Cap the day after their successful "Nose in a Day" ascent, in June 1975.

Here it is.

John Dunne in Total Eclipse. 

https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/adam_ondra_-_malham_2011_-_ful...

Chouinard's photo of Doug Tompkins on Hell's Lum in winter.

https://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p231/scgrossman/Default%20Album%20II/As...

For me it has to be Bancroft on Strapodictomy. Such a great image LD mountain centre in Newcastle used it on their bags for years (haven't been for a while so I don't know if that's still the case). 

First visit to Froggatt I couldn't imagine how anyone could have got up there - still can't

Those very tights are displayed in my local bouldering gym. I have been assured that they are unwashed.

I forgot about this until I was tidying up my office. John Gill one arm front lever in the Biography ‘Master of Rock’. Putting up V9/10 in the 50s and 60s while elsewhere HVS with socks over plimsoles was cutting edge. As a bunch of climbers in the early 80s, this guy was our hero. Putting up the worlds first 5.12 with a ground up solo. This photo kind of encapsulates it all.