UKC

Extending almost 270 miles, from the Derbyshire peaks to the border with Scotland, the Pennines are one of Britain’s most impressive mountain ranges. They have helped kick start the Industrial Revolution and separate the warring counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire.

from UKC News"Sunday at 9.00pm on BBC1 sees Griff Rhys Jones in Mountain, this week it features alpinist and author Andy Cave taking three boys and three girls from City School in Sheffield out climbing to Stanage, part of Andy's continuing work on motivating kids to get out in the great outdoors with a special emphasis on the Pennines and how this landscape has been a resource for the working class to enjoy themselves."

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/

Broadcast details: BBC1 9pm, Sunday 19th August.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mountain/

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
"the Pennines are one of Britain’s most impressive mountain ranges"

A slight exageration ?



But sounds more interesting than anything French TV is offering this evening

In reply to Doug:


As much as I love them, I think 'Least Impressive' would be more accurate.

In reply to Doug:

You have to realise the target audience are a bunch of spinsters stuck in a bed sit in London. So the Pennines would be an 'impressive mountain range' to them.

In reply to Doug:

I think not, maybe not in height, but in diversity, accessibility to people and grandeur most certainly. Ever climbed Face Route at Gordale, or Carnage at Malham Cove?

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: You could add Kilnsey (almost any route) to that list, or perhaps even more impressive: Breach of the Peace http://www.rockfax.com/databases/r.php?i=2940

Andy F

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:


I don't think that is what they meant, they meant impressive like the alps. They are blatently lieing, but glib, throw away comments like that is what gets viewers.

In reply to VisionSet:

It doesn't matter anyway. Channel 5 have blown them out of the water with Vertical Limit at 8pm.

In reply to Ridge:


Nice Troll.....

In reply to Ridge:

Sally off of Coronation street scrambling in wasdale also takes some beating....

im taking up supporting football if climbing gets anymore mainstream. lol

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: yodeling seems to be the main activity at malham cove

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Where do I sign up for that...?

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I thought this one was the best in the series so far. The yodelling lady was a bit bizarre but the rest of it was very good, and might actually motivate a few people to get out hiking, climbing or caving.

In reply to Alison Stockwell:


... or playing darts, pony trekking, yodelling....

In reply to blueshound:

Well, each to their own. What's wrong with pony trekking anyway?

Actually when I said "the best so far" I forgot that I missed the one with Gordon in, so I don't know how good that one was.

In reply to blueshound:

The yodelling was nonsense and a waste of Malham. The pony trekking was used to demonstrate that routes across the pennines were major trading routes, the goods being carried by horses. The darts was a metaphor for the Wars of the Roses, why is that such a problem?

I thought this was the best of the series thus far.

In reply to Horse:


I agree.

In reply to Horse:

Goodness Horse, we agree! This will never do.

In reply to Alison Stockwell:

To redress the balance, bloody top ropers

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Sadly, easily the weakest so far. Perhaps because The Pennines are not mountains in the true sense and are somewhat lacking aesthetically.
I found the 100 black walkers the most interesting item purely because I've never seen a black walker in the hills myself ?

In reply to Horse:

don't forget the spar box that was used to demonstrate that the pennines were once mined for all sorts of things

In reply to anyone:

Did I hear him right or did he claim the Lanc-Yorks boundary was 1 mile from Tan Hill Inn?!

I thought it ok but nowt special. Not watched any of the others so cannot compare it to them.

In reply to Jonno:

Ah yes, you as the sage dictates that they are not mountains even though there is a charter created by many of the community that have decided they are. Best get on to them and advise.

In reply to Glyn Jones:


I grew up clambering over these hills and to be fair to Jonno they are not mountains IMO.

The odd part of them may look mountainous at times like Ingleborough when under snow and ice (but even the locals call Ingleborough 'The Hill') but they have a completely different character to the Highlands, Lake District and North Wales.

That said one mans hill is anothers mountain. Some folk say Britain has no proper mountains.

In reply to Glyn Jones:

the 2000 foot contour used to denote mountain country in Britain goes back quite a while. You'd have to go to a considerably higher altitude in the Alpine areas to find similar terrain and flora as you find in the N Pennines

As for the winters - a family in Weardale a few doors from us were airlifted by the RAF when an avalanche filled their house in the 70s (Crawleyside)

and of course the road crossing from Durham into Cumbria is higher than the Bealach na Ba

In reply to Simon22:

the Pennines are quite similar to the Eastern Lake District

There is I agree quite a difference in character between the High Street Range and the Central fells. High Street is after all best left unvisited leaving it quiet for those who like it

In reply to Glyn Jones:
And of course Cross Fell comes after Great Gable in height, so that cuts an awful lot of Lakeland out

In reply to Anonymous:

Do you honestly look at Mickle Fell, Rogan's Seat or Baugh Fell, all 3 being well over 2000ft and think 'this is a mountain'?


The 2000ft contour is completely arbitary, do we then class Dartmoor as being mountainous?

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Thought that it was OK - really could have done with being better edited though from a geographical sense as they hopped back and forth up the Pennines way too much. Why not start in the north and work south in (to my mind at least) a sensible fashion? I suppose to Joe Public that this geographical madness was not obvious so it is more of a personal gripe.

As to the yodelling woman - is she at Malham all the time?

bluebrad

In reply to Anonymous:

Only the very far east of the Lake District near the A6 is similar to the Pennies and I would not call that mountainous.

The change in character from Longsledale and west is very noticeable.

In reply to Alison Stockwell: It was the best so far. The fact that the Peninnes are not mountains but more suburbia fitted the series well.

In reply to Simon22:

any definition of mountain terrain is going to have an arbitrary boundary. I began going in the hills at school in the 70s and all the literature then used the 2000 foot mark. As did stuff I read in books I could get hold of that went back decades earlier.

The point about Dartmoor is interesting and debatable. When I referred to Alpine areas I should have indicated that my point concerned altitude, latitude and terrain/fauna etc. Dartmoor is considerably south of the North Pennines.

I was lucky enough to experience Mickle Fell some years ago, and it felt as mountainous as anywhere in the Lakes, particularly as we made our way through the range debris and caught a glimpse of High Cup Nick

In reply to Jonno:

Try as I might, (I'd recorded the programme, so I had the luxury of 'pause' and 'slow forward') I couldn't see the other 96 anywhere... Did Griff lose 'em somewhere?

In reply to Clauso: I don't want to join The Grumpy Brigade (the 'it's not about mountains or climbing' lot), but I feel the series started promisingly in The Highlands and ever since has gone downhill (ha!) flitting about like a moth distracted by randomly generated points of light.

In reply to Marc C:

I'd agree. It all seemed a bit disjointed last night. Redeemed, slightly, by lovely aerial shots of Kinder, Stanage etc...

I was a bit disappointed that Griff didn't devote any time at all to that well-known gritstone desperate N.M.C. Crack.

In reply to Clauso: I liked it. My only comment around 45 minutes in was that they should have covered the mass tresspass on Kinder, which they then did. It's had a good range of subjects, so will appeal to a broad range of people. I've quite enjoyed the series so far and have liked the spin they have put on the mountains and the importance they have.

In reply to IainRUK:


next week will be interesting as its snowdon !

In reply to IainRUK:

Me too. I didn't know the importance of the mining industry in the Northern Pennines - I think previously I'd thought it was an incidental small-scale affair, but the stuff about the Weardale leadmines corrected that misunderstanding.

I was also interested in the irony that the industrialisation of the North-East, with the current environmental issues, was started with the widespread availability and use of a clean renewable source of power. How the world turns...

In reply to tony:

first place to be lit by electric light was in the N Pennines, Allenheads - was one of the wonders of the time

I learnt quite a lot from last night's prog. Liked, or was at least interested by, the miners spar boxes. Was pleased to see they addressed the issue of the hills apparently belonging to the white inhabitants of our island (albeit in a fairly condescending manner in my view).

I was also pleased to see that GRJ has been taught how to climb properly, using full body contact (termed the "grovel" with masterful use of knees).

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Is it just me, or was anybody else absolutely disgusted with the terrible example that Andy Cave set in automatically rigging a toprope for his charges?

What on earth's happened to the spirit of adventure and a dash of élan? Those routes were easy; why not have his protégées lead them, rather than faffing about like numpties? Surely, Mountain represented an excellent opportunity to showcase the best that climbing has to offer and sadly fell well short of the mark?

I've already emailed the BBC to express my concern in the strongest possible terms. I'd urge others to do likewise. If Cave possesses an SPA, then it ought to be revoked... Charlatan. What's he ever done on grit, anyhow?

In reply to JonC: i actually walked in on the program and briefly wondered how footage of me climbing had ended up on tv?
masterful technique...

In reply to Clauso:

I thought he came across as about as dour as his book..

Last nights programme was a sensible look at the socio-economic and cultural impact of an upland area, or mountain - depending on your view.

I had just got back from climbing at Widdop and had been prattling on about the packhorse route that runs past there when lo and behold.....


The article on Benny Rothman and the trespassers was important, and it linked in nicely to the legacy of the industrial revoloution.

I think they missed an opportunity by not looking at how the hills shaped the industry and settlements, with hill top wool mills such as Paeckett Well, and the particular architecture of the Pennines, created as a consequence of the lack of light in the steep sided valleys.


The yodelling was bollocks and excrutiating to watch.

In reply to Clauso:

I refer the dishonourable gentleman to my previous reply.

I have to confess to being slightly distracted at that point in the show (I believe that is the correct term now as it is how Paxman describes Newsnight) as I recalled Sloper once retreating from the arete of the slab on the left.

In reply to JonC: I can imagine the average tv-viewer being quite inspired by seeing The Great Climb's footage of Commando Ridge, but totally repulsed by the grey dull footage of toproping at Stanage featured in Mountain.

In reply to Marc C:

yes, my thoughts exactly - rather a disappointment.

i completely *get* the fact this is not a prog about climbing, but the Stanage footage was pretty awful (if horribly accurate if you go for a wander down the popular end) and they ignored, for example, the climbing at Malham (even though there was at least one team on the rock behind GRJ at one point).

In reply to Marc C:

I'd go along with that. It all came across so sterile and pointless with Gryff arriving at a complicated cat's cradle of rope at 20' and being lowered off. AC looks a jolly sort of fellow !

In reply to Horse:

Ahhhhh... Missed that earlier contribution of yours. Should have known that I could rely on you.

For me, it brought back memories of the last time that I stood in that same spot... I was surrounded by a bunch of young squaddies who were being verbally abused up the routes, on toprope, by a bullying Sergeant... I didn't mind that so much, until he turned his invective on me, too. It seems to be a theme that surrounds my climbing, these days; even (the usually mild-mannered) Marc C felt compelled to join in, last time I that I climbed with him.

In reply to Jonno:

He's probably okay. I'm guessing that he just felt a bit 'dirty' at being caught on film in the presence of topropers?

In reply to Marc C:

I think the director probably had his sights on some footage of sunkissed soaring buttresses, crawling with brightly coloured climbers.

Instead he got fog and a Variety Club bus load ot twoccers and our yoddeling hero.

THe whole series seem to have been blighted with shit weather, a bit like being in the mountains.

In reply to Nevis-the-cat:

I wonder if he abused his celebrity status to cop off with any of the lady darts players? He seemed to be getting on famously with the Lancashire girls? Mucky pup.

In reply to Nevis-the-cat:

What are you implying here?

I drive a Variety bus, donated to enable me to take young people away. In fact last week I took 20 of the little darlings to Wales where we enjoyed caving, walking, canoeing and even {God forbid} a spot of top-roping!

So, why the comment?

In reply to Tony the Blade:

I am not implying it is the same Variety bus that turned up at Langdale some years ago, the contents of which proceeded to pillage the whole campsite.