UKC

In the January 2014 issue of Climber magazine there is an article entitled The Climber's Voice. The Nordwand. It purports to be both an account of the first British attempt on the north face of the Eiger in July 1962 and a tribute to the two climbers involved, Brian Nally and Barry Brewster.

To be brutally frank it is neither.

In respect of the first it offers nothing that has not been written before and been readily available for those interested. Almost in its entirety the 'account' has been lifted from reports and articles by Brian Nally published in the late summer of 1962.

The coverage of the climbers offers generous praise but is very different in its approach to them as individuals. That concerning Brian Nally is simply a statement of his alpine record and from that some comments follow that could be made by anyone.

That of Barry Brewster is very different. It is written from the perspective of what the article's author knew of Barry, and here we are in territory that is contentious and some serious questions about the reliability of memory, after some 50 years, have to be asked.

Barry's own climbing record which is comprehensive, and the recollections of his close climbing friends at Bangor in the years 1959-61 do not bear out many of the claims made in the article.

It is, in truth, a poor piece of work designed to shed more light on the author than those being written about.

In reply to babrewster:

Care to tell us what your particular axe that you are grinding is?

In reply to babrewster:

This could be interesting; but as the identity of the author of the article in question is in the public domain it's probably only fair that, as a critic, your name is known as well.

Out of interest, was theirs the first British attempt? I seem to recall that a wily MacInnes inveigled a youthful and possibly naive Bonington into going out there for a "look" several years earlier - possibly 1958, but I forget; I've no idea, though, whether they actually set foot on the face.

In reply to babrewster:

I note that all of his routes logged between 1956 and 1959 were with "BAB" - my apologies.

In reply to estivoautumnal:
Well it looks like he doesn't like people writing a load of bollocks about his late brother.
Quite right to!

In reply to Ian Parsons:


Frank Eliot and friend possibly made an attempt in 1948 or thereabouts, but the details and reporting were a bit confused, as I remember. High or Climb mag did a piece on it some years ago.

In reply to babrewster:




OK, but your post would have more authority and weight if you provided some kind of evidence, or other information, to specifically counter those claims you believe are erroneous.

You disagreeing with them does not make them wrong. You're even free to say you think it's crap - but if you want to be taken seriously you need to show *why* it's crap.

Declaring your relationship to the person in question, and thus the reason for your strong interest in this, might be useful too.

In reply to Damo:


He's done that, he's said his brothers climbing record and the recollections of his close friends do not bear it out.
Anyway I think it is the other way round actually, if you want to criticise somebody in the press it's you that should provide the evidence.
From a personal point of view, its distasteful to write articles like this, especially if they are not correct, as obviously they are going to upset close relatives.
I would have thought it important to at least check facts with close relatives,especially one who was a close climbing partner.
I think from what I've seen of his climbing record he was more than uo to the Eiger, just got caught by rockfall. Tragic. and a very brave attempt considering the time and that it was unclimbed by a Brit before.

In reply to Gael Force:

I've not read the article so this is in response to postings on this thread.

Looking at the climbing diary it's quite obvious that he (Barry Brewster) was climbing close to the highest standards of the day. Just because he wasn't in "the public eye" in the way that Brown, Whillans and to some extent Bonington were at the time doesn't mean that he and others weren't as capable.

I've no doubt that both Brewster and Nally approached the Eiger in a considered manner and weren't simply a pair "pushing their luck", according to Harrer in The White Spider, Nally had already climbed the North Face of the Matterhorn among other big alpine climbs (though Harrer does finish the chapter by stating he thought Nally was out of his depth). Even today with our infinitely better gear, The North Face of the Eiger isn't a climb you approach light heartedly. The knowledge about which parts of the face are safe at particular times of day and which are not has only been gained and made widely known over time plus some days are worse than others - Bonington & Clough's ascent a month later had virtually no stone fall.

I've seen many pieces where it is obvious that the writer hasn't "done their homework" and reiterated, sometimes verbatim, the first things they find on the subject. In researching things you need to have an audit trail of your sources, it's quite possible that what appears to come from two or more sources can in fact be traced back to a single incorrect source.

On a slightly separate note: what became of Brian Nally? There's the TV interview taken presumably fairly soon after the accident but after that he seems to have dropped off the radar.

In reply to Bob:

Hi Bob, Merry Christmas, not sure what happened to Brian Nally. I agree Barry Brewster was fairly obviously a pretty good climber by any standards, and very good for his time. I remember reading about some of his routes before and coming to the conclusion he was the subject of some slightly unfair comments.

In reply to Gael Force:


And grotesquely unfair ones from Heinrich Harrer in the White Spider. But then he was not the only target of such comments from Harrer, who was a specialist at them, in addition to his unsavoury personal history.