UKC

Class bias? For me, born in 71 he's been an inspiration since I was six or seven. Deserves it more than Chris IMHO. (Sorry Chris, but you're nice enough to probably agree.)

In reply to David Alcock:

Perhaps he has just quietly got on with his life, and has not mixed in the circles were "the great and the good" who decide these things, hang out? Looking at the www.gov.uk website about these things he seems, from what little I know, to fit a number of requirements but others maybe less so. Perhaps he's just never been nominated?

In reply to David Alcock:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=439782

In reply to David Alcock:

Nominate him then!
http://bit.ly/1BHlW6S

In reply to David Alcock:

I think Al Evans nominated him a couple of years ago.

In reply to David Alcock:

I should have guessed there was prehistory here. More power to his modesty.

In reply to David Alcock:

It's because he's a duff on ice!!

In reply to David Alcock:

Summitting Kanchenjunga is all very well and good, but he'd probably have been knighted years ago if he'd only got off his arse and done something on grit?

In reply to David Alcock:

That iconic photo from the Hard Years of him hanging one-armed, fag in mouth off some overhang in the Peak. I read that when I was a schoolboy. I was about six when my stepdad taught me to handjam up a mighty five foot crack on Crickley Hill and he told me all about Joe. That was when the bug bit. This would be about 77 or maybe 78. I got my mates into climbing on the chossy nightmares of Leckhampton Hill and so forth in my teens, and we did the classic 6mm blue three-ply washing line, made runners out of real nuts threaded on one ply of the same stuff. It's a miracle any of us are alive. And I have Joe Brown to thank. Never had the pleasure of meeting him, but heck, he inspired me to do loads of really stupid things. Hence I chose to climb.

(Obviously my tongue is partly in my cheek). We used to abseil off the A40 bridge onto the M5 on said 'rope' too. Classic abseils of course.

In reply to David Alcock:

And I have just to add this: we had three karabiners. They were dog-lead clips bought from the local hardware store. No word of a lie. I know this all sounds like a rip-off of the Monty Python sketch, but it was how it was back then! Now we have all this fantastic gear, and belly-loads of fear.

There is still one route I'd like to put up on Leckhampton Hill. Maybe when I feel very suicidal. There is a sort of cave with a large ash tree at the bottom. We used to chimney up it and leap across the gap at the top. But there are some improbable suspended blocks that form a double-stepped roof with a perfect jamming crack. I would love to know if anyone has ever been foolhardy enough to attempt it.

In reply to David Alcock:

He's not as well known to the general public as Chris Bonnington, who remains as far as I am aware the British climber they've most heard of.

In reply to Michael Gordon:

One n.

In reply to David Alcock:


The Tippler?... The man's a legend. In a time when that term is bandied about all too easily, he's the real deal.

In reply to David Alcock:

I can't remember what the route was. It was a long time ago I read the book. No doubt some knowledgeable sage will be along to tell us.

Excuse me, but I'm going to use this rather silly and redundant thread to tell another anecdote. Well, I started it, so I may as well.

I think it was 1990 and 91, we had made a habit of going to Torridon for a week in the winter, camping up on the top of the pass. The first time, my girlfriend, later to be wife, mother of three kids and now both my ex and my best friend was 17 and had just passed her driving test. We set off from Cheltenham around 4.00am. We arrived in Torridon at 3.00am. There were some tears and consoling after the M8. But I still maintain that was one of the greatest feats of endurance driving I've ever witnessed.

We did Ben Eighe before breakfast. Attempted Lliathach and nearly died. Went round to Choire Mhic Fia (spelling by memory and guesswork) rchaoir... One iceaxe, one modified crookhandled old-persons walking stick with a nail in the bottom, and no crampons. I learned how to cut steps.

Just basically, back then we were all really stupid and took risks that today would seem unfathomable.

The only winter experience I had then was a two-week jaunt with a teacher who was in the local climbing club. He took us for naked saunas (no, he was no Saville), we went up Bidean and the Ben, Anoch (sp) Eagach, loads of the classics. As a sixteen year old, something as humble as no 2 gully was a bloody big thing. We soloed until the cornice, where we put a rather suspect deadman in while said teacher hacked through it. It was -20ish that day down in Fort William. God knows what it was on that stance with 50 mile winds. My hot thermos in my rucksack froze solid. Flesh on metal. Hmm. Did get to meet an interesting guy who'd climbed Aconagua that year. We'd been showering him with snow stamping our feet.

Can I get this back on topic? As I said earlier, Joe Brown was a great inspiration to do very silly and stupid things. I was too young for the original Hoy live broadcast, but I caught the second. My life would have probably been completely different without him.

In reply to David Alcock:
It was the Dangler, a quick search on joe brown the dangler will bring up the photo.

In reply to cragtyke:
Cheers. Haven't seen that for thirty years. Just the same as my memory.

In reply to cragtyke:


That's the chappy. I stand corrected.

In reply to cragtyke:

Surely THE famous photo was Sloth

In reply to David Alcock:

Who needs recognition from the royal parasites anyway? It's pretty obvious how highly regarded he is in the community, a few bits of paper and a pat on the back from the scroungers in the palace doesn't change anything (I'm a republican, in case you couldn't tell :P )

In reply to jsmcfarland:

Absolutely agree. But the country (delete the o) being in it's sorry feudal state in the 21st century...

Politically I'm as left and republican as they come. Can't stand the CPB - stalinists. I suppose I would describe myself as a Blakeian anarchist if pushed. But that's all fluff really.

My grandfather got OBE in WWII for putting signs up on an RAF base in (I think) Aden. They were having a problem with troops selling stuff to locals. The sign said: "All wogs on base will be shot." Pretty damn shameful if you ask me, Richard Alcock OBE.

To be fair to him, he was a navigator in planes in WWI, got shot down a couple of times, learned how to ditch planes by leaning out and using the exterior wires, used to practice landing on the top of clouds which served him well when he ditched them on the top of trees, was wounded in action etc.

But I'll never forgive his racist pragmatism.

Goodness gracious me. I have strayed. If only he was a Manchester plumber all might have been well.

In reply to jcw:
I really don't know if anyone can be bothered with reading these reminiscences. But I'll carry on regardless in the hope they entertain someone.

That grandfather and I have a few things in common. A love of cold water. Walking around naked inappropriately. Saving people from drowning. His is more impressive. In 1919 a plane fell out of the sky in the Bay of Galway and he swam out, dived and got the pilot out. Myself, a Jihad youth camp instructor had fallen in the River Wye, and I dived down to the riverbed and got him out. He must have been 18 stone. I'm a meagre 10. A few other anecdotes that are not repeatable.

If he deserved an OBE, then it beggars my belief why Joe hasn't been given the official gong. I will write to them. (Where has Al Evans gone btw?) And I will do my best to make the case while simultaneously making the case that these silly honorifics are a jaded set of anachronisms. Sorry Joe, if this ever comes to your attention.

In reply to jsmcfarland:
He also got bought plenty of beer in Western Ireland in 1919 because he was disingenuous (disingenious?) about his forename. Atlantic Alcock was his 2nd coz.

In reply to David Alcock:

Coire Mhic Fhearchair and Aonach Eagach are both easier to spell than Bonington - it just looks right with double n!

I enjoyed the story though.

In reply to David Alcock:

There could be a degree of class bias but I suspect the bigger factor is he climbed Kanchenjunga rather than lead successful expeditions to Everest and Annapurna.

Everest was always the only game in town in non-climbing circles. The establishment honours leadership over getting it done at the sharp end (Lord Hunt, Sir Ed, medal for the brown fella), the opposite view to most climbers.

Climbing small brown rocks in Derbyshire is not honours material.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:


I did, but he got an upgrade to CBE instead.

In reply to David Alcock:

I think flaneur probably has the answer there but this has been an entertaining thread. Thanks.

In reply to David Alcock:


Because of this youtube.com/watch?v=60ROiYSNYYA&

He's already a king!

In reply to David Alcock:


Three, actually.....

In reply to Chris Harris:

I might have been asked officially, and declined it....you never know!!

In reply to neilh:


He accepted the CBE a couple of years ago.