UKC User Sherlock gives us an account of his epic ascent of Orion Direct back in 1982.
"I penduled through the pitch dark, headtorch a feeble strobe. When I stopped it seemed I was rather unexpectedly alive. I reasoned that angels probably wouldn't be using the language that rained down from above. I could make out his headtorch not far above and by a combination of pulling on the ropes and adrenalin, I landed, deranged, on the stance..."
In reply to Diccon: Only seventeen hours on the hill (that's not even out all night!) so nowhere near the epic of the century. It is, however, an outstanding tale, worthy of comparison with essays from Games Climbers Play and the most entertaining pieces of recent climbing writing. Well done!
There is a wonderful coincidence here, the man in the main picture at the beginning of this article is Neil Wilson who has an even bigger Orion epic in his past. In 1991 he took a full rope length (100m) fall onto the belay at the top of the route. His reply to screamed enquiries as to his health was a pure gem. 'I'm alright... I've broken my leg though' In fact he had snapped his femur and had at first thought his leg had come off as it was wrapped behind him. He retreived it by hooking the crampon with his ice axe. It was before mobile phone reception and he had a lengthy wait, losing a lot of blood, before being rescued by a heroic Mick Tighe who was lowered from the summit to get him.
Quality writing, recalling a lost world of shoestring adventure and uncertainty as standard.
Also brought back some memories of the route; I'm glad my partner got 7 pitches up before his crampon fell off, as retreat was by that stage unthinkable.
Fri Night Vid Finding Focus - Life Behind The Lens of a Climbing Photographer
This week's Friday Night Video is a portrait of a prolific climbing photographer from Wedge Climbing. Sam Pratt is well known in both the outdoor and competition scene but if you haven't heard of him, you've likely seen...