UKC

Love this bit of old film. One gets the impression Don thought it a good idea but then thought bugger what have I let myself in for?

https://youtu.be/6NBdLNw4ULw?si=Yp9Q3PdsMDDWAugP

Brave.

Many years ago, a mate of mine decided to do a very trad ascent of Idwall Slabs (with another friend), using his Dad's old rack, a hawser-laid rope and all dressed in tweeds - I was climbing the next route, to take pics.

The look on one girl's face, as he dropped a mahogany "hex" into a crack and started belaying off it, was priceless!

Is this a euphemism?

Fascinating, thanks. Does anyone know the year and origin of the film?

It was one of a series of BBC programmes on climbing in the Lakes. Guess at mid 1980s. 

The series was Lakeland Rock, C4 I think.

Yep. I think the first  in the series was the best, Eagle Front (VS 4c) done in appropriate style, socks over gym shoes on a wet day, combined tactics on the crux pitch probably the first time I'd ever heard the F word on television and a great camera shot of the pair enjoying a bottle of fizz to celebrate completing the ascent. 

Anyone on UKC who's never heard of Bill Peascod  should give it a watch because it is a fitting tribute to a remarkable man who died not long after in the company of one of our finest mountaineers on one of our finest crags.

1984

Great to see this again. Watching it, you think of all the things they´d done together - the first British ascent of the Freney Pillar in 1961, their heroic rescue of Barry Brewster in horrifying stonefall on the North Face of the Eiger in 1962, their success (Bonington as leader, Whillans together with Dougal Haston as the summit team) on the first ascent of the South Face of Annapurna in 1970 ... no wonder that they seem pretty relaxed with their ancient gear and footwear on a mere E1 5b. Legendary climbers, legendary stuff!

Gear is certainly 60s and neither wearing a crash hat on the bike, which I thought was compulsory back in the 80s. I certainly  wore a crash hat when I first went to the Alps on a bike, circa 1969.

It's a really tough E1, steep and a proper battle even with a modern rack.

I agree. I did it shortly after watching the Whillans/Bonington film & climbed it in far worse style than The Don - even though I was a good 25 years younger. 

The whole style of this reminds me so much of how climbing was in the late 60's. Very adventurous, semi -nuts, and full of banter. The odd thing is that we all had more or less the same gear and clothing, e.g., the climbing britches and long red socks. I asked Gordon about the red socks and he reckons it arose simply because Wally Poucher in one of his books reckoned that if you were unfortunate enough to be head-planted in an avalanche with your legs sticking out that you would be more easy to spot!

Yes - I recall that advice in Poucher’s gloriously illustrated guides. They definitely played a part in kindling a love for wild places.

I once spent three days camping in the winter in a minute bivvy tent below Suilven waiting to get a shot of sunrise on the snow-covered east face for my first book ‘Eyes to the Hills'. We had nothing to read except Poucher’s guidebook, and my companion and I would give ‘performances’ to each other about once an hour reading Poucher's Introduction putting on various silly posh accents. 

I’ve just found the actual book. Here’s the bit about the red socks:

“Stockings and socks are worthy of some attention and one of each worn together ensure comfort and warmth and reduce undue friction. The colour of these items may be important and for the last five years I have worn red ones because in case of accident this colour can be seen at a great distance, and in consequence would facilitate location and subsequent rescue. Some readers may smile or even smirk at this suggestionm but it is a factor that if universally adopted by climbers could reduce the unhappy toll of our hills."

On the back cover there’s a splendid photo of the man himself, suitably attired:

Apparently he was very well groomed for the hills complete with make up and perfume, aside from his red socks.

That guidebook Gordon was my first of quite a large collection but looking rather tattered now.

Poucher’s books were regularly borrowed from our Tuesday-only library way back in the 1960’s in the local village hall. It was unusually well-stocked - I borrowed the White Spider, Starlight & Storm and several other classics, so I guess there might have been an outdoor enthusiast on the staff. 

I never liked Poucher - thought he was a silly pompous ass - but his Scottish guidebook was inspirational - page after page of unheard of Scottish mountains.

I picked up a copy of his biography last year, by Roly Smith, which is seriously weird. It starts with an introduction by John Cleare, who immediately damns him with faint praise - 'to my mind he was no artist ... a technician ... doing it with selective expertise and enthusiasm.'  It ends describing  a sad, lonely and largely unnoticed demise. I had to wonder why Smith tackled it in the first place.

I've just read on his Wikipedia page that he was guesting on Russell Harty's show when the host got attacked by Grace Jones. I well remember the Grace Jones incident but had entirely forgotten that Poucher was the other guest. Odd, in that Poucher had much more influence on my life than Jones! I always liked reading his books but I never rated him overly as a photographer. Too many rucksacks placed on foreground rocks?

And here's the incident

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iz_UHLfZKAA&pp=ygURaGFydHkgZ3JhY2Ugam9uZX...

1984 I think, there’s a VHS tape of all the climbs Chris did with the first ascensionists. 

Here’s another he did, with Bill Peascod as part of the series

youtube.com/watch?v=gdW0Y_HbsiM&

lovely video

Marvellous. One of the Great Lakes routes - mentioned in the VS thread elsewhere on here. Justifiably so.

What a gorgeous documentary it is. I’d forgotten how good it was.

All

I have the whole Lakeland Rock series in digital format. It was ripped from VHS many years ago and I've just checked the HDD it's on and yep, still got it and just copied it to desktop.

It is in a .iso format so any DVD playing software will play it or you can burn to a disc (If that's still a thing!) It is 4.5 gig and a single file. All 5 chapters are there, Liversey/Peascod etc.This film really is of historical interest so if anyone wants a copy, you'd need to send me an 8 gig or above memory card or thumb drive, with a SAE for the return.

PM me if you want

I don't know about the make up, but he was a perfumier by profession, so that may be the case. I have a vague recollection of selling his two 'Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps' books in my early days as a publisher's rep. 

Oh yes, he was heavily into makeup. He would also wear gold lamé gloves on occasion, to complete his 'look'.

Seriously weird. Reading his biography again he reminds of nothing so much as ... Donald Trump. Narcissist, golf addict, no sense of humour,  teetotal, bombastic ... though to be fair, he did have two succesful careers to look back on.

Easy to forget just how good a pure rock climber CB was given that he is more famous for his achievements in the mountains

Worth remembering Jim Curran's comment: 'Everyone thinks Chris is great organiser and cr*p climber. In fact he's a cr*p organiser and a great climber.'