In reply to Flinticus:
Apparently he only fell 9 times, which was in his first 9 years of climbing. Then he didn’t fall off for the next 26 years! I’ve been lucky enough to meet him and his wife in his house and there’s the most amazing portrait of him on the walls there. Done by a Welsh artist, Kevin Bowen. His wife says she can just see what’s in his mind as he weighs up the climb ahead.