UKC

Just got this email in case anyone is interested..

"You may be interested to know that an hour documentary on Sir Hugh Munro, Munro-bagging and the Scottish mountains is to be screened on Sunday, 20th Sept at 2100 on BBC Four.

This features an ascent of the Inaccessible Pinnacle on Skye where I guide presenter Nick Crane, plus footage of Ben Nevis, Glencoe and An Teallach."

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan: That explains what Nick Crane was doing with a film crew on the path up from Glen Brittle when I was there back in early May, then! Lovely day they had for it, too: http://gallery.me.com/martin.whittaker#100009/03%20Eas%20Mor&bgcolor=bl... (I understand that in the latter part of the summer Skye had fifty consecutive days of rain!)

Thanks for pointing out this programme, I almost certainly would have missed it otherwise. Who did you receive the e-mail from, out of interest?

In reply to Martin W:

No worries. It came from Martin Moran (mailing list) www.moran-mountain.co.uk

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan: It's a pity that the piece in the Big Issue describing the program was hopelessly innacurate - 'Over 500 munros', '3,000' sheer drop into the sea from the Innaccesible Pinnacle', 'Sir Hugh Munro - 18th C explorer'. Those all occurred within a paragraph!

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan: Thanks!

I note that the photo of An Stac from the In Pinn on his News page was taken on 11th May. I'd assume that was the day he did it with Nick, since it was the day we passed Nick on our way up to do Sgurr Alastair: http://gallery.me.com/martin.whittaker#100009/14%20Eric%20and%20Mikey%20on%...

In reply to Martin W:

The filming of the In Pinn climb was definitely 11 May. There's a gallery on the BBC Scotland Outdoors site with some more shots: http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/outdoors/galleries/mountainman/

Amazing that the filming in Glen Coe was just three days before the Skye stuff.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

I hope it didn't affect your sales figures?

In reply to winhill:


I hope it didn't affect your sales figures?


*grins* nice one ..

In reply to Garbhanach:

I think I might have some shots of you abbing off the In Pinn. Give me a shout if you're interested and I'll send them to you.

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan:
I thought it was a good programme, and quite timely, as I am due to 'compleat' on Saturday.........
The only thing I feel he had wrong was the competition between him and AR to complete them. He even said that HM never made a mention of it - Surely that was simply because HM was climbing all the Munros and the Tops to get the heights using his barometer, as part of his ongoing survey for the SMC, whilst AR was indeed 'bagging'. Two differnt objectives running concurrently for a while?
AR didn't 'cheat' or 'shortcut', as he was only after the summits on HM's list, hence the reason he didn't tackle the Inn Pin. I would contend also that given it's name and reputation at the time, AR was happy to leave it as 'inaccessible'?

In reply to chris_s: Must be someone else I just took some shots from Sgurr Dearg and left.

In reply to Garbhanach: Just watched this and thought it real good. As im currently a few from completion myself, I thought it interesting (and puzzling) why NickCrane referred to the list as only being 283, and not 284

(unless the list has been updated when i wasnt looking ????????)

In reply to Newbuild100:

Sgurr nan Ceannaichean (near Lochcarron) was recently deleted. New measurement showed that it didn't quite reach 914m.

In reply to Newbuild100:

because he was talking about the original list, which had 283. Which coincidentally, is also the current number, so it's sort-of come full circle - until the SMC decide to change it again, when they run out of the current edition of the guidebook

In reply to Toreador: Or until the Munro Society decide to stick their oar in again...

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan:

I enjoyed it. (The bloke fairly rapidly told to stop saying "Oh, that's Fisherfield!" "Oh, we camped there!" "Oh, I wonder where that is"... ) I thought the shots of the weather on top of Bidean nam Bian were particularly good as it gave a good idea of how bad the weather can get on top of Scottish Mountains...

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan: Watched the Munro documentary last night and really enjoyed it. Loved all the dramatic Winter scenery.

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan: Really good programme. Very well made, and very informative. It's quite hard in this day and age to imagine how much more difficult, logistically, it must've been for the likes of Robertson and Munro to achieve their aims.

A programme on Rev Burn, the first person to complete all the Munros, and their tops, would make a fascinating sequel, as he was a far more entertaining figure than both Munro and Robertson.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

The programme explained that there were over 500 'Munros' i,e over 3,000 ft, however, as he was still unsure which of those were the highest peaks on each range and which were the tops, he had to climb each of them to establish which were which with his barometer. So the article was not so much 'hopelessly innacurate' perhaps just
misleading.

Nick Crane clearly thinks Munro Baggers are mad.

Did anyone spot the delusion of the interviewee in the Clachaig who said "I love doing the Munros because it takes me all over Scotland to places I would never have gone before."

Wrong. Thankfully there are mountains in Scotland that aren't Munros.

Great programme though.

In reply to Jack Frost:

Not wrong at all. Doing the Munros does take people into corners of the country that they almost certainly wouldn't have visited otherwise. You don't end up somewhere like Carn an Fhidhleir by accident.

And did he or she say that they didn't ever intend to do any hills that aren't Munros? If not, then I think you're reading far to much into what was said.

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan: This was a superb programme. With this and the Glencoe Massacre, I cannot remember Television being this good for a long time.
Well interested in the Inn Pin. Some great shots there.

In reply to Wotcha: Whilst sheltering in the Clachaig one night, a local told me that there was no such thing as the "GC massacre", but a suicide pact by the locals, as they were that pi***d off with the foul weather !

Great programme by the way

In reply to DougG:

No corners near Carn an Fhidhleir - its in the middle.

But seriously tho, if you look at a map of Scotland with the Munros on it, think about how much mountain area is devoid of their charms? http://www.munromagic.com/MunroMap.cfm

In reply to DougG: No, but he did say that height was not the criterion that made him decide to go up a mountain. Or as someone else said in another context - the Universe will have to make greater claims on us that its size before we respect it.

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan: it's on now....(bump)

In reply to Jack Frost:


Well aware of that, that's one reason why I love Inverpolly and Asssynt. But I love Skye and Torridon just as much.

In reply to DougG:

I have a friend who completed a round of Munros and Tops aged 22. At that point he declared that he was only going to walk up hills for pleasure, for example with friends, rather than because they were on a list. As he tells it, this worked for a time, but he found that he was doing the same hills over and over again, and eventually he found himself thinking something along the lines of "Not the Aonach Eagach again..." He's now 35ish and collecting Corbetts... and is also trying to decide if he wants to complete a second round (he's done over 200 towards one).

I guess the point of this story is that lists are useful as long as they are a tool and not a master!

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan:

A really good week on Skye. Fortunately a little bird at the Slig told us that the BBC were filming on that day. An earlier than normal start to get to the front of the guided In Pin queues with the BBC's rope rigging team....!

I wonder if they got all the fixed gear back....!!!!

Some pictures and YouTube video are here at http://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/blog/2009/05/hot-cuillin-capers.html and the video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03tsZJ38MIM&feature=player_embedded

Cheers Ron

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan: Am I wrong but when they went up In Pin he clearly stated they had two 30m pitches and a 50m rope....

Ok so all bets are off as they have stand by film crew safety experts etc
but my understanding is that a 30m pitch requires a 60m rope in order to lower off if necessary?

Cx

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan:

A very enjoyable programme - thanks for bringing it to our attention

Y. & B.

In reply to Yrmenlaf: Yes agree it was a thoroughly good watch. But the 50m rope?

Cx

In reply to Clears:

I think most people would use a 50m rope for the In Pinn, some would make do with less. The climb is pretty straightforward.

For anyone that's interested, this is how the In Pinn segment was filmed.

A rope access technician climbed the route with a partner early in the day and preplaced a lot of the gear. He then spent the rest of the day at the base of the In Pinn asking people nicely not to take the gear out!

The bulk of the crew arrived at the In Pinn about 2pm but we didn't want to hold anyone up, so waited until about 6pm when the route was clear. The rope access technician then went back up and was seconded by the specialist cameraman Keith Partridge (Keith is the guy who filmed the Edge, Touching the Void, The Beckoning Silence, Top Gear Climber v. Car and many others). They took up a dynamic rope for the climbing and a static rope so Keith could lock off in position.

They were followed by Martin Moran, who brought up Nick Crane as a guide would take up any client. There was no other rigging involved for them. In fact the only extra bit of safety they had was when Nick Crane was being interviewed while belaying Martin. I'm standing just off camera also belaying in the unlikely event that Martin fell and Nick was distracted by the interview.

Once everyone was at the top, they just abbed off as normal. It took about two hours to do. There's a picture in my gallery of Martin and Nick on the route, but I've just uploaded another one of Keith filming the abseil.

Apologies to the climbers we held up for about 15 minutes while we finished off - hope the use of our abseil ropes and the water made up for it.

In reply to Clears:

A 50m rope would be more than adequate for the In Pinn, even for lower offs if required.

It looks wet outside, if you are goung out best wear your annorack.

In reply to chris_s:

That was interesting, thank you. I thought the camara work gave a good impression of what the climbing was like for someone who didn't climb - and also manged to give a good 'illusion' that there was no-one else there! (I mean 'illusion' in the sense that obviously there was a camera crew there otherwise you wouldn't be seeing the pictures but you felt that there wasn't... I'm not sure that makes sense....)

In reply to fimm:

Yes that makes sense. A lot of the director's planning for something like this revolves around getting clean shots - another reason why we waited until the route was clear before filming.

The original idea was for Nick and Martin to climb the route twice - once for the climbing shots and the second time for the wide angles - but we ran out of time. So every time the second cameraman wanted a wide angle we had to radio Keith and Alastair (the rope access guy) to get out of shot.

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan:

Real men don’t need a rope though.

http://tinyurl.com/yd6kv4l
http://tinyurl.com/ybzc4d5

(But don’t try this at home, kids.)

In reply to chris_s:

Really useful background info. We were the first team up behind the rope access team that morning and had to tell our clients and those following behind us to leave the BBC's fixed gear in place. I'd be amazed if they got all the gear back!!!
I'm surprised that the outdoor cameras used aren't a lot smaller and lighter. Out of interest what time did the camera and support crew get back down at with all the heavy kit?

Cheers Ron

In reply to streapadair:

You've done it again. Every time you post a link to your SmugMug gallery I have to write-off about an hour's work

In reply to Ron Walker:

Hi Ron, I think Alastair did manage to retrieve all the gear, or there might have been just one bit missing.

For high quality HD pictures you still need big cameras with good glass, so Keith's camera was a standard Sony broadcast unit, weighing about 15kg. The sound equipment is also pretty heavy.

The only part of the film that wasn't filmed on a big camera was when Nick and Al Hinkes were on the summit of Bidean. The film crew wasn't able to follow because of the wintry conditions. Al filmed that on a little handicam thing. Picture quality was surprisingly good, but the sound was awful.

On the In Pinn day we had two HD cameras, sound equipment (including radio mikes and boom mike), director's monitor, a hefty tripod, walkie-talkies, rope access stuff, plus the usual mountaineering kit, food and more than 15l of water!

We got back to the Sligachan about 10.30pm - a long day.

Some more behind the scenes pictures here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/outdoors/galleries/mountainman/

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan: Watched this last night (recording of the BBC HD broadcast). really enjoyed the entire show. entertaining, educational and just jolly good really...

Andy

In reply to chris_s: Thanks for the background info Chris, really interesting stuff. =o)

In reply to highaltitudebarista:

No problem