UKC

I have noticed a climber with the same (and quite rare) surname as me given a first ascent in 1973 on a climb in Rockfax Eastern grit at Froggatt,and also at malham in 1972, I was wondering if anyone on the site knows anything about this climber. I believe he also wrote articles in Extreme magazine. Any other info would be helpful.

In reply to Georgie Syrett: Hi Georgie, here is an article I found on him. If you mess around on Google you will find alsorts.

http://www.ilkley.org/iguide/rock.htm

In reply to Georgie Syrett:
I think that he was a very talented ex-gymnast climber who commited suicide after an accident at a party ended his climbing (he jumped off Malham).
Although I may be thinking of someone else.

In reply to Kev Wynne: Thats John, very sad. Cut his tendons on a broken beer glass and never seemed to recover from it. Did some amazing solos, including some on Cloggy afterwards but he was very depressed about how his technical standard was reduced. There must have been more than that surely. Jumped off the top of Malham Cove, that is not just a 'cry for help' somebody who posts on here, I cant remember who, found his body.

In reply to Georgie Syrett: I never met him but he used to climb with my old man alot back in the early 70's. He was a very good climber who put up alot of hard routes in around Yorkshire where he was from. He was one of the best climbers around in the UK at that time.

If you look in the history section of the Yorkshire Gritstone guide you will find his name crops up alot. He also did alot on Limestone aswell I think.

Where is Syrett's Saunter?

The Ent

In reply to Georgie Syrett:

Good friend of mine, and my brother John's main climbing partner 1969-71. I had an alpine season with him in 1972. A very talented climber. Steve Dean wrote an article for High or Climber about him about 5 years ago which used a lot of my brother's photos, and one or two of mine.

But, as others have suggested, do a proper search here and on Google for more information.

In reply to James Kitson:

I think your father was cutting edge climber as well, if you climb half as hard you are doing well.

In reply to Enty:

Syrett's saunter is at Caley. Syrett's roof is at Almscliff. There are probably a whole load more...

In reply to James Kitson: Are you Pete Kitson's son then?

In reply to Cosmic John: Thats a cool 'yes' then, regards to Pete if you see him.
Al

In reply to Al Evans:

John was slightly before my time but you get some idea of the man by trying to repeat his routes, surely his greatest epitaph. He must have been a fine and courageous climber. Al can perhaps add flesh to this, but the story went that he was an unknown VS climber who spent one winter training intensively at the Leeds (Uni.) wall and emerged to claim the third ascent of Wall of Horrors at Almcliff. This would have been the equivalent of something like Equilibrium now. This might have been first time training on an artificial wall was successfully transferred to high standard rock-climbing, which makes him a quite a revolutionary figure with the benefit of hindsight.

In reply to duncan: I did an early ascent of one of his routes, Propeller Wall at Ilkley. He had graded it VS, it was absolutely desperate, I think its now something like E2, this is from a failing memory and I dont have the guide to hand, but I think what I'm saying is true!

In reply to Al Evans:

It actually went up to E5 but that is probably a bit excessive now by modern stardards. It's still realistically E3/4 for the on-sight.

I knew John quite well and climbed with him and and the LU team in the early 70s. John was a great guy and one of the most promising young climbers around at the time. It was a very sad day when he died in such tragic circumstances. He fell/jumped? (I think it was an open verdict) after spending the night on the Terrace Wall ledge, just below one of his best routes Midnight Cowboy.

Dave

In reply to Georgie Syrett: There is a photo in Extreme Rock of John on first ascent of The Big Greeny at Armscliffe, remember it on front of climbing mag in 70's as well, inspired me in my youth

In reply to duncan:

He was an extremely talented, total natural on the rock. The most impressive I personally saw before Johnny Dawes.

>Al can perhaps add flesh to this, but the story went that he was an unknown VS climber who spent one winter training intensively at the Leeds (Uni.) wall and emerged to claim the third ascent of Wall of Horrors at Almcliff.

Roughly right. He wasn't a VS climber at all, in that he'd never climbed on real rock.

John (my brother) got to know him at the wall, and persuaded him to go out on grit. I think his very first day out was about Nov 69 on a Freshers trip to the Roaches, when my brother led him up The Sloth in snowy conditions. He then just took to it like a duck to water.

I think that John S did Wall of H that very November. He rapidly became obsessed with it as the 'last great' grit challenge at that time, and he was determined to do it on sight.

My brother was somewhat stunned I think when Syrett suddenly came round to his hall of residence (I think on November 5th) and said he was going to do it - there was a huge gale blowing!

My brother belayed him, but also managed to take a whole series of shots - well there were no runners until the difficulties were over, so there was nothing much more for John to do than take photos. Several of these were published in Rocksport at the time, and reproduced in Steve Dean's article in Climber about 5 years ago. Most amazing one is (published also in 69/70) is of Syrett at the crux with no runners and the rope blowing in a fantastic arc in the wind.

>This would have been the equivalent of something like Equilibrium now. This might have been first time training on an artificial wall was successfully transferred to high standard rock-climbing, which makes him a quite a revolutionary figure with the benefit of hindsight.

He was regarded as quite a revolutionary guy at the time, as a matter of fact

We (my brother, myself, John S and Tim James) then spent a month in Snowdonia in August 70 climbing together; then as I mentioned before, I had an Alpine season of a month with him in August 72. We had quite a few good days, and one huge epic on the Aiguille du Peigne that I'm sure I've talked about before. It culminated, in the dark, at the end of a very long abseil retreat, with John daringly leaping off the mountain into a steep snow gully - with our head torches turned off, which were by then far too weak to see anything much, you could just see a faint sign of snow far below. Looked like about 100 ft to me. But it worked, and I had no choice but to follow. It still felt like a long, long way. I think it was at least 30-35? feet - I mean it actually seemed like quite a while I was falling - but the snow was incredibly soft: I went into it up to about my chest. Most brilliant exit I've ever made from a mountain. Otherwise we would have had to spend the night there. (There were no suitable peg or nut placements for a final abseil.)

In reply to Dave Musgrove:

He jumped, Dave. Had the whole thing planned in advance, it seems.

In reply to Al Evans: That's me. Did you know know him? Will tell him you said hello anyway.

i climbed with john in 1978 after his tendon injury and its a myth that it significantly held him back. he had to wear a split on his in injured fingers when he was'nt climbing as they tended to curl as the tendon's were shortened due to scar tissue.john went on to train as physio up in newcasle and did new routes and some early repeats in northumberland.
at the time of his death he was depressed about a collegue who was killed alongside while he was working on the oil rigs.he was also drinking heavily,he'd always tended to be a bout drinker.ie not drink for months then go on a bender for a few weeks.

In reply to Georgie Syrett:
John's crack in the Box Hole Quarry at Baildon Bank will sort out the modern crop of climbers! It was said John's biggest problem was that he just didn't know who his friends were - hence the drift off to Northhumberland. However the locals there fondly recount amazing tales of his ascents of vicious routes in terrible conditions. He remains an enigma and I can remember going climbing with him and Ken Wood when John just seemed to try to be invisible all day.
The question of whether Livesey could have stopped him going off to the cliff that night remains. Pete certainly wasn't at the funeral.

In reply to Mike Hammill:

Shortly before Pete's diagnosis of cancer, I was recounted the John Syrett 'suicide' story by Pete's (then) next door neighbour. I got the impression that Pete had no idea he was suicidal at all - John just turned up at Pete's house in Malham after being turfed out of the local pub(s), rambled drunkenly for a while and then disappeared into the night to be found next morning at the bottom of the cove. The usual caveat about this being a story at second hand obviously applies, so all we have is the coroner's report and specualtion. A very sad end, both John and Pete, whom I never met in the end despite climbing with his next door neighbour.
As ever with these things, the routes they leave behind are their real testiment, perhaps even more so then the stories we can recount about them.

James.

In reply to James Rowe:

That's what I heard. I'm sure that it was Mike Hammill above who told me when he picked my girlfriend and myself hitchhiking when he was on this way back from the funural.

Also heard he had a bottle of whiskey with him at the top of the Cove. I was there in the morning when they found his body.

Mick

In reply to James Kitson:

I knew your father in passing, in the days I was climbing with John Syrett. Your father, Alan Manson and John were the supreme boulderers in Yorkshire in the early 70's. And we would all meet up at the Leeds University climbing wall about once a week. Eons ago, and yet not!

John

In reply to Mike Hammill:

Good to hear of you after these years. The story we all heard about John's last night with Livesey was that they were talking most of the night, with Livesey not having the slightest clue that John was intending to end it all. The story was that he had a rucksack with him with nothing in it except whiskey, i.e. several bottles.

John