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NEW ARTICLE: Saturday Dave Looks Back

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 UKC Articles 18 Nov 2010
Nick Estcourt, 1978, 3 kbA nostalgic look back on the climbing scene centring on the Nick Estcourt Outdoor Sports shop in Altrincham in the late 1970s.

"...His mates comprised the so-called Altrincham All-Stars, a band of climbing legends including Chris Bonington (who had moved away before I took up climbing), Martin Boysen, Dave Potts, Dave Pearce and even Ken Wilson..."

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=2858

 Mick Ward 18 Nov 2010
In reply to UKC Articles:

Lovely stuff!

Mick
 lummox 18 Nov 2010
In reply to UKC Articles: That was great- thanks.
 pneame 18 Nov 2010
In reply to UKC Articles:
Excellent. Lasso pitch on White Slab without the lasso. Not bad at all. I spent a good 30 minutes faffing around there....
In reply to UKC Articles: Interesing read bringing back early memories. I had the honour to be taken under the wing of Cookie as an impressionable teenager. For two years he mentored me, always encouraging, always informative, and a pleasure to know. I took part in a final fling gritstone weekend with him before he departed for pastures new in London, knocking off a series of classics with him. Got in touch with him twenty years later at a party, the old rapport was still there and that was it until I picked up the Guardian one day and read his obituary. He went way too soon.
In reply to unclesamsauntibess: I best remember him for that eponymous photo in Ron James' Rock Climbing in Wales of him on White Slab, tousled hair blowing in the breeze, as he was in an almost silhouette pose in the middle of pitch two I think. He was 19 at the time he always reminded me. That became my benchmark and I did it not long after, when I was 20.
 fimm 18 Nov 2010
In reply to UKC Articles:

I enjoyed the article, thank you.

<pedant mode>
paragraph 7 missing word,
"Ken Wilson, whose climbing never <?reached> the heights attained by the others but who was a Boswell to their collective Dr Johnson."

paragraph 9 missing word and repeated words
" (Of the three Daves, it's really sad to think that I'm the only <?one> of the three Daves to be still alive: ... "

paragraph 13 typo
"One time, I hitchhiked bag from Wales" back I assume
</pedant mode>
elcidcampeador 18 Nov 2010
In reply to fimm: Well-spotted. I read the piece umpteen times and still you miss the typos. Dave
 pec 18 Nov 2010
In reply to UKC Articles: An interesting read, especially as I briefly worked at the shop myself, although a good while after yourself (1990).
Nice to find out what happened to some of the Altrincham allstars I didn't know about. I don't see much evidence of other climbers in the town, I wonder if I'm the only one!
The shop became a Nevisport a few years ago and is closed altogether now.
The Altrincham wall (built by Dave Pearce et al) is still there but has been closed to the public for a few years as well, I think its used as a broom cupboard or suchlike now!

Jim Moran worked in the shop while I was there, anybody know if he's still climbing these days?
 neilh 19 Nov 2010
In reply to UKC Articles:
Frightening becauce I think I can just about remember you, as I lived in Altrincham at that time. You briefly joined the club that I was in - Manchester Mountaineering Cub - which met in a pub off deansgate in manchester.
 Dave Foster 19 Nov 2010
In reply to UKC Articles: Quite a meloncholic read, a good reminder to really appreciate the regular adventures with like minded mates before other commitments begin to close in!
 Chris Craggs Global Crag Moderator 20 Nov 2010
In reply to UKC Articles:

I enjoyed it a lot and remember quite a few of the characters despite being from 'the other side of the hill'.

The description of Cratcliffe is a bit odd mind; "Cratcliffe Tor, that beetling lump of rock that rises out of the inhospitable Derbyshire moorland" - it is surrounded by woods and farmland on all sides.


Chris

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