UKC

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4162070/Brit-defeats-worlds-tough...

Are they a bit behind or what?

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Disappointed. I thought it was going to be about Lighthouse Arete at night.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

"with ropes used just to prevent falls."

Protect falls surely? Unless he also clinched the record for Britain's longest top route as well as longest sea cliff climb!

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

this is a great picture

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01462/CLIFF-CLIMB-532_1462032a.j...

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Also at no point was the phrase "sheer rock face" used, shoddy journalism.

In reply to winhill: as is the other one. i reckon he should go climbing with alex

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Of course, if he wanted to guarentee better media coverage, he should have climbed with a baby on his back.

In reply to Double Knee Bar: HAHA! I thought it would link to James Pearsons walk of life!!!!

In reply to argyle_dude: why use sheer when you can use overhanging?

In reply to subalpine:
I think the Sun pays writers by the word not the column inch, so shorter words earn more money

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

What is it about the tabloids and climbing stories this year? There seems to be a "Death defying brit conquers X" story every couple of weeks at the moment.

In reply to davidbeynon:
What is it about the tabloids and climbing stories this year? There seems to be a "Death defying brit conquers X" story every couple of weeks at the moment.

The Sun hacking UKC perhaps or that recent surveys have suggested climbing is cool and sexy or maybe they know they'll stir up a lot of comment on websites?

In reply to davidbeynon: Per aspera ad astra

In reply to Reach>Talent:

Isn't that just to keep the Flesch Kincaid score down? In this case down to 60

In reply to Double Knee Bar: Every time someone uses words like "defeat" and "conquer" in relation to climbing a little bit of me dies. Rather the mountain/climb looked on me generously this time.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Not just the Sun.

I was told it was in the Mail today.

In reply to Colin Moody:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108121/Fearless-adventurer-tackles...

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Still nice to see a couple of photos I hadn't seen before

In reply to womblesi:

Love the comment, "why did he put he put his helmet on when he got to the top?"
Why indeed?

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Some great comments (from The Sun site, I can't face the Mail one at the moment).

Some of my favourites :-

"Whats the big deal? He has all the saftey systems in place. People do this without saftey ropes all over the world."

"... if he ends up getting stuck or somthing who has to risk their lives saving him? you're the closed minded one here..."

In reply to Postmanpat:

That's quite a good question.......

In reply to Postmanpat: Same reason he put on a full skirt of Camalots from the look of the helmet logo

In reply to Mike Lates:

Good point!

In reply to argyle_dude:

And surely the correct unit of measure for height is the double-decker bus or the Eifel Tower?

Y.

In reply to Kipper:

The guy/girl who posted this is a complete tw@t and I have happily told them to go and learn about climbing before talking crap!!

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

I love the way Dave seems to have taken it upon himself to explain the difference between free climbing and free soloing, bit of a bugbear that one. Nice one Dave for sorting it!

In reply to Daniel Heath:


Sadly the Photo of him with a small child unsecured and also not wearing a Helmet was removed....

In reply to Double Knee Bar:
"He should crap on a seagulls head while he's up there!"

amazing comment

In reply to Kipper: Somebody on the mail has managed the "what's he done on grit" question - respect

In reply to Michael Hood:

Also now in the Mirror - edited (badly) a bit from the other two.

ALC

A lot of these articles appear at the same time because the articles are written by syndicated agencies who dispatch them to news agencies, newspapers and magazines at the same time. I don't think they are copying from each other. I worked with one of the agencies recently and they explained to me how it's done.

In reply to Escher: Dave was also mentioned on the Today programme on R4 this morning.

In reply to Escher: On the whole I thought it wasn't a bad bit of reporting the the tabloid press(especially The Sun). Though I wish they had been less scathing about the first ascent
"It was first climbed in the 70s but that was by people with plenty of safety systems in place."

No they didn't, unlike this albeit brilliant acheivement, it was climbed on sight, as was the first route up the face , The Original Route, what were these 'plenty of safety systems in place'?

In reply to womblesi: Bit of a typo in the title of the Mail one:

'and takes time out at at 500ft to admire the view'

In reply to Red Rover: Plus the usual 'leave the to die rather than spending taxpayers money on rescue' comments from the armchair cowards.

In reply to a lakeland climber:

In the Star today.

In reply to Double Knee Bar: Hahahaha, typical sun.
1) Ropes don't stop you falling.
2) It isn't the highest sea cliff in the UK.
3) It isn't Daves "upper body strength" that makes him one of Scotlands top climbers.
... and there are probably more but I just realised I am reading the Sun so I need to go wash my brain with lye.

In reply to henwardian:

Also pretty sure that The route he chose to climb has been nicknamed the long hope route because of its difficulty. is a pile of bollocks too. Wasnt it named in honour of the 8 crew of the Longhope lifeboat who had perished a year or two before?

In reply to Jamie Bankhead: It certainly was, we went to visit the memorial site when we did the first ascent. Ed wanted to call that the Longhope Route but we decided it wasn't grand enough, so Ed returned to do a more fitting tribute.

In reply to winhill:

and isn't it amazing how he managed to climb up the only bit that wasn't covered in lichen

Did Dave solo this route?

In reply to Mike Lates:

Is it me but is the picture at the base of the crag of Andy Turner and Dave Mcleod at St John's Head by Lukasz Warzecha/Caters News Agency photoshopped?.....

In reply to Allan Thomson:

PMSl in addition to the What has he done on Grit comment...

"Everyone knows that Scottish grades are pish, and in Yorkshire that would just be E0...plus, how did he get the rope up first eh????
- nevisthecat, Skipton, 1/3/2012 0:50"

It also begs the question, did he use a sheep for the belay?.....

In reply to Allan Thomson: I think he used a flash to give it the odd look - if that's what you're talking about. Can't remember if I read that somewhere or if it was at his talk.

In reply to kwoods:

That might explain it, it certainly looks odd, they appear much sharper and lighter than the background. However they look totally out of proportion compared to the cliff as well. (queue the "these ones are small, but the other's are far away"...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbd3E6tK2U).... Perhaps he used tiny cows for his belay???....

In reply to Allan Thomson: I cracked up at that big time.

Are you sure the guy in the photo even is Dave Macleod?