UKC

In tonight's quite frankly AWESOME Friday Night Video we see British alpinist and artist Andy Parkin reflect on making the first ascent of the seminal ice and mixed route Beyond Good and Evil on the Aiguille des Pelerins in Chamonix.

After several abortive attempts, and despite fragile and terribly thin ice conditions, Andy completed the route in 1992 with Mark Twight and it remains a benchmark for high-end alpine climbers to this day.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=69214

In reply to UKC News:

Absolutely brilliant video, and great page on the Millet site. Loving it.

Jack

In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant video!

In reply to UKC News:

Excellent and oh so scary,


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Very scary, at the end I looked at one of the other videos "on the page" and watched this base jumping video...

youtube.com/watch?v=YfG4s96V0NM&

There is some pleasant climbing shots of the Grand Capucin, as well as lots of great views of the alps.. the stuff in between perhaps something to consider when you have a terminal illness and are going to die any way, jibber, jibber...

In reply to UKC News:

Fantastic video of a legendary route!

In reply to UKC News:

Really good video, a perfect Friday Night Vid!

In reply to UKC News:

Great video. Really enjoyed that. Best in a while.

In reply to UKC News:

I climbed this with Dave Rudd back in 2002, much less snow and ice, dry cracks for gear.

Nice to see it's still 'up there'

Stuart

In reply to Stuart the postie:

What Scottish grade Postie?

In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant and inspiring. Normally so used to seeing top climbers cruise up routes effortlessly in this kind of film, so seeing the repeated slips down the crack really gave it a sense of danger and difficulty!

In reply to TobyA:

Hi Toby,

VII,7 in our money. We also never did last 2 pitches, don't think they were there or something like that??

Stuart

In reply to Stuart the postie:

Nice one. I presume you guys must have been one of the earlier ascents as well? I'm sure I've read about it being climbed more regularly only over the last five years or so.

In reply to TobyA:

It got hammered in 2002 and this included a few British teams. We backed off from above the main corner pitches just before the Rouse Carrington finish that the vast majority were taking that year.... definitely my fault rather than Joel's as I was crap! It was already much less serious by then as Babanov [I think] had bolted some of the belays in his attempt to solo it. We were overtaken on the day we attempted it by Kenton and Jon Bracey who did it off the first lift with a late finish from what I remember. Nick Bullock and Dave Hunter as well as Tim Emmett did it a few weeks later. Amongst the international hordes Prezelj and Koch made a very fast ascent in what for those guys were definitely thin but 'easy' conditions.

In reply to UKC News:

Wow! That looks like death on a stick in places! Amazing film though,

In reply to RBK:

Sounds like we did the same as yourselves, we had done Carrington/Rouse a few seasons previously.

It was Kenton who told us about it on his return (shared house with Dave). Knew Tim had also done it before us, think Jules & one of the Bensons too?? On way down bumped into John Varco & Sue Knott on their way to do it.

I felt pretty chuffed, awesome line.

Stuart

In reply to RBK:

Ps. Forgot to say, I also remember a bolt on the first leaning corner pitch, remember thinking WTF, why are these here..... I chose not to clip any, would have detracted from my ascent!

Stuart

In reply to Stuart the postie:
Unfortunately I hadn't done the Carrington Rouse but I think Joel had so knew what was coming, I was already fairly close to being out of my depth without trying to climb VI7 in the dark.

I don't mind admitting it was something close to a religious experience for me at the time, I was 22 and slightly obsessed with Extreme Alpinism and Kiss or Kill. There was a moment high up on the final corner pitch where I'd matched tools on an ice blob and looked back down, I was fairly sure life was never going to get much better!

It was actually Tim Emmett's first alpine route, he later complained that he hadn't been able to get enough weight on his arms.....

In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant stuff. I'm not familiar with the background regarding the skull and crossbones and claims that the second ascent followed a different line. Does anyone have a link which would enlighten me?

In reply to duncan b:

I might be wrong but I think that after the 40m ice pitch Andy and Mark went direct up for another 15m or so and then headed over right. Nowadays you can avoid this dog leg by taking a diagonal line. Crucially though I think you have to remember that back then the winters were a whole lot colder and dryer than nowadays. Talking to Andy you get an interesting insight in to how different conditions were back then compared to what we get nowadays. The first ascent and attempts of Beyond were done in such dry conditions that we'd call them 'out of condition' nowadays. For example the 40m ice pitch which tends to be pretty amenable nowadays was really scary back on the first attempts/ascent- very dry, big falls, very hard to protect.

As is so often the case with climbs like this, if you find them in 'good' condition then it's really pretty straight forward. It's the difference between 80 degree ice which is pretty straight forward and 80 degree slabs with loose rock for pro. I'm not entirely sure if the skull and crossbones pitch is because they went somewhere different (i.e. straight up and then traversed) or whether it's because when they climbed this diagonal pitch it was just bone dry and therefore ridiculously blank and scary and run out.

Either way I'm not sure if its ever had a repeat in original conditions, they were a bit tougher back then!
J

In reply to Jon Griffith:

Cheers Jon. That makes sense.