UKC

We recently came upon some delightful archive footage of people enjoying a day out at Stanage Edge in 1946-1949, produced by William Gordon Gregory. Featuring hemp ropes, plimsolls, Tricounis and Clinkers, this silent film shows post-war climbing in the Peak District to be vastly different to our modern-day mix of dynamic ropes, sticky rubber and cams...

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In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant loved that. Shame it's silent, some narration in Mr.Colmondley-Warner style would have been great. Two questions:
- what's the deal with that sheep?
- as somebody who came into climbing when sticky rubber was already well established (Fire's), can somebody tell me were nailed boots genuinely better than plimsolls on damp rock, or was it just resistance to change?

Cheers

In reply to UKC News:

Especially nice that it's in color.
The various camera angles make it a watchable film.
Belaying the lead climber as shown is rather questionable and in case of a fall of the leader would undoubtly result in tragedy. Thy should not fall! Still a good advise when it comes to Alpine climbing or scrambling steep terrain.

In reply to UKC News:

That ram looks familiar, was he in Johnny's Best Forgotten Art video?

In reply to Adrian Daniels:

Ya he was. I knew I recognised him.

In reply to Adrian Daniels:
Yes, I recognised the star of " Best Forgotten Art"! It was clips from this and the Aurthur Dolphin footage that helped make Best Forgotten Art the finest climbing film yet made....I thought.

In reply to Shapeshifter:

Anyone else had problems playing the film?

In reply to Christheclimber:

Yes

In reply to Christheclimber:

Yes, won't open.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Even from the photo you can see the huge amount of damage that nailed boots did to grit in the pretty short time after keepering relaxed. This is almost certainly where most of the modern polish on Stanage came from.

In reply to Offwidth:

Indeed. Ditto Idwal Slabs etc.

In reply to UKC News:

I love the bit at around 8 mins where he tops out, unties, balances on one leg right on the edge while flipping the rope around a small ear, then abs off it. Today's safety police would be having kittens.
Kudos for the free hanging classic ab though, and without gloves too. Probably just as well lycra hadn't been invented!

In reply to UKC News:

Remember climbing like that in the sixties, although slings had been invented by then. Interesting that the Overhand has made a comeback.
I reckon you can't call yourself a climber until you can perform a classic freehanging dulfer abseil in shorts.

In reply to Pete Pozman:


It'd certainly reduce the coolness factor of the guy in black hot pants, somewhat.

In reply to john arran:

John, I am happy that Lycra didn’t exist while making an old fashioned rappel, lot of heat. It would have melted. Still we got a lot of holes in our cloth on the shoulder from belaying (and also from rappelling where the cornichon is).

Imagine that one of our fathers was climbing (à tête = leading) in espadrilles and a thin hemp rope a French 6a. Des alpinistes sont habitué à prendre des risques. (Alpinists are used taking risks.) Later: we had a fancy rope (corde Joanny) also around the middle, big boots, run outs of 25 meters, 6c. Those were the days.

Keep climbing.

In reply to Christheclimber:

I had to reload the page to get it to play.

In reply to stp:

Got it to play on my PC but it wouldn't play on my iPad