UKC

On 5th February 2018 Colin Goodey passed away. A true pioneer of North Wales climbing, Colin began his new routing career as far back as 1947, by developing his local crag - The Great Orme - many years before it actually became popular.

Colin leaves behind a series of climbs that transformed a previously inaccessible areas into places that everyone could enjoy. Calum Muskett recounts some of his own memories and experiences of life with Colin.

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In reply to UKC News:

Very sad news indeed. I had the privilege to meet Colin and Sue and climb with him in the late 1970s as I was renting a flat in the Towers at the time. I can vividly remember climbing Mojo at Craig y Forwyn with him as he very briefly gave me a lot of unwanted slack after I asked him to watch the rope on the traverse. We met again at Tremadog's Craig y Castell some years later; he was there with Sue and their daughter Delyth (aka 'the rock dancer's daughter'.) True to form, he pointed us at the first pitch of Tarantula as a better start to Tantalus, saying it was grossly overgraded and a 'piece of piss'. A little later I could hear him laughing at all the squawking going on about the lack of holds on the slab. Yes, very funny indeed......

I followed his bolting exploits in the slate quarries with great interest and later on had a couple of memorable balmy October days in Dali's Hole climbing Colin's routes side by side with Joe Brown, who was there climbing on his birthday two years running. Joe wasn't very complimentary about sport climbing in general despite clearly really enjoying himself. He very dryly dismissed Colin's bolting as  the product of 'a hyperactive pensioner who has more money than sense'. Colin had sense though and it was a shame that his efforts to provide easy sport routes at Dali's were later abused and the bolts removed as a result.

Lovely tribute by Callum and I really enjoyed the video. It brought back some fond memories and it was nice to see that the self-effacing sense of humour still remained.

In reply to UKC News:

Despite living in North Wales for over 10 years I never met Colin, which is something that I'm actually quite sad about as I've heard so many stories about him. They say never meet your heroes, but here is a real life hero that I'm pretty sure would have excelled all expectations had you have met him in person.

What I find particularly fascinating about Colin is his open-mindedness and how he moved with the times. It is easy to get stuck in the past and fixated on a perceived 'golden age', but Colin - from the outside looking in - just seemed to live the golden age. Do What You Can Now is aptly named not least for his approach to climbing, but also his approach life. Were there to be a philosophy to live your life by I think you do worse than live it by this.

 

 

In reply to UKC News: I am lucky to have a few great memories of Colin, nowhere near as many as others but enough to bring a smile to my face every time I think about him.

My condolences to Sue and his family. 

 

In reply to UKC News:

Beautiful film, thanks.

In reply to UKC News:

Apart from Castle Inn I think he was responsible for the newer bolted routes in Bus Stop. One of life's characters. RIP Colin.

 

In reply to UKC News:

Beautiful movie, thanks.

 

The film mentions 42 FAs I think, anyone have the full list? I noticed a ticklist added today but it only has a few so far (https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=2409). A couple of articles mention a few more (http://www.v12outdoornews.co.uk/2010/08/17/colin-goodey-adds-more-new-slate...)

In reply to UKC News:

 

I climbed with Colin in the 70’s mainly at Craig y Forwyn when the University climbing club was putting together the first route descriptions.  A fond memory after tea at his house  was spending a warm barmy evening in the quarry above his house in Llanfairfechan repeating his  ascents (later claimed as first ascents by others). We lost touch when I moved from the area then crossed paths in the slate quarries in 2010 after I moved back . A warm, kind, generous soul who contributed so much to the younger generation. Will be sadly missed. Sincere condolences to Sue.

Dave Peers

 

In reply to Michael Bortoluzzi:

Funnily enough it was me that created that tick-list, but promptly removed it after one user (rightly) highlighted that access negotiations to Craig y Forwyn are currently taking place and it might not be a wise time for us to be seen actively promoting going there.

Still, with that caveat in mind I'll leave the tick-list up for another day when the access issues are (hopefully) resolved. If anyone has any other routes they wish adding please let me know. I was planning to go with a greatest hits approach rather than an exhaustive list, but if folk would like a full FA list by all means send what you've got across.

In reply to UKC News:

He was a lovely enthusiastic man, and a snappy dresser. Did a lot for North Wales climbing. You could bump into him in all sorts of places.

In reply to UKC News:

Much saddened to hear of Colin's passing. Harder to accept as I'd been in contact with him only recently. He started climbing at Castle Inn in 1958 with friends and as late as 2011 he was still putting up some much needed lower grade sport routes. They were so popular that people were queueing up waiting for him to finish! He had a tremendous climbing career over 70 years and if its any consolation he certainly got the most out of a very long life. He only stopped climbing and new routing when he was no longer capable of doing it. Such a gentleman and a lovely man. Very sad. Condolences to Sue and family.

In reply to UKC News:

I met Colin several times. First time was on the slate, where he showed me round all his recently climbed routes and left me with his phone number and e mail for future reference The next time was in Penmaenbach last but one level where was cleaning and bolting Pendulum corner,one of his many excellent contributions. We kept in touch by e mail until recently.

Colin was not only a first rate climber, but a really nice guy, unassuming and never one to speak of his achievements. He will be sorely missed.

My condolences to his family

RIP Colin

 

 

In reply to UKC News:

I only said hello once, briefly, from halfway up one of his CIQ routes, so don't have any real anecdotes, but owe a great debt of gratitude as without Colin Goodey (and more  lately the Lloyd Jones clan) there would be (surprisingly) few low grade sport routes in North Wales. 

My first sport lead, my daughter's first supervised lead, and her first leads without me present were all CG routes. 

Let's hope we can regain access to the Craig y Forwyn main cliff as a lasting legacy.