UKC

In the late 1980s, a chance coming together of parts of the Leeds caving/cave diving scene and the Sheffield climbing scene started a climbing partnership that has lasted 31 years, spanned many continents, and created some memorable lines on Scottish winter cliffs and beyond. Malcolm Bass (53) and Simon Yearsley (56) both have full-time family relationships, and full-time professional careers: Malcolm as an NHS Clinical Psychologist, and Simon running his two businesses in Highland Perthshire, Big Tree Campervans and The Scottish Deli.

Tom Ripley interviews Malcolm Bass and Simon Yearsley to dig up their dirty secrets and find out what they really think of one another...

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Sod the climbing, what a lovely friendship!

Great article Tom. And I know what Simon means about Scugdale from my one visit there - high enough to be terrifying boulder problems but being there with a mate who has done lots of them before telling you to just get on with it and his teenage daughter who rarely climbs had done that one on a post Xmas-lunch family walk and boulder. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

I met the team once and chatted briefly one very early winter morning in a Lake District carpark. Not sure if it was Simon or Malcolm I spoke with, but I only realised that it was the Bass/Yearsley dream team when I saw the names pop up in the UKC winter ascents lists near ours.