In August 2016 a team of German climbers visited Hoy. The group consisted of one of the best photographers and filmmakers of the German climbing scene, Nico Altmaier of VerticalAxis, Thomas 'Shorty' Tauporn with his wife Selina and Markus Urbanowski. After 19 hours of travel, they arrived on Mainland and from here travelled to their main objective: The Old Man of Hoy.
I guess they are trying to show how radical trad climbing is, but it is something that I did when I was up there as the thing was looming large over an intended route.
Speaking of looming blocks, there's one at the top of the Old Man Original Route P5 corner that I'm convinced is a (pretty bad) accident waiting to happen. You step on it to get back to the belay point.
I also saw a shot in the film from the Needle - wonder if they got up it?
A strangely unsatisfying film! What was climbed? What grade? New route?
And the sound effects ... the constant whistling wind throughout, never changes with the shots, obviously added later. And sorry guys, but that massive foghorn sound coming from the tiny fishing boat really made me laugh.
Shame really, because the trip certainly looked as though it had the potential for a good film.
I thought the camera work was excellent and I agree about the wind noise and the horn but what the hell - Scotland seems to exert a mystical attraction over our continental friends so let them come and see how lucky we are!
Fri Night Vid Finding Focus - Life Behind The Lens of a Climbing Photographer
This week's Friday Night Video is a portrait of a prolific climbing photographer from Wedge Climbing. Sam Pratt is well known in both the outdoor and competition scene but if you haven't heard of him, you've likely seen...