This week's Friday Night Video is Don Whillans and Joe Brown's last climb together in 1985. The pair tackle Cemetery Gates on Dinas Cromlech, 33 years after they made the first ascent.
Whillans was an apprentice plumber when he and Brown started climbing together in 1951. They met at the Roaches when Brown's climbing partner failed to second him up a new route. Don shouted up asking if he could try and went on to lead the second pitch of the route which Brown named Matinee (HVS 5b).
Whillans sadly died shortly after this was filmed but left a massive legacy of climbs from The Peak District and Snowdonia, to Patagonia and the Himalaya.
Comments
This is probably nit-picking but didn't he actually die on Cloggy climbing a route with Bill Peascod? Heart attack on a stance if I remember correctly.
Other way round - Bill Peascod had the heart attack and died on the first pitch of Great Slab just after Don had led it. Don then died in his sleep a few months later.
I like the Brown /Whillans video but I enjoyed the Bonigton /Peascod episode of Lakeland Rock a lot more.
I seem to remember them actually using socks and combined tactics and I'm pretty sure Bill used the F word at one point, not really the done thing in 1980s documentaries ( not that I am endorsing profanity on the crag in any way, shape or form...)
Edit: just watched a shortened version again on You Tube. Excellent stuff, well filmed and some nice insights, particularly his wife's reported comment about his painting. The bit where he really was in extremis was edited out, which is a pity .
If you've never done Eagle Front it doesn;t show the route in the best light but don't let that put you off.
Thanks - at least I got the crag right!
You Tube also has Whillans and Bonington doing Dovedale Groove , Pt 2 of Lakeland Rock I think.
Once again it's pretty riveting stuff: Bonington leads it in plimsolls using a Viking No4 tied round his waist, and regrets his choice of footwear high on the route, a muttered expletive being quite audible.
Whillans just about copes but I suspect he would have succumbed to a heart attack topping out if he'd seen the spike belay that his leader supposedly brought him up on.
Never been there but it looks like a frighteningly steep crag for antics like this!