A good start to the year

Well, it seems that 2012 has kicked off well for Hot Aches Productions. With The Long Hope under our belts, we’ve moved on to a couple of really exciting projects. As you may know, one of these is ‘Wide Boyz’, a film about Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall and their successes on Century Crack. 

It just so happens that Pete and Tom have been awarded the Golden Piton for the Crack Climbing category. On top of this, Dave MacLeod has been handed the same award in the Tradtional Climbing category for The Long Hope route. 

This is great news for all three climbers, and we are incredibly excited and honoured to be documenting their successes.

With The Long Hope film in the can, it is great to end the project with such a prestigious award being given to Dave, and akin to this, it is brilliant to begin editing Wide Boyz, knowing that Pete and Tom have been commended in a similar way.

Rhapsody, the route Dave climbed in E11, earned him the same award for best traditional rock ascent back in 2006, so it's great to see him receive the award once more.

You can read more about the Golden Piton winners here.

Congratulations gentlemen!

13 Awards for E11

During the last couple of weeks our last film, E11, has continued to tour round the world and has now brought the collection up to 13 international awards.

In Poland at the Ladek Festival we picked up the "Culture Prize" for (roughly translated); "an interesting portrayal of the human condition"Then this weekend at Taos Mountain Film Festival in New Mexico we scooped the top prize; 'Best Of Festival'. Dave Brown, who had been in Colorado, was lucky enough to be able to drive down to attend the festival and collect the rather unusual award...
Also showing at Taos was the first outing for the new Sharma movie 'King Lines' (the first outing outside of the ReelRock Tour). No surprise that this great new movie went down really well and took the 'Best Climbing Film' award.

One of the special guests presenting this year was Sir Chris Bonington, covering 'The Everest Years'. I'm amazed to say that I dont think I have ever seen him lecture before. Quite odd that this first time will have been half way around the world from where we both live.

Taos. The adobe buildings of Toas town centre

...Oh, that 'unusual award'? Well. It was very flattering. But I think I will be more happy about it than Diff: A portrait worth $25,000(?) by artist Jack Smith.
I can't imagine that Diff will be particularly keen to have a painting of Dave Brown hanging on his wall. So I guess I get to keep this one. He can have the trophy from Poland.

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E11 will continue to tour a few more countries this autumn. But it looks like Taos will have been the last place that we will visit to present that film. Next week we premiere the new movie 'Committed' in Sheffield, England.

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Dave.

11th International Award for E11

E11 continues to pick up awards around the globe.

Most recently Best Climbing Film at Squamish, Canada, and then last week The Grand Prize "Grand Prix du Festival" at Festival International du Film des Diablerets, Switzerland.

E11 will continue to tour the world for the next 6 months. About 25 more festival screenings are programed at this stage in locations as far flung as Nepal, Bulgaria, China, USA, South America and also many in Western Europe.

E11 clip on the BBC

Some of you may well have noticed that there is a brief clip from E11 included in the BBC's trailer for 'Summer of Sport' that they are playing several times a day (all throughout the summer, I guess).

Mixed in with clips from lots of other TV sports, about halfway through there is a shot of Dave MacLeod's horrendous upside-down fall.

Dave MacLeod, mid-air, falling fast, upside-down and beanie flying (Taken from E11)

It is strange to have climbing included with mainstream sport on the TV. The reason? Well, on screen there is a clue. Text mentions a 'Live Climb broadcast'. Coming soon. (Hopefully there won't be any 70ft falls when that happens).

I'm not sure whether this trailer is running across the whole UK or just Scotland? Anyway, there is also a second brief climbing clip in it too which I think is of Scott Muir. Not sure if that is our footage or not. We filmed him in Austria 18 months ago and that was used on the TV, but I think the clip used is UK?

Scott Muir on Game Over, Drylands, Austria [hot aches images]

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Telluride - 9th International Film Award for E11

We are really pleased to have just received a further film award for E11, and a rather special one at that. This time from America's longest established mountain film festival at Telluride in the San Juan mountains of Colorado, USA.

The Charlie Fowler Climbing Film Award went to E11. Many of you will doubtless be aware of the death of Charlie Fowler and Chris Boskoff. Locals to the San Juan mountains they were prolific climbers, well known and highly respected throughout the international climbing community.

The background to this award:

Based on an idea by Charlie’s sister Ginny and her husband Maurie, Mountainfilm in Telluride is honored to announce the establishment of an annual Charlie Fowler Climbing Film Award. The cash award of $1,000 will be initiated at the 2007 Festival and will be announced by Charlie’s sister at the Closing Picnic & Awards Ceremony at Telluride Town Park on May 28, 2007.

Pic. Gus Gusciora

The film selected to receive the award would express a love for documenting remote exploration and climbing, exhibit an adventurous flair for filmmaking, and would include but not be limited to either first ascent attempts or a strong cultural thread throughout the piece. The hope is that the award will afford the winning filmmaker the opportunity to continue making climbing films, a cinematic genre that Charlie was very much a part of, either as the main talent or simply as part of the crew. This yearly tribute to a former member of the Mountainfilm Board of Directors and Advisory Board member until his death, a humanitarian, and one of the finest mountaineers in the world aligns with Mountainfilm’s idea that friends, adventure, passion,and powerful ideas are worth sustaining.

I was lucky enough to be out in Telluride to collect the award, as well as sneak in some jet-lagged sessions of climbing.

The DVD E11 is on sale throughout North America from many outdoor retailers and web shops, price $29,90

Retailers can contact Vista Cerro in USA for distribution.

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Dave

Dumbarton

Dumbarton Rock (Hot Aches Images)

We normally don’t write blog entries about climbers that we filming before they complete their projects. At that stage of proceedings it is kind of private and personal and it’s also not right to raise expectations (or invite a crowd).

However Sonnie Trotter has now written a bit about his current British trip on his blog and the ever-vigilant UK websites have picked up on it and written news reports, so I guess we can mention a few things.

Sonnie Trotter being molested by Leo Houlding last autumn in Banff, Canada. Robin Beatty (British musician) looking concerned.

We met Sonnie out in Canada last autumn when we were there with Dave MacLeod, and contrary to what one might expect there isn't rivalry between the ascentionists of North America and Britain’s hardest trad climbs. Quite the opposite, the guys were simply psyched about each others routes because of how good the climbing looks.

So it was great to hear recently that Sonnie was coming over to try Rhapsody. Unfortunately Sonnie’s arrival coincided with the end of the driest spell of weather in the UK for years.

So the Hot Aches crew were back over to Dumbarton. It was quite strange to be up on that headwall again. Fascinating too to see another climber working the complex sequences that we had filmed so much before.

Sonnie working the crux section on the top headwall with a very very long top rope.

Working the route during the brief occasions that the rain relented, Sonnie has been making great progress. Interesting also to see them round at Dave MacLeod's house studying the video and discussing the beta.

'You hold it like that!?' Trotter and MacLeod at Dumbarton

Certainly this is not the kind of route that even the best climbers would come and knock off in a couple of days. 'WORLD CLASS' he said, and on Sonnie’s blog he describes the crux as “NASTY hard, BRICK hard”.

Cory on belay duty

With no skin left and a poor weather forecast for the UK, Sonnie and his friends have headed off to Majorca for a bit of R&R. In fact I’ve just heard from him; “this place is unreal and it’s perfect, awesome, stunning, the best”. Perhaps he should have set out to repeat Sharma’s routes rather than MacLeod’s; a back drop of beaches and beautiful people rather than graffiti and rain. (Only joking, the man is psyched by Dumbarton too!)

Working the moves on Rhapody.

So hopefully some more Dumbarton action to follow in a few days and hopefully some decent weather. Meanwhile we are off to film in Glen Etive tomorrow, something quite special…

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Dave

8th International Award for E11

Bratislava

We're pretty chuffed that E11 has picked up another award. This time an international jury selected it as Best Climbing Film at "Hory a mesto - Mountains and City" Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia. I can't translate the judges comments so we're not quite sure what they made of it...

..But anyway, it's really good to see that British Trad climbing is being watched and appreciated around the world. Actually that is quite important seing as we will have soon devoted most of a year to making the new movie Committed... which also happens to be about British Trad climbing.

Whist we're on the subject of E11, a quick reminder the the Hot Aches E11 T shirt is now on sale through Dave MacLeod's webshop . In organic cotton it is available in both mens and womens cuts.

E11 T-Shirt Design

E11 Organic T-Shirts Now Available

Sarah Daniels modeling the new Hot Aches T-Shirt

The first item of Hot Aches clothing, an E11 T-Shirt is now available to buy from Dave MacLeod’s Shop.

The artwork for the back piece was designed by the Edinburgh based designer Helen Wyllie using a video frame taken from E11.

Video Frame Used for T-Shirt design

The design also incorporates lines of dialogue from the film. More details on our website. The front of the T-shirt has the ‘Hot Aches’ logo neatly embroidered on the left chest.

Back Piece Design

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North American DVD

A North American version (NTSC) of our E11 DVD is now available from our distributor Vista Cerro Productions.

To celebrate the launch of the DVD in North America we’ve produced a special comedy version of the trailer staring Timmy O’Neill.

You can watch it here.

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E11 Wins 7th Award

E11 has just won it's 7th award. This time at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival. The international jury awarded E11 The Katharine Anne Rae Award for Best Film on Rockclimbing.


I’m thrilled to win another major award for E11 , particularly at Vancouver as E11 was up against a lot of great films there this year, including films which have already won awards at other festivals.

All those days I spent hanging off the top of Dumbarton Rock after ringing in work sick, now seem more than worthwhile.

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E11 wins two more awards in Slovenia

This weekend saw the first Domžale-Ljubljana Mountain Film Festival.

All Pics Dejan Ogrinec

The festival screened over forty mountain films from around the world. Included in that line up were three films from Hot Aches Productions…

Fools With Tools
CaveWoman
E11

I met the festival director Silvo Karo in the bar at Kendal this year and he told me about his plans for the festival and asked if we would enter E11.

Silvo Karo is man smiling in the middle of the picture

From what I see and hear the first festival was a great success, I hope we can make it over there to this festival in future years.

An international panel of judges awarded E11 the Best Mountains Sports and Adventure Film Award. This is how the award was announced:

The Judges: Daniela Cecchin, Julie Summers, Ines Božič Skok, Michael Pause, Igor Likar

"The award for this category goes to a film that explores the limits of personality beyond belief, pain, stamina and life goals. There is a clear idea by the film maker to follow this climber in all aspects of his life, both internal and external as he makes a commitment to a difficult route on a local rock. His is a small world but his aims are universal. Using modern film techniques, narration, music and editing the film is entirely successful in addressing issues bigger than the climb itself – that of personal achievement. The film is E11."

In addition to the awards presented by the judges, the Alpine Association of Slovenia awarded their Best Alpine Climbing Film Award to E11.

You can see the full list of award winners here

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Diff

Also
Dave Brown was in Eastern Europe over the weekend and adds that
I met some Slovenian climbers involved with the festival and E11 certainly seems to have made a big impression. It is probably no coincidence that the film has done well in a country that also has such a strong tradition of trad climbing. I'm psyched to get out there to get out there myself on a climbing trip soon.



E11 On Sale
A lot of climbers in eastern europe were unaware that E11 is on sale on DVD. We don't have any distribution in arrangements in this part of the world, however the DVD can be purchased on-line at many websites, including direct from Dave MacLeod's own webshop.

MacLeod wins Golden Piton for Traditional Rock Climbing.

Climbing Magazine (USA) has named Dave MacLeod as the recipient of their prestigious annual Golden Piton Award for what they describe as “probably the hardest trad lead” on Rhapsody, E11 7a.

Dave MacLeod composing - prior to running it out on the upper section of Rhapsody E11 7a Photo Hot Aches Images

So huge congratulations to Dave. At Hot Aches we are obviously well acquainted with that route and very pleased that we could capture the whole process on film. The award is particularly pleasing because, in this slightly mixed up world of climbing, we, as film-makers, have won several awards for E11 but until now the most important person – the climber, received nothing.

Dave releasing his emotions after succeeding on Rhapsody. Screen grab from the film E11.

It was also a year in which there was certainly very strong competition for the award. Sonnie Trotter’s ascent of the striking Cobra Crack at Squamish was doubtless a strong contender.

Not since the release of Hard Grit a decade ago has anything put British climbing so much under the international spotlight. The increment of a clear grade is a rare occurrence in trad climbing; roughly once a decade. It will be an interesting year ahead with several other climbers eyeing up hard new routes (James Pearson already putting up the hardest route on grit) or setting their sights on significant repeats. Some strong overseas climbers should be heading to our shores too. Perhaps Rhapsody will even see a repeat and perhaps Dave MacLeod will succeed on his Ben Nevis super-route? Certainly the Hot Aches team are going to be busy capturing as much of the action as possible for their new film release “Committed” in October of this year.

Other recipients of this years Golden Piton awards were:
- Chris Sharma for El Pontas, his deep water solo in Majorca
- Dave Graham for Bouldering
- Paxti Usobiaga for Sports Climbing
For full awards see Climbing.com

Some interesting quotes from the Climbing article:

A direct finish to Dave Cuthberton's Requiem ( a heady E8 6b), Rhapsody features a 14-move V11 crux ending 30 feet above a micro wire, making for heart-stopping, 60-plus-foot whippers on a route 70 feet total in length. It is the only E11 on Earth. Historically, high end E-routes are headpointed only after extensive toprope rehearsal such that a fall is virtually eliminated. while falls have been taken on E10, the most catastrophic whippers on top-shelf E routes remained in the realm of pure speculation. MacLeod on the other hand, took the gigantic crux whipper numerous times, resulting in sprained ankles, twisted knees and countless cuts and bruises that left him hobbled home both physically and mentally.

Loosening the knot after another whipper. Photo Steve Gordon

Hats off for the ascent and for stepping into a new category." says Kevin Thaw, fellow UK climber, who adds that MacLeod's merging of trad tactics to a hard-5.14 face climb represents a huge cognitive leap. "E11 is a big fat number, certainly weighted toward being the stoutest gear route around!".

MacLeod's ascent, after 70-plus days of effort, became the focus of a UK movie, E11, which showcases the first ascent as well as several jaw-dropping falls onto the micro wire. In one of the first falls MacLeod takes in the film, the rope catches his leg and flips him upside down - he likely would have emptied the contents of his skull on the weathered basalt belay ledge below had the gear pulled, which, on a later fall, it did.

"Most of the time I was falling off and stopping just above the belay ledge" says MacLeod. "One time the micro wire snapped, and I bounced off the belay ledge on the rope stretch". A few falls like that later and he decided to wear a helmet.

Dumbarton Rock. The overhanging crack line of Rhapsody is visible on the main face. Hot Aches Images

"Style matter." says the Yosemite local Cedar Wright. "and that's why ascents like Rhapsody are a total inspiration. MacLeod climbed the line on its own terms, in spite of the real possibility that his obsession was going to land him in the emergency room."

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Dave B

Sunday Times Article

Some of you might have noticed a double page article about Dave MacLeod and E11 in this weekend's Sunday Times. It's pretty rare that the mainstream press devote any space to climbing.

We prepared a special selection of clips from E11 which they are hosting on their website

I wonder what non-climbers will make of that fall?

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Dave B

Festival Season

We've just spend a mad month attending three film festivals (Edinburgh, Banff and Kendal)... that's a lot of partying... disguised as networking.

We premiered E11 at Edinburgh, that was a excellent night, the crowd was really hyped up. It was great to see Dave & Claire MacLeod there with a lot of their friends and family. Stevie Christie, the director of the Festival, has done an awesome job building this event up over the last few years. It was amazing to be awarded ‘Best Film’, ‘Best Climbing Film’ and the ‘People Choice Award’ for E11.

After Edinburgh we headed off to Banff, the world's biggest Mountain Film Festival. This is the 3rd year on the run that i've headed over to Banff with a film. Amazingly our first ever Film 'Fools with Tools' was excepted there back in 2004. Last year we were there with Cavewoman and of course this year we had E11. Banff is just an amazing experience, i'd recommend anyone to attend. Set in the beautiful Canadian rockies, the Banff festival brings you the best mountain films and speakers from across the world. I always come away from Banff inspired, both to explore this world and to make better films.

Finally we headed to Kendal in the English Lake district. This is the biggest mountain festival in the UK and still seems to grow ever year. Kendal is the maddest of any festival i've ever attended. The Saturday night party is crazy... absolute madness. Although this year i was disappointed to see that the Police weren't called out.

We also came away with a gong, Judges Special Award, a trophy sculptured by Andy Parkins and a cheque that should cover most of our bar bill.

So as the last hangover from a festival has cleared, it now feels like time to move on from E11 and start concentrating on our next film. We've already ordered new HD cameras and started to line up some talented athletes to film.

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