'Odyssey' A Climbing Road Movie

And so its time for me to take my place on the Hot Aches blog, and reveal this summer’s major film project. We have been quietly planning this for months and keeping it all under out hats! Like Adrian Samarra, who by now is hanging out on a glacier in Alaska, I am very pleased to be guest directing a climbing film for Hot Aches Productions, to be ready for this seasons film festivals.

So, a little about me……

My name is Dom Bush and I am a documentary filmmaker working primarily within the climbing and adventure industries. I have been lucky enough to work alongside Hot Aches on a number of occasions, as well as working freelance under the banner of Land and Sky Media. Recent work includes a 36minute climbing feature, ‘Islands, traditional Tales of Lakeland Climbing’, (watch here) and an award winning short film ‘My Own Hands’ (watch here). With their unrivaled experience in the climbing film industry, I very much look forward to working alongside the Hot Aches team to create this film, not to mention the four talented North Face athletes.

So enough about me, what’s the film?

‘Odyssey’ is a road movie that celebrates the best of British trad climbing, from the clean steep Basalt of Dumbarton Rock to the raging sea cliffs of Gogarth, four world renowned climbers take an exclusive tour round the UK to tick off some of our most fierce and inspiring routes. Cinematic filmmaking, cutting edge traditional climbing and a 7.5 ton converted truck - the Odyssey begins!

                                                                       James Pearson

James needs little introduction. He has been at the cutting edge from a young age and since leaving our fair shores has punched through the 9a sport barrier, whilst returning home frequently to pick off new lines and hard repeats in Pembroke and further afield.

                 

                                                                 Caroline Ciavaldini

Caroline, a world cup competition climber has topped 8c+ and flashed E8. Fresh back from a host of trips abroad and looking to get to grips with British Trad, Caroline looks set for some strong climbing on the ‘Odyssey’ tour.

                                                                     Hansjorg Auer

 

Hansjorg has a hugely impressive climbing CV, which spans hard bouldering, sport climbing up to 8c+ and solo ascents of long alpine routes, most notably ‘The Fish’ on the south face of the Marmolada, certainly one of the most audacious free solos of all time. With little experience of British trad climbing but a bold and confident approach, Hansjorg should be well prepared to tackle some of the UK’s hardest routes.

      

                                                                      Hazel Findlay

In 2011 Hazel became the first woman to climb E9 with her repeat of Dave Birkett’s ‘Once Upon a Time in the South West’. Like many talented UK climbers, Hazel excelled in competition and was British Junior Champion 6 times. Recently Hazel has set her sights on big walls across the globe making (amongst other things) the first female ascent of Golden Gate in Yosemite.  

So we leave on May 12^th with a 10 man team and we are keen to have your input. Where would you recommend we visit? Got an idea for a little known gem or a gruelling super-route? We want to hear from you. Get in touch through the Hot Aches blog or post on the Hot Aches Facebook, and spread the word!

We will be posting updates, photos and behind the scenes action on the Hot Aches Facebook, so keep your eyes peeled for progress! See you on the other side!

Here's a video of the last time Hot Aches filmed Hazel: -

Video - James Pearson Working Gerty Berwick

James Working Gerty Berwick Feb 2008

Congratulation to James Pearson who claimed the second ascent of Gerty Berwick (E9), or as I like to call it “Gerty Berty”. I had been calling it Twlons for the last year since I first filmed James working the line.  (TWLONS – The Wall Left Of New Statesman).

James on Twlons Feb 2009

It was a very cold windy day in February last year, the day after James had lead The Groove. We called by Ilkley and James worked the moves on a shunt. I hung on a rope and got blown around by a freezing wind whilst I tested out some camera angles.  It was a rather grey overcast day, but luckily James brightens the shot up by wearing a black top and grey pants! 

The result of that cold day is this 3 min video clip below:

Maybe some of the hardest moves on a grit route?

Paul

The Walk of Life. E12

The Walk of Life

[photo: Hot Aches productions]

The release of Committed Vol 2 has been put back to early November 2008. The reason? Simply that we were waiting, gambling, hoping that James Pearson would succeed on what has been his hardest climbing project ever. A line that for James, both inspired and challenged him at a whole new level.

James Pearson on The Walk of Life, E12 [Hot Aches productions]

Yesterday we made our 7th filming trip down to the north Devon sea cliffs at Hartland Point. James' project climbs directly up an immaculate expanse of rock, a 48 metre cliff.

James Pearson working the moves on The Walk of Life, E12 [Hot Aches productions]

This section of rock does have some history. Many climbers had attempted the top half over the years, each adding to the ladder of pegs that protected it.

James Pearson working the moves on The Walk of Life, E12 [Hot Aches productions]

The super talented climber Ian Vickers then succeeded in climbing a line in what sounds like 'sports style', with pre-placed quickdraws in the pegs, but that line, Dyer Straits comes in from the easier arete at half height before traversing out onto the face. This was graded E8.



James chose to remove the rotting pegs and climb the route on trad gear. He also chose to climb the face direct from the bottom, somehow finding a path through the expanse of nothingness on the bottom 12 metres.

James Pearson setting off on The Walk of Life, E12 [Hot Aches productions]

The other climbers that have passed by during our time at the crag all shared a feeling of awe about this piece of rock. It is huge, intimidating and very very blank. But only James can have an appreciation of the true level of difficulty involved.

James Pearson mid way on The Walk of Life, E12 [Hot Aches productions]

Comparisons have been made with Indian Face on Cloggy. For both these, the psychological challenge is perhaps the biggest factor for the climber. This is not like a gritstone route where a climber can get into the 'zone' and it is all over before they realise.

Here the climber is on the route for 45 minutes (Indian Face was about 23 minutes for the 3 ascentionists). That period of time allows the doubts to kick in. "What am I doing here? This is crazy". That period of time also has a big impact on the cumulative difficulty of the moves, compared to just doing them in isolation. So it is not just a head game. It is scary, yes, but hard and also incredibly sustained.

James Pearson mid way on The Walk of Life, E12 [Hot Aches productions]

James will describe the level of difficulty and his experience on his blog.

The grade of E12 is a mighty grade indeed. But James is certainly one of very few to have a track record that enables them to make such an assesment. He also has a responsibility to say honestly what he thinks.

As a film maker I cannot comment on the grade, but what I can point out, and what people will see in the film, is that James' experience on this route was far harder and more challenging that anything he has done before, considerably harder - a different level. This includes routes like Equilibrium (the 'benchmark' E10) and his own routes that he felt were harder, then harder again.

James Pearson mid way on The Walk of Life, E12 [Hot Aches productions]

Some other thoughts about the route.

A very quick summary about the route is that is is about 48 metres long. The first 12 metres has some of the hardest climbing and is also unprotected. James thinks this would be E10 in it's own right if it were, for example, a gritstone route.

The face is concave. The bottom is a steep slab, then it gradually tilts back to vertical. Beyond the first section there is one good piece of gear. Thereafter the gear is very poor, very difficult to place, and very difficult to tell if it is placed well. Most of the pieces are no 1 or 2 sliders and the seams into which these are placed are either chossy or parallel sided and frictionless.

Rich Mayfield keeping the ropes dry, belaying James

James fell during his first redpoint attempt, a monster fall. I was filming on ab and through the view finder I did not expect him to stop. I was certain he would just keep plummeting. But the gear at that point did hold. I stripped the route for him that day, and the micro cam that held the fall was in a shocking placement, and it was mangled and bent.



That day was a quite terrifying experience. We have filmed many routes with James, and he has never fallen before. This time he got away with it. But the consequence of failure meant that he had to eventually return and face that first 12 metres again, and then to hold it together for all that time higher up.

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So that's it, James, you can relax for a month or two. Do some bouldering. No more scary routes for a while, please.

The pictures on this blog are screen grabs, hastily taken from the footage.
David Simmonite was taking photos and has some superb pictures.

Thanks to all the people who have passed through there while we were filming, and particularly Sam and Rich who were there yesterday.

So that's it. C2 is now 'in the can', as they say...



A personal thought:
I think this route will become one of those seminal hard routes in the history of our strange sport, the Indian Face of the new generation. An incredible line on a stunning rock face, and a style of climbing and level of difficulty that demands nothing short of the complete armoury of skills from a top climber; huge technical ability, finger strength, unrelenting footwork, stamina and vast, vast reserves of mental toughness.

The Groove, E10 7b

One of grit stone's Last Great Problems has finally been climbed by James Pearson.

James Pearson. Final top-rope practice before going for the lead on The Groove, E10 7b. Photo: Hot Aches Images

The Groove at Cratcliffe in the Peak District was one of the truly great Last Unclimbed Lines on Grit. Much eyed and lusted after, this line has shunned all suitors for over 20 years. Johnny Dawes is reported to have declared that it will only be climbed eventually by someone with very long arms and very short legs.

I'm not sure about James having short legs? but it did require absolutely perfect conditions for the ascent. Snow on the ground and a temperature barely creeping above freezing was perfect. There didn't seem to be a moment of doubt from James that today would be the day that he would finally go for the lead.

Cratcliffe (before the snow arrived). Photo: Hot Aches Images

The Hot Aches team have been there during the last 2 weeks along with photographer David Simmonite to capture this special ascent.

James Pearson. Top-rope practice on the upper crux of The Groove, E10 7b. Photo: Hot Aches Images

VIDEO

Footage from last year's attempts on the route by James featured in Committed Volume 1.


See the clip on Climb Magazine's website along with a report about the eventual ascent.

Also see the next edition of Climb Magazine for photos and an in depth feature on James.

James Pearson. Working the lower crux on The Groove, E10 7b. Photo: Hot Aches Images

This is James' third E10 ascent. He repeated Equilibrium E10 7a and made the first ascent of The Promise E10 7a. Both routes featured in Committed. The Groove, at E10 7b may well now be amongst the hardest trad climbs in the world.

The climbing is highly technical, hence the 7b (British, not French) tech grade, and it is also bold. A fall from the last move of the crux would test the reaction time of the belayer; only an instant sprint might save the climber from hitting the ground - possibly. James has a strict 'no mat' policy for trad routes, so the nasty landing was not protected by bouldering mats. James also employed this strict ethic on the first ascent of his previous E10, 'The Promise'.

Camera Crew. Diff and Lynwen head to Cratcliffe

Dave / Diff

Podcast - James Pearson talks about ‘The Promise’ E10

In this new series of Hot Aches podcasts we are bringing a whole series of 'extras' to accompany the new movie Committed, due out next week.

In this first podcast, James Pearson talks to the camera in the twilight after his late evening ascent of what is probably the hardest route on Grit, The Promise, E10 at Burbage North.


"For the last few years I've been trying to find something on grit that's really hard - a really good line - quite a standout feature, rather than some poxy squeezed in eliminaty hard thing, something really outstanding to do.

I'd been racking my brain for ages, so to finally manage to do something like this really cool looking arete it's really good. To try and leave my "mark", if you know what I mean.

Because there's not much stuff left on Grit, which is a shame because the climbing is so nice and the routes are all really good; there's just not much left of great quality. I'm happy I've done it."

You can also read Hot Aches account of that day back in January 2007 here.

Check back here regularly for more Committed extras podcasts, or better still, sign up for our newsletter (box to the left) and we'll keep you updated.

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Diff.

Trauma - Video Frames

Hiding from the early rain

I’m really pleased with the footage of James we captured yesterday; hopefully I think we’ve succeeded in communicating the seriousness and difficulty of this fine route. Here’s a couple of video frames from the day:

Thin Moves!

Top Shake out

Sunset in the Llanberis Pass

Diff.

Trauma E9

Friday saw the Hot Aches team back in Wales, at Dinas Mot in the Llanberis Pass. A 600 mile round trip in a day was a gamble - in order hopefully to film James Pearson make the much coveted second ascent of Leo Houlding’s Trauma, E9 7a.

Route Inspection

We filmed James on the route last Saturday, his first day on the route other than a brief recce a few years back. That Saturday after working the route his lead attempt was then aborted when a crucial blind wire placement went wrong. James survived one of those horrible barn-door moments and by then it was getting late and time ran out.

The line of Trauma follows an overhanging crack line and crimps, the only line of weakness to breach the nose high left on the buttress. [all photos, Hot Aches Images]

This Friday was James’ last opportunity for Trauma before heading off the Thailand for a two month trip. Despite a less than perfect forecast we were back. On cue, ast the moment we arrived all the other climbers knowingly left the crag and the rain began. We sat it out in a cave until things looked a bit brighter and then headed on up. Might as well now we're here.

Conditions were now good, but the wind was gale force. I really expected James to bail out. No way you could climb hard in that much wind? I was on abseil with cameras and was being blown all over the place. However James set to work and first examined that problematic wire placement in close detail and then had a solid burst on the top rope.

He felt good. Despite the wind we were still on.

James Pearson leading Trauma, E9 7a (to overseas readers, the '7a' refers to british techinical grades, in this case french 8a+)

On the lead James hand placed a pecker onto the top of a broken off old peg, then up to the crucial wire placement which this time appeared to seat in well.

E9 protection, a pecker.

He tugged it hard to test it and it seemed ok this time, so on and upward through a long sequence of hard moves, a huge amount of climbing for a short route, and finally to relatively easier ground and another gear placement before topping out.

A fantastic piece of climbing by James. At the top he doesn’t scream, he just smiles and beams with satisfaction. “An awesome route”.

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This was a tough day on camera. Combining the role of filming and stills photography is hard at the best of times, but in a buffeting wind on a route that is too hard for the climber to go back on to ‘pose’ it requires a lot of planning and preparation.

We worked out the section of the route that I wanted to take the stills photo at. With Diff covering video on that section safely I juggle from video to stills camera. A 7 second window and then I juggle back to video as the next section of the route needs to be covered by my angle.

In the end we did get chance to re-shoot some stills, but for us that never cuts it compared to shots of the real ascent.

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Finally a big thanks to Tony Waite, belayer extraordinaire. Finding a belayer for Friday was proving difficult for James. Apparently loads of people have day jobs and can’t just drop everything? Else those that just boulder turn out to not be so keen on the ‘long’ walk in. So Tony stepped in for the second time this year, to travel a ridiculous distance in a day to hold someone’s rope. Many thanks.

Tony Waite, Dinas Mot is perhaps not the best place to have to learn how to jumar. But needs must.

Also many thanks to Wayne Smith who drove from Manchester to stand on a scree slope for 4 hours in order to get us some great long shots.

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Dave

Peak Filming - Trip 6

The Hot Aches crew headed back south on Thursday for some filming and even a bit of climbing. Friday dawned bright and we headed to Cratcliffe to get some bouldering in before pointing the cameras towards one of gritstone's 'last great problems'.

Hot Aches' Creative Director Paul Diffley losing it; attentively spotted at a safe distance by an amused Sarah. All photos Hot Aches Images

Sarah Daniels modeling the new Hot Aches T shirt (more about this soon), sending Razor Edge B7. Diff is so impressed that he's already started the round of applause.

Dave Brown guerning his way up the same problem

Onto the unclimbed line, but by now the sun was warm and conditions were just not good enough. So we headed a bit further around the crag and caught up with Ben Bransby who ignored the heat and re-climbed his superb and scary looking new highball problem, the Prow.

Ben Bransby on The Prow at Cratcliffe

Ben near the top of the Prow

Meanwhile Ben's dog Klem threatened proceedings by stealing the Hot Aches food supplies.

Klem 'giz us your sandwiches or I'll bite your ankles'

Next we headed off to Black Rocks where Emily Brazenell re-supplied us with butties so that the cameras could keep rolling (thanks Em)

Emily Brazenell climbing Beauty font 6c at Stanage the next day. Spotted by James Pearson.

At Black Rocks James Pearson and Adam Long were attempting a ground up ascent of Johnny Dawes impressive E8 slab from 1994, The Angel’s Share E8 7a. The first ascent was done solo after top rope practice. It was described as a 'desperate route with unusual moves: no handholds on the pebble-less slab result in several rock-overs which require timed momentum from the previous rock-over to enable a foot to be placed higher'. The team had 4 mats which makes it a different proposition but still the prospect of a big fall to a small landing area.

Adam Long on the start of 'The Angel’s Share E8 7a' (video stills)

Adam on the final moves



One of the may falls

Late in the afternoon he succeeded, but not content immediately despatched the E6 to the right and then rounded it off by quickly sending the E7 to the left. Impressive slab climbing.

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Dave