A Great Week on The Ben

The North East Buttress of Ben Nevis

Last week we had a fantastic time climbing and filming on Ben Nevis. By day we were running and climbing all over the mountain trying to keep up with Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner as they repeated all the Smith- Marshall routes from that famous week in 1960. By night we were capturing footage and editing clips on a wind powered laptop whilst drinking whisky!

The CIC Hut, our home for the week.

I’ve been back in Edinburgh now for a couple of days and I’m still amazed that we managed to pull it off and get all the routes climbed and more importantly to me, filmed well.

I'm still capturing footage from the week, but here's a video grab from each of the routes we filmed:

The Great Chimney (IV,5) 6th February 1960

Minus Three Gully (IV,5) 7th February 1960

Smith's Route (V,5) 8th February 1960

Observatory Buttress (V,4) 9th February 1960

Point Five Gully (V,5) 10th February 1960

Piggot's Route (V,6) 12th February 1960

Orion Direct (V,5) 13th February 1960

I have a lot of people to thank for the success of this project, it was a fantastic team:

Dave MacLeod - Climber

Dave MacLeod on Tower Ridge after climbing Great Chimney

As well as climbing all the routes, Dave was instrumental in the planning and logistics that went into this project.

Andy Turner - Climber

Andy enjoys getting the Hot Aches!

This was the first time I had worked with Andy and he was brilliant to work with. Climbing routes for camera requires a lot of waiting around and faffing; Andy's patience was wonderful. He also had to put up with me kicking snow on his head from above for the whole week.

Donald King – Mountain Guide

Donald King

Donald King did a superb job of looking after me and ensuring my safety on the mountain, rigging routes and getting me into some fantastic positions to shoot the climbing.

Guy Heaton – Cameraman

Guy Heaton getting the shot in comfort

Guy was my second cameraman on this shoot and he captured some beautiful long shots of the climbers from all angles. His work really illustrates what an amazing mountain Ben Nevis is.

Mike Pescod – Director of the Fort William Mountain Film Festival

Mike Pescod (Centre) on top of Point Five Gully

Mike is the director of the Fort William Mountain Festival, a driving force behind this project.

Lochaber Athletics Club

Three members of the Lochaber Athletics Club help Donald King (right) with some kit.

Thanks to all the members of the club who helped us over the week by running up to the hut to collect media and deliver supplies.

Paul Prentice - Mountain Boot Company

Paul Prentice from The Mountain Boot Company kitted out myself and Guy with nice new axes and crampons for the week.

Claire MacLeod - Website Support

Claire MacLeod filming one of her own productions

Thanks to Claire for her support and website work over the week.

Mountain Equipment - Major Sponsor

Finally, without the support of Mountain Equipment this project could not have happened at all. Richard Woodall, marketing Manager at ME, backed the project right from the start. Despite the risk that nothing might come of it because of adverse weather and climbing conditions he committed support from ME. I can remember him saying to me back in early January, “ok, it might be worth a punt!”.

The Week's Work

I’m going to craft all this footage into a film or films for release in the Autumn, just in time to get everyone psyched for the next winter season.

Diff

How many layers? Free DVD to the first correct answer!

Day 3 - Minus Three Gully

Day three of the Smith-Marshall Project and Dave and Andy climb Minus Three Gully.

Pigott's Route

Here is a clip of Dave Macleod and Andy Turner climbing Pigott's Route as part of the Smith-Marshall Week film project.

The Great Chimney - 50 years on

Those who knows anything about Scottish winter climbing will know the names Jimmy Marshall and Robin Smith. Although their reputations as climbers spread well beyond what they did in this week 50 years ago , 6-13 February 1960 will forever be acknowledged as a significant time in the history of Scottish climbing.

As part of a commemorative event to mark the achievement, Hot Aches is working with the Fort William Mountain Festival to film Dave Macleod and Andy Turner repeating the adventures of Smith and Marshall. We will be filming and editing as we go. Below is a short clip of their ascent of the Great Chimney.



You will be able to see more footage from the week on the Ben at the Fort William Mountain Festival on Sunday 14th February, dubbed "Marshall / Smith night". Jimmy himself will be there. You can book tickets for the event online at: http://mountainfestival.eventry.co.uk/

Paul will also be giving a lecture at the Fort William Mountain Festival on Saturday 13th February. This is aptly titled "Climbers I've shot and some I'd like to shoot". Tickets for this can also be booked online at: http://mountainfestival.eventry.co.uk

Back to Back - XI,11s

From a first ascent on the grit we then headed north to the Scottish Highlands for another of our film projects The AllRounder and an appointment to film Dave MacLeod.

Something was wrong. We arrived in Fort William to pick Dave up at 6pm, but he wasn't there. Almost certainly he must have found a belayer and gone again up to his winter project on Ben Nevis?

Dave MacLeod attempting his Ben Nevis project in 2006, XI,11. Hot Aches Images.

I had been up to the route two years ago with Dave to second him and take photos. I recall a frigid three hours at that first belay. Thin boots with bolt on crampons needed for the highly technical moves. Minimal clothing to be able try and climb hard.

That day Dave failed, as he did on many other attempts, all ground up from the start. I was relieved that day. The prospect of seconding the became quite terrifying as I waited. In theory I can climb that sort of difficulty, about M11. The reality of course is that continental mixed climbing is a million miles away from the full on Scottish experience. An M11, pre-practiced, protected by bolts, 15 minutes to climb it. This is all quite different from the huge scottish walk-in, blizzard conditions, onsight climbing, 12 hours on the route (in this case). So yes. I was quite terrified.


So how was I going to second the route? It had taken Dave many attempts and still he was falling off. How could I possibly second the moves, clean, first time. Not a hope in hell. And the crux pitch is a traverse, so each failure means falling down into the void. Scary. The only prospect for seconding this was aid climbing, or cheating. The latter being one of my specialist subjects.

At 8.30 we heard from Dave. He phoned to say he was still 2 pitches from the top (and had left the house at 6.00am). Relief.

Dave was back off the hill at 11.00pm. His hardest winter day ever. A new grade XI,11 finally climbed. So our appointment to go and film another XI,11 the next daywith him looked rather in doubt. But no, Dave was still up for that! so we retired to get ready to film the next day.

Dave MacLeod on The Hurting, XI,11. Hot Aches Images.

Monday saw us in The Cairngorms, to film The Hurting. Another of Dave's routes, and an extremely dangerous and technical climb. I had abseiled this in preparation for filming, and again thought about the prospects of climbing it. About M11, but two crux sections with groundfall certainly should you make a mistake. Tiny holds, sometimes your pick just behind crystals. I can't stress enough how different this is to the kind of mixed climbing abroad.

Monday was a wild day, -25 degree windchill, wind blowing vertically upwards, freezing your eyelashes and our camera lenses. Buffeted all over the place. Totally wild and crazy.

Dave MacLeod on The Hurting, XI,11. Hot Aches Images.

So for the second day in a row MacLeod climbed an 'Scottish Winter XI,11' the two hardest routes in the UK, and both unrepeated.

Congratulations to Jo French who climbed Dave's Ben Nevis route with him. You must be mad!

Cameras and Climbing

Our upgrade process is now nearly complete with new cameras arriving as well as new audio and video software, PC and laptop. All this takes up quite a lot of time setting up and training (or "playing", as my partner calls it).

A pair of new Sony V1's. High Def. 24p. Sony's latest model, just launched in Europe.

It is quite amazing how camera technology has advanced in recent years. You can now achieve the same picture quality for a few thousand pounds that 3 years ago would have cost you £30k+. And camera size and weight is now small enough be able to lug around mountains and up and down rock climbs.


We also have some bespoke filming kit under development and another specialised camera to come. More on that soon.

We are heading down to the peak tomorrow for 6 days of filming with Kev Shields and Dave MacLeod. Should be interesting in lots of respects. Firstly Dave MacLeod is driving! - so if you see a Nissan Micra with L plates then steer well clear. Secondly it is Kev's first time on grit, and Dave himself hasn't been down there for several years. In fact, despite hailing from Yorkshire I haven't climbed on grit for 15 years. I'm not sure how I'll cope after 2 years of pocket pulling on limestone. Actually I know exactly how I'll cope, so I'll be staying behind the camera.

Hopefully our timing for the trip is right. The weather has been pretty poor, but now the forecast is looking really good.

Meanwhile back in Scotland winter has well and truly arrived. On saturday a few of us headed out to snatch an early season route. 5.00am start from Edinburgh is always tough, and I always have to do the driving while everyone else sleeps. Anyway, several hours later we arrived in the Northern Corries to be rewarded by excellent climbing conditions.

Mess of Pottage, looking plastered.

Dave B, looking pensive. In fact I'm doing exactly what I hate from climbers that I am photographing or filming. Wearing black clothes is rubbish for pictures, especially in winter.

On the subject of rubbish, my climbing was pretty appalling. I spent 90 minutes making painfully slow progress up the first pitch. 15 metres up I spent ages trying to find to find a way up, just two moves to go to easier ground. I committed to a couple of poor hooks and immediately was flying, back flip through the air and back down near my unimpressed belayer. "You were climbing crap" was her verdict.

Es and Thomas who were with us had a rather better day. They climbed Fall Out Corner, Thomas' first winter route in Scotland.

Back in the office we've been selling a few photos this week, UK and overseas. It's funny how you end up making money from climbing pics. Some of them keep getting used again and again. Sometimes other pictures that you never expected to sell also get used when a specific request comes in.

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Dave