Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I had climbed with Alex a few times in the UK and we got on fine, although I
knew both his limitations on rock and his lack of experience on ice, although the
heavy new snow meant ice faces were not in the equation anyway. I fancied the
south face of the Fou, a route that Al Rouse had soloed earlier in the summer, but
the couloir approach could be dangerous. We opted instead for the continuous and
classic line of the adjacent east face of the Pointe Lépiney. Alex had arrived
halfway through the season and said he was happy with anything since it would be
his first route in the Alps.
Before we packed up, he went into town to hire some boots. He had somehow
managed to lose one boot in transit. And so we boarded a train for Montenvers
that afternoon with Alex wearing boots of two sizes; on his right foot, one of his
original boots, on his left, the nearest fit he could hire. Fortunately, he remained
blister-free on the two-hour walk up to the Envers Hut. It was a beautiful evening
and our planned route looked appealing.
1. In 2013 Bernard was appointed honorary editor of the
Alpine Journal
.
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2. Just as Henry left to go back to the States, in 1974, there was a gathering at the Padarn Lake Hotel for a couple of farewell drinks. Don Whillans
was heard to comment, loud enough for Henry to hear: 'Henry's just a flash in the pan, and anyway he can't drink.' After a season of training,
Henry returned the following year not to climb but to drink all the British hard men under the table, which he pretty well succeeded in do-
ing.
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3. The Leeds club was definitely trumped by the clever approach taken by Rouse and Geddes at Cambridge. They didn't bother with sitting around
enrolling people. They put up a large flip-chart-like poster with these words at the top: 'Anyone wanting to come to a party with free beer and
drink on Saturday put your name, college and contact details below.' At the end of the day, they then collected the sheets and carefully peeled off
the stuck-on 'free drinks' announcement to reveal the wording actually written on the sheets was: 'The following are paid-up members of the Cam-
bridge University Climbing Club.' The proceeds from the Student Union Grant funded Rouse and Geddes's travels and alpine trips for an entire
year.
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4. The Leeds Climbing Wall was built in 1964, the brainchild of a sports trainer and climber called Don Robinson. It was the first indoor climbing
wall in the world. It ran along two sides of the outside of a squash court and the sounds of squeaking court shoes and the 'ka-twack-kathump' of
the ball accompanied sessions on the wall. Given the standards of today's climbing walls, the Leeds wall was primitive. It consisted of natural
rocks of various sizes cemented into a normal brick wall of about fifteen feet in height. Mortar had been dug out between some of the bricks to
provide small edges. There were also short, vertical jamming-cracks placed one above the other, cut out of the bricks and then lined with cement.
It was a great place to work out, although shredded fingers and twisted ankles were commonplace. There were no mats on the cement floor and a
drop from the top was guaranteed to leave the feet stinging. The wall explains a lot about the success the club had on the crags - we had a secret
training regime, which was unheard of at the time. Everyone tended to go at least twice a week - Tuesday and Thursday evenings and, occasion-
ally, classes were skipped for an extra session during the day. I remember one day in 1969 during my final undergraduate year at Leeds having a
dark-haired Adonis-like figure pointed out to me by Bernard with the phrase: 'Watch this kid, it's his first day on the wall.' To our astonishment,
he jammed up the notorious sequence of cracks almost with grace. This was John Syrett.
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5. When twelve sizes of Stoppers, based on the original MOAC design, were manufactured by Chouinard in 1972 as part of his 'clean climbing' re-
volution, not only did the folk at MOAC realise the missed opportunity, but there was some mild outrage that the Yanks were claiming the inven-
tion of 'clean climbing' when for the Brits it was their rock-climbing tradition.
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6. Many club members had part-time jobs to help pay their way through university; some were in positions that helped support their climbing.
This included a petrol station attendant where the odd gallon of fuel was pumped for free, and overnight supermarket shelf-stackers who placed
tins stamped with new low prices at the back of rows to be collected and paid for next morning by accomplices.
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7. Over the many years that the Leeds club climbed in Chamonix and the Alps, there were very few serious accidents or deaths. The most notable
was Roger Baxter-Jones, who died when seracs on the north face of the Triolet collapsed when he was guiding a client in 1985. RBJ was arguably
the fittest of all the UK's Himalayan climbers at the time and his death was pure bad luck. Georges Bettembourg, a member of the extended circle
of friends, was killed in a rockfall while crystal hunting in the Chamonix Aiguilles.
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