Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
worked hard initially. Every fortnight British Rail transported me over to Leeds to
hand in a stack of writing to my tutor and then I'd go climbing with the club. By
the end of the second year, I became disillusioned with my thinking and the whole
academic construct. When climbing teams arrived at the house to stay, sometimes
for extended periods, I would do no work at all. This was especially so when Amer-
icans friends came over on extended climbing trips. When Ken Wilson asked me to
join
Mountain
magazine as deputy editor in early 1975, I accepted and so ended
my investment in formal education. Although London was not my favourite place
and far from the hills, under Ken's tutelage I learned a great deal about the wider
world of climbing and the industry that was growing up around it.
So I did not climb much with Alex in 1974 and 1975, but this was when he made
his breakthrough. He was greatly improved on rock and with winter conditions in
Scotland more or less guaranteed in those days, Alex was also getting a feel for ice.
The summer of 1974 was a revelation. It started in the Bregalia. While John Powell
was doing field studies for his geography course, Alex teamed up with Tim Jepson
and did three very respectable rock routes from the Sciora hut: the west ridge of
the Torre Innominata, then the
Piodakante
on the Punta Pioda di Sciora and fi-
nally the
Fuorikante
on the Sciora di Fuori.
They moved on to the north-west ridge on the Punta Albigna and then crossed
the Passo di Zocca to the Rifugio Allievi, sleeping in the toilet because the hut was
closed. They had two famous routes on their list, the south ridge of the Punta Al-
lievi and the south-east ridge of the Pizzo di Zocca. But they failed to find the start
of the first, and left their technical gear behind in the toilet on the second.
'It was a successful trip,' Tim said, 'thoroughly educative and enjoyable. Alex and
I got on very, very well on the hill; Alex gave me most of the harder leads, but oth-
erwise we experienced the mountains as equals. However, for some reason I can't
put my finger on, we didn't hit it off when we were in the valley and we hardly
spoke to each other until it was time to ready ourselves for the next climb. I also
recall that Alex had the habit of rubbing lemon juice onto his skin, believing it
would stop it from wrinkling in the sun.'
Alex parted company with Tim after the Bregalia and with John Powell drove
their van to Chamonix to join the encampment of Brits and Yanks at Snell's Field.
They went immediately to do the north face of the Col du Plan and then the west
face of the Blatière, with Alex leading the notorious Fissure Brown free, an indica-
tion of his improving ability on rock. After that they did the Bonatti Pillar on the
Dru. The route still had a considerable reputation, in part because of the dangers
of rockfall reaching the start. The pair opted for the longer 'top-down' approach
from the Flammes de Pierre.
