Rock Climbing despite its potential for rich drama,emotive interaction between partners and quite often, taking place amongst some of the world's most stunning backdrops,is not something that the mandarins who control UK television go a bundle on. We see so little climbing on British television that an event like the recent live 'Big Climb' creates considerable excitement within the community. When the BBC filmed the live Old Man of Hoy spectacular in the 1960's it drew an audience high point of 15 million viewers. That's a third of the total population of the UK in 1967! When Triple Echo filmed The Big Climb for BBC Scotland they not surprisingly went for two of the UK's best known climbers to take on the challenge. The modest and self effacing Scot, Dave Macleod who is probably the UK's best all round climber, and by contrast,the larger than life Tim Emmett who describes himself on his website as 'An extreme athlete and television presenter'. Tim is so permanently wired that you get the impression that if he fell down stairs and broke his leg he would jump up and shout 'Hey...that was amaaaazing !'.
Chemistry sorted.... it's off to the Islands.
Triple Echo not surprisingly in light of the Scottish climate and Dave and Tim's injury problems made contingency plans should The Big Climb fail to go ahead. Earlier in the year they would film the duo attempting to make five top end extreme first ascents on five different Scottish west coast islands in five days. So....no pressure then.
As anyone who has ever been to the Scottish west coast and islands will tell you, It's one of the most beautiful places on earth. Fingers crossed... If only the weather holds then the settings for this grand project are guaranteed to be spectacular. Throw in some cutting edge extreme climbing, some self deprecating banter and the odd peel over some wave lashed rocks and you have the makings of a classic series.
The first programme opened with Dave and Tim being deposited from a rib onto slippery rocks at the base of their intended route on the wild and uninhabited Shiant Islands. Dave quickly leads off up a ramp and finds himself in extremis under a roof which requires every trick in his considerable gymnastic repertoire to overcome. However a pressure hold fails on the damp rock and Dave takes flight. Not being a man to say 'sod this..let's try something else' Dave bludgeons his way through the difficulty and recovers as Tim follows and leads through the 6b pitch to the top. The route becomes The Puffin Diaries-E7 6c-6b. We're up and running.
And now to Creag Mo on Harris where Dave takes on a massive overhanging roof.Above which a blank wall leads to endless blue sky. It's an amazing piece of rock but Dave does it justice when, after taking off into space on the final roof sequence on his first two attempts, he gives it a final do or die blast and grunting and gasping, pulls out into the sun.
Tim gives his best shot but his best shot is not quite up to Dave Mac's tour de force and he ends up jumaring up the rope to join his partner. Despite failing on this 6c pitch,Tim flies up the thin and technical 6b pitch and 'The Realm' E8 6c-6b-(named after a bottle of New Zealand red wine they had slugged on the way over) was in the bag.
And now it's Programme two and three climbs to fit in. Screaming Geo on Lewis is a spectacular sea cliff upon which the climbers were blessed with equally spectacular weather. Before the climb begins they overnight in an amazing stone bothy built into the sea cliffs in the manner of the ancient beehive hermitages that are dotted around the Irish west Coast. I'd have liked to found out more about this beautiful structure but no time..were off!. This time it's Tim who takes the lead and offers up the lead of his life which mixes in some incredibly thin balancy stuff with a brutal thrutch through a not inconsiderable overhang which is well above his last bit of protection. Tim buzzes as Dave purrs...'this is amazing man' It's all smiles and handshakes as the team top out. A quick drive across the causeway in the rain to Great Bernera and it's an arete line which is chosen on rather unpleasant greenish rock. The weather is cold and damp. Dave can't feel his fingers but Tim, ever the Sunny Jim keeps up the 'Come on Dave...Nice!' routine. Dave does come on and ticks off this single pitch and as yet unnamed route off at at a more modest E5-6b.
Finally we're off to the the spectacular islands of St Kilda. An eight hour sea trip across rough seas. A trip which Dave apparently spends with his head stuck down the heads.... (Nautical term for bog ). When he emerges he looks like he would struggle to tie his boot laces never mind on-sight an E6 ! They choose an impressive three pitch line which begins by traversing out over the sea before snaking up the gabbro cliff to the top.
Nab this and they're cracked it. However,to add a bit of drama to the proceedings, a storm is brewing and the boat has to be out of the bay by five or it will be trapped in the eye of the storm. The weather though is unrelentingly sunny. As bright and breezy as Tim's endless narrative of happiness.."Wow man...awesome...this is amazing...Ahh maaan!' It does look it though...awesome that is. Another good lead from Tim and Dave has the honour of completing the climb and the challenge by tackling the slightly easier but more serious finale. Dave takes his time because a fall here would be a whipper. Despite this Tim keeps telling him to get a move on or they will miss the boat. Most climbers in Dave's position of extremis would just say 'Fuck the boat' but Dave is too polite to offer offence to Tim or the viewers so he just goes quiet and looks serious. It comes off of course as an as yet unnamed route at E6.6b-6a and yes they do catch the boat.
Five hard new extremes in five days on five islands..tick. As Tim would say....Awesome Man !
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