UKBouldering.com
the shizzle => bouldering => Topic started by: r-man on February 18, 2005, 12:45:12 am
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Got The Power of Climbing for Christmas. Despite the frequent typos the photography is great and the interviews give a fascinating insight to an era. Anyway, I was wondering where they all are now and what they've achieved in the last decade since the book was published. Here's the list, the top climbers of the time, arranged by the book's own chapter headings:
(I've missed out the first two chapters as they were mostly coming to the end of their time at the cutting edge)
The Graduates
John Welford
Claudia Dunn
Jasper Sharpe
John Hart
Nick Dixon
The Addicts
Joe Healey
Gary Gibson
Nick Harms
Dave Turner
Andy Goring
Quentin Fisher
Paul Pritchard
The Hustlers
Chris Plant
Ben Masterson
Dougie Hall
Mick Loatt
Tony Ryan
Ian Vincent
Pete Gomersall
Mark Pretty
Andy Pollitt
Chris Gore
Dave Pegg
Malc Taylor
The Elite
John Dunne
Martin Atkinson
Ed Morgan
Tony Mitchell
Jason Myers
Sean Myles
Mark Leach
The Masters
Johnny Dawes
Simon Nadin
Ben Moon
So how many of these guys are still climbing hard today? And what were the biggest things they achieved in the 90s?
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Did you get a copy of "Doing The Time Warp" too? or a "Back to the Future" box set?
I remember reading this book cover to cover when I got it back in 1994 when I got it. A lot of those listed in the last two castegories are very much at large.
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Ok ill start us off from what i know
The Graduates
Welford-bumbling round somewhere
C.Dunne-never really climbed that hard anyway, still married to squark(which IS an achievemnt!!)
J Sharpe-gave up to be an accountant....I think
John Hart-still climbing hardish sport routes
Nick Dixon-still climbing well
The Addicts
Healey-still round sheffield, was brilliant trad climber in his day till took 50ft+ fall off zero in Ogwen and really fucked himself up
Gibson-still chipping trad and rubbish sports routes in crap quarries.
Harms-last i heard gave up to live and work in London, famously had to work Axle attack(7a+) for a day after doing some hoorific 8a+ on slate
Dave Turner-fucked fingers made him give up back in early 90's, last I heard of him.
Goring-aka tattoo man or marine boy,ex army and dedicated to training. saw hm once run off into bushes suffering from gastro interitis and come out grinning cos he had lost more weight and was really skinny. Gave up to pour his training obsession into triathlons.(tarnge cos he climbed hard for the day, round 8a+ but never really made his mark)
Quentin-the mad amphetamine proffesor, anarchist turned property baron.(Second ascent of the Thing when it was still hard) Had cragx dialled, seen occasionally out on limestone.
Pritchard-lives in tasmania, recently went climbing again(remarkeable considering thay thought hed never walk again!)
Bored now, might do some more later
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Despite the frequent typos
you actually read it? a book?
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Jasper Sharpe - thought he'd given it all up to become a smack-head myself - was often seen caned in the Broadie and went out with that insane Ruth lass who we used to know.
Claudia Dunn - all I remember is she had fucking strong fingers.
John Hart - I'm fairly convinced I saw him on an Alpine website not so long ago - he was guiding or something similar.
Nick Dixon - amazing he's still alive with that driving.
Andy Goring (TM) - yeah, went off to be super fit in a different sport (got some good pics of him on Caviar somewhere)
Quentin - I last saw the crazy one in Thailand, red-faced and sweating on some evil concoction of drugs. He was still as funny as ever and climbing pretty well.
Chris Plant - still see him at the crag now and again.
Ben Masterton - see him now and again - living in Sheff with his missus Shirley and 2 nippers - recently been doing some climbing again.
Ian Vincent - turned into a techno-raver and we did lots of clubbing together. Last I heard he was big into mountain biking and still living near Bradford but not heard from him for ages - if you read this Ian, get in touch....
Mark Pretty - still cranking.
Andy Pollitt - went to Oz, don't think he really climbs much now though somebody met him at Arapiles recently-ish.
Chris Gore - isn't he some big-wig with one of the outdoor companies? Saw him a few months back in Sheff but didn't twig who it was.
Dave Pegg - living in Colorado - editor (?) of one of the big US climbing mags.
Martin "Basher" Atkinson - another outdoor company big-wig (Wild Country?)
Jason Myers - last saw him at Burbage North - he still boulders, but "not seriously" - well into his surfing.
Sean Myles - still see him 'round Sheff now and again. Last time I spoke to him he'd given up climbing but not sure if that's still the case.
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Good topic. Ridiculous book. "Insight into an era" indeed.
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don't know if this is relevant (having got into climbing after the book came out), but no Jerry in that book - question?
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and no Big Ron!
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Jerry is in. Ron isn't. neither is scouse.
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heres a good one Malc taylor
went for a job interview in Cheltnham to do with 'Language translation' early 90's......got the job and was never seen again.The word on the scene at the time was that it was GCHQ(which is in cheltnham cos ive worked on it!) and that he essentially became a spy....laughable but he did dissapear at the time
Ed Morgans still around, i saw him in sheff recently, dont think he climbs much though.
Tony Mitchell gave up cos of injury and has been competition mtb for a while although heard a whisper he was climbing again
Now one i dont know Pete Gomersall......fuk me the worlds most boring couple, him and Bonny masson(didnt he go out with dalvinda for a while?)
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Jerry is in. Ron isn't. neither is scouse.
That's right cofe. My book is called "the power of power"
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is it published by the same people who did your autobiography "my middle finger looks like a dick"?
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No. That was "my dick looks like a middle stump"... easy mistake to make.
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Tony Mitchell gave up cos of injury and has been competition mtb for a while although heard a whisper he was climbing again
He's climbing again, I saw him at Hugencroft and he's posted a few comments on yg.com.
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jon hart was in situ on mecca last summer, believe he's retired, force it!
andy politt, well met him in 2000 at the troopers arms easter shin dig in the grampians, he was still tres petit but had a fearsome beer gut, and was surgically attached to a VB (urgh.) and some "ageing bombshell" who offered herself to myself and matt for a price!!!
scary!!!
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saw ed morgan in the woody about a month ago
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joe healey lives over the road from dirty hatter, and i think spends the large proportion of his waking hours alternating between broomhill tav and "the place".
saw jason myres climbing at caley in the summer last year, think hes more psyched by surfing nowadays...
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Mark Leach works part time as a lawyer and part time doing rope access rail inspection for the company I work for, doesn't climb much, was spotted failling to get up Sardines last year.
Andy Pollit runs a successful rope access company in Melbourne and has a reputation as a bit of an alky, doesn't climb any more.
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Simon Nadin, recently quit rope access management to try and earn a living dry stone walling. Still gets out on the rock now and then, although presently laid up with a busted ankle.
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dougie hall gave because ot elbow tenndinitis and took up wind surfing.
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It's rather sad i think. To see how people's lives turn out. 10 years ago i bet all these people were young, optimistic 'climbing/living for the moment'. Ah well, stuff changes i guess, life changes.
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rather short sighted view of how important climbing is i think FOAM, at the time they prob would of agreed but your perspective changes and the time and effort you put into climbing gets less. theres no way i would go back to living in a shit filled cave with no money, no transport,not eating properly, no women etc etc. But at the time it felt right
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rather short sighted view of how important climbing is i think FOAM, at the time they prob would of agreed but your perspective changes and the time and effort you put into climbing gets less. theres no way i would go back to living in a shit filled cave with no money, no transport,not eating properly, no women etc etc. But at the time it felt right
Yeah thats i meant. I wasn't having a go and I didn't mean that they've done anything bad. I didn't mean sad like crap or bad i meant it in sad as sort of like how life forces us to change, give up dreams etc
I didn't mean 'they're a bunch of sad bastards' for not climbing all the time, lol.
Cause the same thing's sort of happened to me over the past few months, climbing just isn't a big priority like it used to (no matter how much i would like it to be) and it's sad but that's life i guess. :(
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FOAM, do you remember a few months ago how we were saying if you train too much and dont get out and climb anything you can easily burn out?
Hmmmm?
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Adding to Fatboy and Blubba's news..
Dave 'Peggo' Pegg was back in the UK recently with a distinct lack of facial blemishes, a straighter nose and nice teeth having taken advantage of the old 'nip 'n tuck'. He also has a really strong US accent nowadays...
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a straighter nose and nice teeth having taken advantage of the old 'nip 'n tuck'
:lol:
I saw him in the Kashmir when he was over but did not notice the nose job :lol:
thats fucking top
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Cause the same thing's sort of happened to me over the past few months, climbing just isn't a big priority like it used to (no matter how much i would like it to be) and it's sad but that's life i guess.
tired old burnt out husk of a boulder....at 17!!! pul yersel together man. dense still bears down and hes forty or sumthin
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Dont think Dense is forty................just acts and looks like it, I thank you
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1. is there any truth in the rumour that pollit went to oz to get into p o r n.
2. wouldnt an "after they were famous" photo thread be pretty good. aka look at the belly on that!!
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Dont think Dense is forty................just acts and looks like it, I thank you
Oh, yeah? And how do you define acting forty, you ageist young pup :lol: (sips Horlicks, dribbles, adjusts blanket, turns up hearing aid...)
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Its a bit rich me saying anything about age cos its only 2 years for my big 40!!!!
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Dont think Dense is forty................just acts and looks like it, I thank you
Oh, yeah? And how do you define acting forty, you ageist young pup :lol: (sips Horlicks, dribbles, adjusts blanket, turns up hearing aid...)
going to a mobile disco and enjoying it.
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heres a good one Malc taylor
went for a job interview in Cheltnham to do with 'Language translation' early 90's......got the job and was never seen again.The word on the scene at the time was that it was GCHQ(which is in cheltnham cos ive worked on it!) and that he essentially became a spy....laughable but he did dissapear at the time
There's more than a few climbers at GCHQ and when doing some Home Office research I bumped into someone in London who looked a little shocked and embarrassed to be recognised, he gave the game away by starting the 'what you too' line of conversation before I informed him of the reason for my presence in the office.
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heres a good one Malc taylor
went for a job interview in Cheltnham to do with 'Language translation' early 90's......got the job and was never seen again.The word on the scene at the time was that it was GCHQ(which is in cheltnham cos ive worked on it!) and that he essentially became a spy....laughable but he did dissapear at the time
You sure this isn't him? Then again, whose seen Big Ron around recently?? [web]http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~mjt/[/web]
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Jasper Sharpe - thought he'd given it all up to become a smack-head myself - was often seen caned in the Broadie and went out with that insane Ruth lass who we used to know.
Ha ha ha! I was searching for stuff about TPOC and found this. Made me think a bit.....
Cheers Bubbs. I can see why the asumption may have been made but I was always a recreational drugs man. No downers. :dance1:
Ruth? Yes she was insane. I'd been dealing with much worse before her though so to me she was ok at the time........
4 more years of mentalism and then I rejoined the human race. It's boring in some ways (taking responsibility for ones actions, sleeping between friday and monday, giving a fuck in general) but in others (my son, climbing again, fantastic wife, nice house etc) it's fucking great.
Party wise I've done it, all of it and then some and it's behind me now.
Look ing back at when I stopped climbing I think if you look at the boys from my generation who were supremely talented and should have gone on to push standards forward it's interesting that NOBODY did. There were four. Stuart, Malcolm, Ian and Me. Malcolm made his mark with doing Hubble when he did (and obviously bouldering hard) but we felt then that that was just the start. I'd done all the moves on Hubble in one session and got decent links on it as had Stuart. We knew that with training 8c+ was not that hard and that we could push things forward based on power rather than wank stamina routes.
So why didn't it work out like that?
In a word I reckon. Money.
Needing it, wanting it or just plain having to go out and earn it has restricted the best climbers of my generation from reaching their potential. Particularly Malcolm and to a certain extent myself.
In a way it is now possible for British climbers to make a living from climbing but it's a hard grind of lectures, coaching (oh god no "this is how you warm up" I could not do it!), competitions and wank show ponying for the sponsors just to scrape a living. Fair play to those who do it but that would never have been for me just so I could call myself a "Pro Climber".
So perhaps we should have been able to just continue. You can't expect something for nothing. Appreciate the fact that you can't make a living from JUST being good at a minority sport. But the fact is that we all thought that the money was there to be earned if we just climbed hard enough and at 18 when all you want to do is climb for the rest of your life and you see Jerry driving a Porsche (and you've just burned him off at The Tor) you assume it will come. Life's simple at 18.
For me the difficulty was made worse by my own error of starting a relationship with an evil using witch who almost ruined my life. This obviously didn't contribute positively to my climbing but I still see it as secondary to the lack of support given to young climbers who were obviosly talented when compared to the amount of money at the time that was lavished on fat liars etc.........
I digress and I've already got myself in enough trouble with Mrs Sharpe for being up this late drinking so I'll leave this pissed up diatribe unfinished for your amusement.
:pissed: :pissed: :oops: :guilty: :guilty:
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Cheers Bubbs. I can see why the asumption may have been made but I was always a recreational drugs man. No downers. :dance1:
Ruth? Yes she was insane. I'd been dealing with much worse before her though so to me she was ok at the time........
Akkk, my own words come back to embarrass me :lol:
The smackhead thing was actually a rumour at the time on a "different forum" and i cheaply recycled it here. Sorry. I think i did see you caned in the Broadie from time to time but i was in no better state myself ;)
Ruth was certainly a bit mad, but i really liked her. I know she had had some very bad things in her life and was dealing with them. The problem with hanging out with her was that once she was pissed she turned a little uncontrollable....i was thinking the other day about what she was up to these days - do you have any idea?
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h u b r i s.
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i was thinking the other day about what she was up to these days - do you have any idea?
living, or was living with Graeme Smith in Holmfirth... I know they've got a daughter.. but haven't spoken to Graeme (or Ruth) in about four years..
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Good honest reflective post there Jasper. Me and Gav Ellis were talking the other day about the fact it was good seeing you down at the works and climbing again, with wife and kids etc.
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Doug Hall lives on the isle of man. He gave up climbing and started windsurfing but is now climbing again. Has done several new routes at E5+ on the island. Climbed with him a couple of times, really nice guy, still no discernable dress sense though. And thats saying something coming from me.....
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Mick Lovatt. Big man in Preston council now, still climbing every weekend with the odd F8.
Chris Gore. Lives in the Lakes, gave up climbing after an elbow op. Concentrates on triathlons now.
John Dunne. Owns a big climbing wall in Manc. Has been spotted at Kilnsey falling in the stream and lapping Comedy.
Tony Mitchell. Successful GP, still out flashing V8.
Claudie Dunne. No longer married to Squawk, lives in Glossop I think.
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Ruth was certainly a bit mad, but i really liked her. I know she had had some very bad things in her life and was dealing with them. The problem with hanging out with her was that once she was pissed she turned a little uncontrollable....i was thinking the other day about what she was up to these days - do you have any idea?
Married with at least one sprog and head of department last I heard. Really sorted I think although I've not spoken to her for ages.
Good honest reflective post there Jasper.
Just read it back and it wasn't nearly as bad as it might have been considering the amount of wine I'd consumed. :oops:
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This thread has made me sad. Ive heard a few times about big names "giving up" climbing and I never really understood. Why, and more importantly, how? It just doesn't make any sense. I intend to leave uni, maybe hang round Leeds for a bit. Might try and get a job at the wall or something. Then move to North Wales or Sheffield or The Lakes and get a job in a gear shop. Sorted. Many grades shall be crushed. Almscliff will fall. :bounce:
This will continue until I die of old age or get hit by a bus or something.
Ha! You old people and your responsibilities.
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Read FOAM's posts at the top of page 2, echoing your sentiments. Not sure if he has thrown on the climbing as well, or just posting on here.
Everyone dreams like you at your age, but reality eventually crushes harder.
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I think what tends to happen nowdays is that you reach your late thirties and hit Malham hard before its too late all the time wondering why you wasted so much time fannying about trad climbing when you could have been getting fitter and stronger.
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Read FOAM's posts at the top of page 2, echoing your sentiments. Not sure if he has thrown on the climbing as well, or just posting on here.
Last I heard he wanted to go to Leeds but didn't make the grades, and was still training more than climbing. That was 2 years ago...
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. Sorted. Many grades shall be crushed.
This will continue until I die of old age or get hit by a bus or something.
Ha! You old people and your responsibilities.
Ok as (I presume) a yoof. Can you answer a question for me.
Why the UK? If I was young & carefree I'd be off to the Forest & get a job in a abar or something (I'm pretty tempted now & my remaining climbing lifetime must be measured in months rather than years).
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If I was young & carefree I'd be off to the Forest & get a job in a abar or something
I'd second that. Travel and get to various venues.
Go on Hunt, drop out of Uni and experience a life bouldering and bumming around :read:
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Bouldering aint really my thing. Am currently planning an expedition to Mongolia.
Who is FOAM? Everyone seems to know who everyone is in real life on here. Im none the wiser.
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Bouldering aint really my thing. Am currently planning an expedition to Mongolia.
Well ok (sorry fooled by website name...) but whatever sub-species of climbing you're into
there's lots better elsewhere (usually France)
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:off:
Been an interesting thread so far. Let's stop this tangent before we have pages of Listen yoof, let me teach you a lesson... ;)
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Bouldering aint really my thing. Am currently planning an expedition to Mongolia.
Well ok (sorry fooled by website name...) but whatever sub-species of climbing you're into
there's lots better elsewhere (usually France)
If you're into varied "short" trad there's not that much better elsewhere. America really. Others have good bits but the UK has a lot...
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I think what tends to happen nowdays is that you reach your late thirties and hit Malham hard before its too late all the time wondering why you wasted so much time fannying about trad climbing when you could have been getting fitter and stronger.
LOL, a good point!!
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I think what tends to happen nowdays is that you reach your late thirties and hit Malham hard before its too late all the time wondering why you wasted so much time fannying about trad climbing when you could have been getting fitter and stronger.
LOL, a good point!!
Substitute Bleau for Malham & forties for thirties & that's me
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I bumped into Dougie Hall at the Cornice two years back. He was climbing in a pair if Fire's and a harness one step up from a Whillan's :o. Didn't stop him cruising things like Clarion Call and Armistice Day :o :o. I remember him muttering something about 'I did these once a while back!'.
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If you're into varied "short" trad there's not that much better elsewhere.
I'll take your word for it. I assumed there'd be lots in & around the Alps & the dolomites I've always avoided those areas just in case. ::)
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jasper, yours is one of the few signatures missing from my copy. i'll have to get you to sign it one time.
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Are you serious you are only misssing a few cofe? That must be worth a few bob.
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you're not wrong.
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jasper, yours is one of the few signatures missing from my copy. i'll have to get you to sign it one time.
No problem. Who else are you missing?
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cheers. can't remember. will have a look when i get home.