[danm]

You're still my hero Niall, if only for that one time when you got me to throw the Road Closed sign out of the way so you could drive us home over the snow-bound Snake Pass, with the Duke's of Hazard soundtrack on the car stereo "Just 2 Good Ol' Boys, Doing The Best That They Can". Yeehah!

[andy popp]

If you fall off soloing Vector then one confidently say that you have completely fucked up.

[Johnny Brown]

The bit I can't remember about Pete and Ryan was who was carrying the bottle at the time?

[Paul B]

Gus, Grimer and the font jumper incident was fairly amusing as a tale.

[mrjonathanr]

Grand Horizontal was so named after the line was spotted from an, um, horizontal position.

[Drew]

Did y'all hear the one about Eric Jones falling off while soloing in the Alps, only for a fifi hook attached to his harness to catch in the eye of a piton hammered in just below him saving his life. He then proceeded to finish the route rather than take an easier variation just alongside.

[Will Hunt]

On that note, was it Kirkus who would cycle off to north Wales and solo new routes, with his only protection being a route that he trailed behind him with a knotted end, that would hopefully catch in a crack on the way down. As I heard it, the one time this was tested it somehow worked!

I think that's just off the scale of unbelievable. More likely he trailed a knotted rope that he could wedge in a crack for a rest or to protect the odd hard move.

[Eddies]

I was once told that Justin Critchlow soloed The Sloth in Wellington boots and a brown paper bag over his head, with his mates shouting him beta!

[webbo]

Chloe Brooks led Rectum Rift pissed Steve Bancroft followed naked  and barefoot. Chloe was belaying laid down in a sort of horizontal rift with no belay, with rope round his neck.
I also think Steve and John Allen did Quetius naked.

[shark]

Did anyone hear about Steve Allen soloing up and down Piranha in wellies? Surely bollocks?

[kingholmesy]

I've heard of Ken Palmer doing various routes at Ansteys in his wellies, can't remember which - maybe Just Revenge or The Lynch?

[kingholmesy]

I'm pretty sure I also remember a tale from one of my old timer mates of a young Ben Bransby falling off the top of Chee Dale cornice after some miscommunication with his belayer, landing flat on his back on my mate's sandwich box completely destroying it, and walking away unscathed.

Can anyone confirm whether this is true?

[TobyD]

I'm pretty sure I also remember a tale from one of my old timer mates of a young Ben Bransby falling off the top of Chee Dale cornice after some miscommunication with his belayer, landing flat on his back on my mate's sandwich box completely destroying it, and walking away unscathed.
Can anyone confirm whether this is true?

I don't know about either of the previous anecdotes, but I have seen Bransby soloing Western Front in wellies.

[shark]

I've heard of Ken Palmer doing various routes at Ansteys in his wellies,

Proper Devon style Ooh arr me lover

[haydn jones]

Climbing related due to it being about a climber. Dan honeyman used to reinforce his wingmirrors and joust with oncoming cars trying to take there wingmirrors off.

James thornton the night before doing the ace in a desperate bid to loose weight dehydrated himself by drink 6 cans of stella then taking a scorching hot bath to sweat out all the water. In the morning he had nothing but 2 strong shots of coffee. Weighing himself to have lost 4 kilos in water weight. Knowing the time was right he headed for the ace only to find himself to exhausted to carry the pads and had to rely on his partner incrime to carry the pads up for him.

[slackline]

Dan honeyman used to reinforce his wingmirrors and joust with oncoming cars trying to take there wingmirrors off.

Did he drive everywhere in reverse?

[Doylo]

Dan honeyman used to reinforce his wingmirrors and joust with oncoming cars trying to take there wingmirrors off.

Did he drive everywhere in reverse?

He also used to speed up going through speed cameras as he had a French number plate. So scary driving through the peak with him, especially as he was screaming 'that's fuckin E8' whilst overtaking a car on a blind corner .

[Wil]

Did someone once get stuck in a handjam on Ressurection on the Cromlech and have to be rescued?

One on Noah's Warning.

[SamT]

He also used to speed up going through speed cameras as he had a French number plate. So scary driving through the peak with him, especially as he was screaming 'that's fuckin E8' whilst overtaking a car on a blind corner .

Did he drive a red van...



There must be some Johnny Driving rumours.

[mrjonathanr]

Well it's not exactly a rumour.....

Johnny (driving back to Cereste from Chateauvert with, amongst others, Sean and Ben in the car) mistakes an S bend you had to slow to take with single right hander you could accelerate through at 60+
Inevitably this meant flying round the bend, on the wrong side of the road, at over 60 mph before the car started jumping around in a series of power wiggles eventually coming to stability and a stop. There was nothing else on the road, obviously.

It's not a rumour because I was in the car too.

H e didn't seem overly chastened as flying into Apt to celebrate with pizza after Ben did Maginot Line a couple of days later he seemed to have no fear of the black ice that was liberally spread along the carriageway. A cold winter that one.

[bigironhorse]

I heard that a certain prolific north york moors new router had such long arms as a teenager that he went to the doctors to see why they wouldn't stop growing!

[mrjonathanr]

I think so....the stream at the back of the house froze solid and once in front of the fire you couldn't leave otherwise you'd never be able to get close again to get warm.

Don't remember any furniture being burnt.. although I do recall one famous gritstone climber running about Benny Hill-like, wearing nothing but a long sleeved t-shirt and his manhood shouting 'come back Sean'.  Sean didn't oblige.

[petejh]

Did someone once get stuck in a handjam on Ressurection on the Cromlech and have to be rescued?

One on Noah's Warning.

My partner got his hand stuck fast in a crack near the top of Zambezi on the slate while leading it. I had to take him off belay, run around to the top of the route and drop a rope to him. Took a good fifteen minutes to free himself, thought I was going to have to go to into beris for some fairy liquid!

[Wood FT]

Did someone once get stuck in a handjam on Ressurection on the Cromlech and have to be rescued?

One on Noah's Warning.

nice, cheers.

[Will Hunt]

There is a Facebook group on the go called "Friends of Pex Hill" started by Pete "Pekkie" Trewin. He's doing a series of Pex Myths and Legends, a few comments from which I'd like to share with you lovers of tall tales:

On recalling a massive quarry in Whiston with some big routes in it - now filled in!

That Aid line in Whiston, you started it off the top of a fridge to get the first bolt head. I can remember being 2/3rds up and my brother was belaying, he shouted up at me, 'look-out!' as a single mattress was flung off by one of the owners of the properties. On another occasion I got hit by a load of grass cuttings!

Big Ewan. Reputation for being as hard as a bag of six inch nails from B&Q. But underneath that tough exterior beats a warm heart. And I will prove it with this story. Myth, legend or apocryphal – it should be true.
 Pete Chadwick is just sitting down to his evening meal when he gets a call on his mobile. It is Ewan.
‘Pete, help! I was on a run in Sefton Park and I’ve been mugged by a gang of scallies!’
Pete jumps in his car and finds Ewan sitting on a wall covered in blood. He takes him back to his flat, washes the blood off and is amazed to find that there isn’t a scratch on him. It was all other people’s blood.
‘So what happened to the scallies?’ says Pete. ’How many of them were there?’
 ‘About six.’
 ‘Six? Shouldn’t we tell the police?’
 ‘Oh no, they’ll be all right. I left them all in the recovery position.’

Separately, but still on the subject of "Big Ewan", I honestly can't remember whether this was said while we were watching the fight itself, or whether it was simply being recalled in conversation. Said fight was taking place at the top of The Knife - home to the biggest potential plummet in Pex - and was being fought between two scallies. The only comment Ewan could make, with a doleful shake of his head, was that both of their brawling techniques were shocking, absolutely shocking. Really crap fighters they were.

Our first trip to Pembroke in 1982 with the late Tom Herley and Jim Hewson. We went down in Tom's Opel Ascona. He drove across the Widnes bridge in the "3rd lane" whilst telling us that he'd just welded the back axle together. What a journey! We arrived late at night and pitched our tents at the top of Mother Carey's kitchen. In the morning Jim and Tom abseiled down on Tom's hawser laid rope....it creaked! As I was just about to abseil on it, Tom shouted up that he'd found it in the Alps. Mike immediately uncoiled our ropes and we abseiled in on those. RIP Tom.