[SA Chris]

I remember seeing their names come up on Enormocast Podcast, but never listened, might do that now.

https://enormocast.com/2018/06/episode-152-mark-hudon-and-max-jones-as-free-as-can-be/

[duncan]

Great little film, didn't give much reason why he didn't give the boulder problem option a bit more work?

I guess as he’s a proper trad daddy he may not have ever bouldered 7b+ and therefore wouldn’t have much of a shot at the boulder problem. Also seem to remember reading (when Haze did it maybe?) that it’s a lot harder if you’re short and he looks really small.

Mark is 5’ 2”.

I would have thought that he must think that if he’d been allowed the ethics of today I.e. rapping down to practice the moves and placing bolts. He and Max could have free climbed El Cap in the late 1970s.

I wondered about this too. We’ll never know but my guess is close but no cigar. Font. 7b+ was world class then and these guys were not really boulderers. The weird thing is why Kauk - who clearly was physically capable - didn’t try. 

What became of Max Jones (I could google).  Thought  it was strange that there was no real mention of him.

Max took up mountain biking, reached a very high level in this,  and runs a mountain biking centre in Tahoe. He and Mark teamed up again and climbed several El Cap. aid routes including Reticent Wall in 2011-14.  As Chris says, there is a good enormocast featuring the two of them: https://enormocast.com/episode-152-mark-hudon-and-max-jones-as-free-as-can-be

[SamT]

 

[jwi]

While translating, editing and expanding my twenty page blogpost on Verdon, I came across this extract from the film La porte des Cieux. The first French film to showcase free climbing, I've been told

[mrjonathanr]

A little gem. Shoulder belays and abseils without knotted ends- captures a different era. Merci.

[Yossarian]

The Jordan and Mark film is sooo good! I followed them both on Instagram a while back after hearing The Enormocast, but hadn’t fully grasped Mark’s history. We were driving back from Font last night, stuck in Paris traffic (and missed our ferry) listening to Hangdog Days, and finally realised what a badass he was. Doing the second ascent of the Phoenix (without cams) must’ve felt hardcore...

[seankenny]

I also enjoyed the film, and like Yossarian follow them on Instagram. Strong Graeco-Roman vibe on both which I find extemely sweet.

[seankenny]

I’m always stunned by how in the 60s, 70s and early 80s (This is from 84 apparently) there were documentaries on normal TV with immersive 20-minute sections of uninterrupted trad climbing footage, with high quality natural sound, seemingly no reconstructed close-up shots or even music over the top. Today it’s incredibly rare to find that in specialist online climbing films, let alone on BBC2!

TV was just done at such a different pace back then. Last year I attempted to watch Blake's 7 - for the youth, that's a late 70s BBC science fiction series - which I'd known about as a kid but I was a bit too young for at the time. The ideas were good and the acting just fine, but it was so slow as to be almost unwatchable. Same when I went back to Day of the Triffids, which I remember as being totally thrilling when it first came out, but again, it was so slow to my 21st century eye.

Old TV works really well when it was basically filming a play, so I, Claudius is still a really good watch (if you can ignore the rickety sets, but what's an imagination for).

That Fawcett film where he's in the Verdon is a similar level of slow and immersive footage. It's just great.

[ali k]

Follows a very well-worn Yosemite film groove (seems mad to release a film in 2020 and describe the distinction between the Boulder Problem and Teflon Corner pitches on Freerider without even mentioning Free Solo) but I really enjoyed it.

I’ve been waiting to sit down and watch this after all the comments on here and now it’s bloody password protected! 

[Ged]

Ali, if it makes you feel any better it was easily the best climbing film ever made, ever. Apparently it will never be available to watch ever again. Hope that helps.

[Wood FT]

Follows a very well-worn Yosemite film groove (seems mad to release a film in 2020 and describe the distinction between the Boulder Problem and Teflon Corner pitches on Freerider without even mentioning Free Solo) but I really enjoyed it.

I’ve been waiting to sit down and watch this after all the comments on here and now it’s bloody password protected! 

Karma for route hogging, you evil bastard.

[Muscle.Coach]

Pete Whillance E5 FA. I’d seen a photo from this in the Gable and Pillar guide but didn’t realise it was from a film.  Amazing how calm Whillance is on runouts with no helmet and a bloody Swami belt!

I’m always stunned by how in the 60s, 70s and early 80s (This is from 84 apparently) there were documentaries on normal TV with immersive 20-minute sections of uninterrupted trad climbing footage, with high quality natural sound, seemingly no reconstructed close-up shots or even music over the top. Today it’s incredibly rare to find that in specialist online climbing films, let alone on BBC2!

This is amazing to watch, he looks strong and fit. I’d like to know more about his process and how he worked up to the grade. Those biceps!

[andy popp]

he looks strong and fit. I’d like to know more about his process and how he worked up to the grade. Those biceps!

Overwhelmingly just by climbing - a lot! There were walls, of a sort, but I don't think anyone was doing anything approaching structured or systematic training; maybe Jerry and Ben, but not the trad folks. I really think it's as a simple as that.

When I was starting out, Whillance and all that crew were in the magazines all the time - I always had them down as the archetypal northern hard man bastards - but if you've ever seen the little film about Eden valley sandstone (which I really enjoyed) Whillance actually comes across as a rather lovely gentle bloke.

[gardinrm]

Enjoyed that enormously. Loved the chatter between them.

[Wood FT]

I really enjoyed this slow climbing movie by Andy Moles.

[spidermonkey09]

Some good Ceuse footage and general chat about the place. Gutted I didn't get there this year. Maybe next...

[jwi]

It was really a lot nicer in Céüse this summer than previous years, due to Corona. Quite a lot of people, but they generally behaved normally at the crag. So much so that I became somewhat chauvinist.

[mrjonathanr]

Well you were in France...

[SA Chris]

Need to get back up there sometime, probably not to do Dave and Iain Small's routes though.

[guypercival]

Groove Train looks amazing

[jwi]

Never mind all that. This is the best climbing video of all time.



it has twenty-seven kneebars, seventeen minutes of allez/venga and Citro on a ladder, holding up a fan.

[spidermonkey09]

Citro putting a remarkable shift in there with the fan. Quality stuff

[andy popp]

"Super, Dave. Continue."

[Teaboy]

it has twenty-seven kneebars, seventeen minutes of allez/venga and Citro on a ladder, holding up a fan.

The game's gone, Clive

[cheque]

The minion holding a fan was strangely absent in Dave’s “had a go when I was tired, didn’t expect to get very far” humblebrag write-up.

Every time I see a video of this route I think “this cave start seems a bit contrived, must come out onto an amazing cliff to be so famous” then the climber turns the lip and it looks like Pleasley Vale.