Di on the first pitch
of The Beauty, Jebel um Ejil, Wadi Rum, late 1980s. © Tony Howard
There’s
a race of men that don’t fit in, a race that can’t stay still’
Robert Service
This
book is a life affirming read, confirming the joy of life. Few other
climbers have led such an existence or known or had experience of so
many lands, peoples and cultures. Howard’s story is of one that
happens to climbers as horizons expand, at first it is the meeting of
challenges on rock and mountain faces that is the raison d’etre of
their being, but travel begins to widen their mindset and becomes
ever more appealing.
The
author’s life is laid bare in 68 short chapters; and the sheer
breadth of place and event these reveal is impressive. His story
begins in Greenfield, on the edge of the Pennine moors in the West
Riding of Yorkshire. He was born there in 1940, at a crucial date in
the history of this country for in the May of that year, the Dunkirk
evacuation was under away. It was also in 1940 that rationing of food
and petrol began, and continued for some years after the end of
hostilities. It is interesting to speculate how these constraints
affected all of us who lived them, for many British climbers active
in the late 1940’s and 1950’s once it became possible, travelled
ever more widely to pursue their mountaineering ambitions, but I am
getting ahead of myself, although Tony Howard is an exemplar of such
a theory.
Greenfield
is probably a good place for a future climber to grow up, for it is
ringed around with crags, Wimberry, Ravenstones, Dovestones etc set
in the Chew Valley, and over the moors is to be found Laddow and
Shining Clough. Initially it was the immediate Pennine countryside
that became the author’s childhood playground, but then longer
excursions and inevitably seeing climbers in action on his local
outcrops, intrigued him and friends to have a go. There was a group
of climbers some of whom lived in the area, The Chew Valley Cragsmen,
which morphed into the Manchester Gritstone Club, and the author
became friends with Roy Brown one of their number who lived in a
converted chicken hut near to the Wimberry rocks.
Di on the committing
sixty-metre abseil into the Hidan Gorge. Once the ropes were pulled,
there was no way back. Jordan, 1998. © Tony Howard
By then a schoolboy
at Hulme Grammar School in Oldham he was influenced by Roy’s
enthusiasms, and began to travel to Wales, the Lakes and Scotland.
Quickly moving up the grades, and including meeting some of those he
would in later years enjoy exploratory trips with to Jordan and the
fabled Wadi Rum area. I guess the author was lucky to have started to
climb when he did, for the area he lived in was rife for development
and by 1958 he and his friends had pioneered almost 200 new routes in
that district. Leaving school that year with three A levels, he was
determined to follow an adventurous life, school was over and he was
going climbing! With his group of local climbers they formed their
own Club, the Rimmon and this like other such small groups of that
era were to have a major influence on the forward progress of British
climbing and exploration.
But
life is a succession of accidents, and via a family connection he
obtained a job on a Norwegian whaling ship the ‘Southern Venturer’.
In 1958 environmental concerns were not what they are now, the
International Whaling Commission decided on how many and what type of
whale might be caught, and as the author points out he was ignorant
then of the human impact on such species. In 1975 when Greenpeace
began a campaign against whaling the author was one of the first to
join up for he had seen the slaughter. However this Antarctic journey
had a real impact on his thinking, and it must have been educative
for someone so young. He had volunteered to act as assistant to the
Doctor and this meant a real emergency when a crew member fell from
the Crow’s nest resulting in severe internal injuries, which needed
a nine hour life saving operation, during which the author was the
one acting as the nurse, handing into the hands of the operator the
instruments he needed to cut, stitch and stop the internal bleeding.
Returning
via South Georgia once back in Greenfield he picked up where he had
left his climbing days, travelling at first on an ancient Royal
Enfield motor bike (which he crashed) hitching to Llanberis, off to
the Lakes, and winter climbing in Scotland. In 1962 the Rimmon
organised its first expedition to Arctic Norway, five took part in
this journey which included pioneering some new routes in Lofoten,
inspired by Per Prag’s guidebook to the Island. The author and
another Rimmon member Jonah ran out of money and from then on to get
back home meant working on the way in a cafe and a hotel, jumping
ferries and hitch hiking. This was a life style that was typical of
the 1950’s/1960’s climbing scene, peopled by some truly memorable
characters like Barry Kershaw. Who along with Don Whillans was the
most talked about figure then around, and well framed in the author’s
anecdotes, but who tragically succumbed to cancer whilst still a
legend for hard climbing, and bar fighting!
Once
home again the author had to earn a living, and for this he began to
work towards qualifying as a guide. He started his instructing career
at Plas y Brenin, then moved on to a post working for the
Mountaineering Association based at their hut, above Llanberis.
Working alongside Eric ‘Spider’ Penman, Rusty Baillie and his old
Chew Valley friend Roy Brown, he instructed beginners in the Pass, at
Tremadog and in Ogwen, later he worked at the Outward Bound Schools
in Ashburton, and Tywyn. A useful skill he learnt there was canoeing,
making what he and his fellow instructors believed was the first
crossing of Cardigan Bay and in 1965 he passed the then guides test.
Back
in the Chew Valley there occurred in the big winter of 1962/3 an
unprecedented event in the modern era, a huge avalanche.
Unfortunately four climbers who had been out on a nearby hill
climbing up the Wilderness Gully were caught in this. The two in the
lead Graham West and Michael Roberts were buried deeply, and the two
below not so. They managed to extricate themselves and go for help.
Arriving back from Wales the author set out immediately, and helped
to dig, but by the time West and Roberts were found the next day it
was too late. Like the author: I knew both of them, and they were
climbers who had made their names known by their pioneering,
particularly on Peak limestone to which West had written a guidebook.
With
the above foregoing the author was now set on a life of adventure, in
1963 a trip to the Dolomites, and then a mind expanding journey in
Morocco the following year, ascending Toubkal in winter conditions
then heading to Tafraout in the Anti Atlas. My memory had failed me
on this, for the author points out that this was the first visit by
any British climbers to this, what has become one of the most popular
rock climbing venues. I thought I was the first in 1987, returning
the following spring with John Beatty and Ron Fawcett but I stand
corrected. But of the climbing he had done up to 1965 it was dwarfed
by the authors and other fellow Rimmon club member’s successful
ascent of the Troll Wall in Romsdal, Norway. This the largest wall in
Europe was thought to be unclimbable, and the fact that this ascent
was achieved in good style by a team of mainly unknown British
climbers really figured in Scandinavian and European climbing
circles. Joe Brown noted having climbed in Romsdal himself that this
was ‘one of the greatest ever achievements by British rock
climbers’.
This
ascent led on to the author more or less living in Romsdal for quite
some time, he wrote a Cicerone guide to ‘Walks and Climbs in
Romsdal’ and continued to make first ascents there, but then life
overtook him, for he fell in love, married a Norwegian girl Mille in
1969 and later became the father of a daughter Tannith .Meanwhile a
spin off from the Troll climb was that the webbing belts and other
equipment they had designed for the climb became much in demand. With
Alan Waterhouse, Paul Seddon, and the author the Troll Company was
formed and in 1970, after prompting from Don Whillans who suggested
the original design, a sit harness was developed, the first of what
is now an essential piece of equipment used worldwide by rock
climbers and access workers. The Troll Company became legend, and any
time we had an event at the BMC I would call them, and they would
donate a barrel of beer to make the evening flow with bonhomie. I
recall one outstanding ‘Mountain Literature’ evening we held with
Harold Drasdo, Tony Barley and Ivan Waller as the speakers whilst
their donated beer flowed!
Exploring Zubia Cave,
then pristine but much of it now damaged by tourism. North Jordan,
2007. © Tony Howard
But
the author would not sit still and the call of the wild he could not
resist and soon he was packing and off to the Yukon, working in
extreme cold in an opencast mine and eventually moving his wife and
daughter to join him. Whilst in the Yukon he took on with another
novice a 1000 mile canoe journey following the gold Miner’s trail
of ‘98’,from the Mackenzie Delta to Dawson City, a journey which
took six weeks of hard and dangerous paddling. They stayed in Canada
for a couple of years, but then returned back to Greenfield and
Troll. The author’s ongoing adventurous life was set, designing and
promoting Troll equipment, but off whenever possible to explore and
climb in remote areas of Greenland, Iran, the Sahara including the
Hoggar, Morocco once again and the Sudan.
Putting strain on his
relationship with his Norwegian none climbing wife, who left him but
agreed to the author having custody of their daughter. So ends the
first half of this fascinating story, with enough action to justify
being a standalone book, but there is more, much more to enjoy in
part two, beginning with the discoveries in Jordan initially around
the Wadi Rum area but then further afield in that country.
The
idea to visit this unexplored region for climbing came about through
the author watching at Christmas 1983 a viewing of the film ‘Lawrence
of Arabia’ with some of its settings being in the Rum Mountains of
Jordan. And so in September 1984 the author and companions set out to
investigate the climbing potential of this area, and found in the
Wadi Rum one of the best desert climbing destinations in the world.
An extra bonus being its friendly Bedouin people, who for generations
had climbed to the summits of some of the areas peaks whilst on their
regular hunting trips; and their help and advice was crucial to the
author and his friends in their ongoing successful explorations,
which they have carried out now for over thirty years, including
eventually developing a long distance ‘Jordan Trail’; which took
its first completers 39 days to follow this challenging trek. The
author published in 1987, supported financially by the Jordanian
Tourism Board a Cicerone guide to ‘Treks and Climbs in the
Mountains of Rum and Petra’ which encouraged climbers from many
countries to visit.
Desert travel is a unique experience and having
spent time and journeys myself in parts of the Sahara, the Gobi and
Taklamakan I think I understand how the author became so enamoured of
such exploration. He also had a new soul mate, Di Taylor who could
climb and hack it as well as the author and his friends, who
eventually was to become his second wife. A criticism here about the
eleven Jordan mountain chapters, a map would have been helpful to
orientate the reader, for I became lost in the Rum canyons.
The
success of the author’s explorations in Jordan led on to
invitations to explore in Oman, Egypt, Libya, and Palestine. In the
latter the development of a new trek ‘The Nativity Trail’ partly
in Israel lead the author on a return visit, to become openly
critical of the political situation that pertains there. But between
times he was also off trekking and climbing in Thailand, India,
Ethiopia, Madagascar and Mali. Having sold the Troll Company he along
with Di are now free agents, and I note from a post on the Internet
last night they are back in the Rum mountains. This despite the
difficulties posed presently by Middle Eastern travel and the Syrian
tragedy.
So
this is a book to savour, and the second part with its myriad of
travel stories stands comparison with the writings of such as Dervla
Murphy, Bruce Chatwin and Colin Thubron. It is also an important
historical document, covering the development of life and climbing in
this country during the immediate post war years. The only weakness
for me is a lack of character delineation, for not a few of those who
appear within its pages such as Graham Desroy, Andy Perkins, and Don
Whillans their personalities and histories are known to me but I have
no knowledge of the lives and fates of many of the authors other
companions.
Di and me exploring the
Jordan Trail, 2015. © Tony Howard
Sadly I read near the end of the book of the death of
Bill Tweedale one of the participants in the Troll Wall climb, who I
have no knowledge of his character and life. But that apart this is a
volume to dip into again and again, for it is an inspirational read,
well illustrated by over a hundred colour photographs in three
inserted sections, and of an overall quality of production that is
now of the high standard set by this publisher.
Dennis Gray: 2019
QUEST
INTO THE UNKNOWN : Tony Howard. 440 pages perfect bound paperback.
Published by Vertebrate £14.95.
