Most people involved
in UK mountaineering know the Andy Cave story. The gauche young collier from
South Yorkshire who found himself ‘learning to breathe’ and discovered that the
sweetest, cleanest air of all was to be found in the mountains! With the
mining industry on the verge of tipping into catastrophic politically
engineered decline, he chose the perfect moment to get out of the industry and pursue the life of the itinerant crag
rat. Building up an impressive Alpine CV before cashing in his Coal Board
pension to fund three simultaneous Himalayan adventures.
It was a steep and
rapid learning curve which propelled the young tyke into the upper echelons of
UK mountaineering and cemented his reputation as a cool and solid performer
under pressure. Andy’s aforementioned
award winning autobiography and his ascent from the pit head to the mountain
heights, draws parallels with another
northern coal mining climber, Bill Peascod, whose inspirational story is recountered in his beautiful autobiography, ‘Journey After Dawn’. However,
while Peascod remained
a parochial climber,essentially fixed in his north Cumbrian fiefdom, Andy Cave found the challenges of
the Alps and Greater Ranges more to his
liking. Establishing cutting edge routes including his famous epic ascent of the north
face of Changabang with Brendan Murphy.
In Paul Diffley’s latest film, Distilled, 'Learning to
Breathe' has essentially been reprized into a 42 minute film biography of Andy’s
climbing life. Using the dramatic backdrop of Scottish Highland cliffs in their
finest winter raiment to frame Andy’s
narration. Presumably filmed in the 2012-13 winter season, these great vertical
snow and ice palaces have never looked more enticing or dramatic. A great
monochromatic playground where the only the splash of colour and movement is
provided by the climbers.
Kicking off on Waterfall Gully on The Ben, Andy and his
partner Gary Kinsey, work their way through various classic winter climbs
including The Curtain, Deep Throat and Tower Ridge, with Andy himself narrating
his life and times, as lost in a lonely, spindrift, ice tinkling vortex, he effortlessly picks his way through some unlikely
looking terrain. Credit to the
camera team who must have shivered in their winter apparel filming these
scenes. At least Andy and Co could keep moving to keep warm.
Rather incongruously, there is a brief passage showing Andy
soloing Fern Hill at Cratliffe Tor in summer conditions.
Given that the main meat of the film surrounds Andy in his Scottish winter
element then I wondered if perhaps this could have been dropped altogether with
the action footage just concentrating on his winter ascents? On the other hand,
perhaps the film could have included more pure rock climbing with interviews added
to extend the running time ? There
may have been logistical reasons for this however and it doesn’t really detract that much from the end
product.
As with all the Hot Aches films I’ve seen so far, the sound
and footage is pin sharp; the editing is spot on and all in all it’s a fine
piece of work from one of our most creative outdoor film outfits. No surprises
then that it won the coveted ‘People’s Choice’ award at the recent Kendal
festival.
JA
Photos: Hot Aches
