John Porter's- One Day as a Tiger- Review

John Porter’s One Day as a Tiger-(Alex Macintyre and the birth of lightweight and fast Alpinism) is an absorbing literary hybrid that is part biography and part autobiography. Ostensibly, the reader will get the impression that the book revolves around the eponymous doomed mountaineer whose star burned bright in climbing’s firmament for less than a decade before he was killed, aged just twenty eight on Annapurna. However this is just as much John Porter’s story; and why not... for the author’s achievements stand up in their own right and the Massachusetts  born, Lakeland dwelling mountaineer has his own fascinating tale to tell and that tale is skilfully woven into the life and times of his subject.

John Porter was Alex Macintyres’s friend and mountain partner for almost as long as Alex was active. From his early days with the infamous Leeds University Mountaineering Club until that final fatal day in 1982. John watched his friend graduate from the confident if limited crag rat, to the international respected mountaineer whose light weight ethic has been taken to the limit in modern times, by climbers like Ueli Steck.

‘Dirty Alex’ as he was known to his friends-which reflected his unkempt appearance and chaotic lifestyle rather than any unsavoury sexual predilections!- began his climbing life in the time honoured manner of his contemporaries. By working his way through the UK rock and ice classics before taking on the Alpine biggies. Porter describes Alex’s early days as unremarkable in that his talents at the time remained largely hidden. A solid if unspectacular performer who was happy enough to let better climbers take the lead on technical ground while he observed and developed his craft.

However, it wasn’t long before he had accelerated past most of these partners, bringing a fearlessness and almost fanatical drive to his armoury of technical skills. It was time to apply this potent force and passion to the challenges of the greater ranges of the Himalayas and the south American giants.

His achievements in this arena were extraordinary and his application of lightweight ‘hit and run’ Alpine techniques were revolutionary in an age when Himalayan climbing was defined by the vast scale of the enterprises. Throwing vast armies of mountaineers at a goal and almost battering the target into submission through weight of numbers, equipment and time. This was an anathema to Alex and his revolutionary approach harvested a rich reward . With equally committed partners he made eye-catching  Alpine-style first ascents and first attempts on, Changabang, Shishapangma and Makalu and with the author, took on some hair raising challenges in the Andes.

In train with his growing catalogue of achievements came a role with the BMC alongside Denis Gray. In many ways, his role as a climbing bureaucrat was in sharp contrast to his image as a mountaineering free spirit and trail blazer. Notwithstanding this apparent contradiction, he appears to have applied himself to the role with the same single mindedness and commitment as he applied to his mountain activities. At the same time, he followed on in Don Whillans’ footsteps and began to act as equipment consultant and designer for companies like UK based Karrimor ,who at the time was a respected player in the mountaineering equipment field, prior to it becoming just another arm of the Mike Ashley/Sports Direct empire and the importer of Chinese made goods which the company has evolved into today.

The ‘Alex Macintyre rucsack’ was amongst the more popular items he designed and which went into commercial production ( currently on my eBay watch out for list!) but seemingly as rare these days as hen’s teeth. Try looking for an image or info on Google.

As Alex entered the final period of his short life, friends including the author, had noticed a change in his previously determined but principled approach to climbing. His latter-day excursions into the mountains were marked by a ruthlessness and ambition which had no place for journeymen or 'tourists'. To say he didn’t suffer fools gladly would be an understatement. He put his bold climbing style- where he would often take on potentially life threatening sections on gnarly ground with non existent  protection- down to an ability to detach himself from reality and climb within a protective mind bubble. He also however, believed he could achieve astral projection and leave his body when he was in the Himalayas, to be with his partner in the Lakes. Not a gift you imagine someone like Don Whillans boasting about! 

This otherworldlyness allied to a ruthlessness in his latter day quests is most clearly defined  in a 1981 expedition he undertook to Shisha Pangma. An expedition led by Doug Scott. This ill tempered affair and the fractious nature of the campaign can be quite squarely attributed to Alex’s’ ambition and ego. As Doug Scott attempted to keep his team focused and united, Alex put personal ambition before anything else and appears to have offered nothing but contempt for a leader who was doing his best to accommodate everyone; not least the weaker members of the team. Alex was quite clear, he wanted to cut loose the weaker team members who were perceived as holding himself and partner Roger Baxter-Jones, back.  In this as in every campaign, success was everything. More so it would appear, than respecting and accommodating those climbers who were not in Alex’s league when it came to ability, drive and stamina.

It was during this period that he had announced to the author that ‘I want to be one of the world’s all time great mountaineers’. In this regard critics will say that to achieve that ambition a mountaineer needs to have more than drive, ambition and technical ability in their locker. Respect for others and respect for the environment have to come into the equation. There appears to be little doubt that Alex Macintyre-as one of an elite core of top end mountaineers- was single minded to the extent that his hit list of mountaineering targets became a holy grail to the detriment of relationships.

If he had lived through to his 60^th birthday in 2014, would he have made a great mountain leader? John Porter’s book suggests not, as he was certainly no Shackleton when it came to accommodating and respecting others. Did he respect the environment within which he lost his life? There is no doubt that he did although like all mountaineers at the sharp end, he was prepared to take risks and often though, risks which appeared disproportionately pointless and unnecessarily dangerous in relation to the end goal.

He was killed after being struck on the head by a rock on terrain which was notoriously loose and prone to rockfall, but then again, acting as a skittle in a bowling alley is not a unique role that Alex Macintyre played when pushing the envelope in the Himalayas. I’m left pondering what he would be doing today if he had lived? Would he have become a Bonington or Brown; a respected elder statesman within the community or would his ego and ambition mark him out as an outsider. I’ve already alluded to this above but I would guess from John Porter’s insider account that he certainly would have been respected but perhaps without becoming a popular personality within the community. Certainly you couldn't see him evolving into an avuncular Chris Bonington figure.

John Porter’s Banff winning  book, written from his unique perspective will, I’m sure, promote speculation and inspire debate  around Alex Macintyres’ place in the pantheon of mountaineering greats. At least his comment ‘I don’t want to play this game just to have a rucksack named after me’ hasn’t come to pass. His achievements will always speak for themselves and his influence continues to be recognized throughout the mountaineering world today.

Rating

John Appleby:2014

Redemption: The James Pearson Story.......Review

James Pearson is something of a veteran in rock climbing film circles these days. Having featured in several productions over the years, but usually as part of an ensemble alongside people like Hazel Findlay. In Redemption however, James gets the stage to himself  in a production which sets out to record an extraordinarily difficult period in his career. A period within which his reputation as one of our leading trad climbers was called into question and his achievements were dissected and undermined by that most viperous of climbing constituencies..the UKC forum!

Redemption begins with James setting out his stall on his local Peak crags. A section which uses footage of the young tyro repeating, and then very quickly establishing his own top end routes on the short, unforgiving edges within his local orbit. Setting himself the task of repeating Neil Bentley’s 2000 test piece- Equilibrium:(E10-7a)- footage taken at the time shows the bold James setting out above a blanket of snow and a hushed expectant audience. The brooding menace of his perilous situation is brought home by the contemporary commentary which reveals just how ‘outside the zone’ he was as he set off, and just how close to potential disaster he came as he hovered between the rock and a hard place. We watch with bated breath while James describes the dream like sequence where he watched as his thumb and finger began to peel from the tiny hold just as he psyched himself up to make the crucial crux move.

With Equilibrium in the bag, he sets out to establish his own hard test pieces in the area and within a short space of time, has routes like Burbage South’s The Promise (E10-7a) and Cratcliffe’s oft eyed but never led The Groove (E10-7b) on his CV. However, it is a difficult and dangerous ascent on a friable Culm sea cliffs on the Devon coast that acts as the spark which eventually ignites controversy.  After eventually bagging what becomes Walk of Life, James, believing it to surpass routes like The Promise and Equilibrium in difficulty, grades it E12-7a. A unique grading which would bracket it amongst the hardest climbs in the world. Footage taken at the time show him taking some big falls onto dubious gear. Most of which appears to rip out!  

Within a short period, James’s state of the art routes begin to attract the attention of fellow top end activists. Notably, a team of visiting American rock jocks who repeat his Peak routes quickly and without fuss before proffering their own opinion that routes like The Promise are actually no more than E8. To make matters worse, the venerable Dave Macleod arrives in the south-west whilst recovering from injury, repeats Walk of Life and gently suggests that the route is more like a straight E9-6c. Enter the Trolls! Actually, Dave Mac does admit in the film that he knew that his comments would unleash the forum hounds upon James and it’s something he felt uncomfortable about, but he felt he just had to put the record straight. Adding that James had nothing to feel bad about as he is ‘an amazing climber’ who has done some incredible things.

James on Culm's Walk of Life

Not that that JP’s achievements would dissipate the outpouring of scorn from the more vituperative ethics Nazis who patrol the climbing forums. A variation of ‘Yes...but what's he done on grit?’ very quickly became ‘Yes..but what’s he done on Rhapsody!’. (Rhapsody is Dave Macleod’s awesome Scottish E11 on Dumbarton Rock). Not surprisingly in the circumstances, James took this tidal wave of criticism to heart and took off to pastures new; living in Austria for a while and just taking in new locations and getting into sport climbing. A style which he felt brought on and complimented his solidly trad background.

It was while cruising around the continent that he met a mademoiselle who would become very much part of his life. In fact he liked her so much he married her! In this case, the beautiful and talented Caroline Ciavaldini. No slouch she on the rock face. Rare talent which can be seen in the Hot Aches 2012 film Odyssey. 

Back in the UK and imbued with a new steely resolve and confidence, James seeks redemption on Rhapsody. A route which appears to have surpassed The Indian Face as the holy grail of rock routes for all budding rock Gods. Not surprisingly, the film climaxes with James strung out on Dumbarton rock with the master himself, turning up to see if the pretender from the south can gravitate from apprentice to sorcerer!

Redemption-The James Pearson Story is everything you would expect from a Hot Aches movie by now. From the filming to the creative editing. Its sharp, focused and absorbing throughout.

Rating on the Krabometer

John Appleby:2014

Available soon from Hot Aches.  

Dangerous Dancing

After our failure on the Walker’s flank, three weeks of bad weather passed, and ideas changed. Terry King turned up, and Gordon Smith came back from Leysin. They directed their considerable charms towards the Croz Direct. I wanted to do the Dru Couloir and teamed up with Nick Colton, an ‘aristocrat’ from Manchester and one of the scruffiest people on God’s earth. Once, having just had a vision in which he had cleaned the Fissure Nominé, he threw away all our hardware except for an ice-screw and a couple of bugaboos. (ever lost eighteen krabs and twelve pegs at one go!) That night, two ‘enlightened’ persons perched themselves on top of the Petit Dru, to freeze in the teeth of a north-easterly and study a starlit and by then plastered Jorasses North Wall. Visions of Armageddon faded, and around midnight we cracked. We decided to go back for another try.

Which indeed we did, though we nearly didn’t because I left my head-torch behind and so dedicate this affair to the congenial Froggy who lent me his, and to the half-roll of Sellotape with which I repaired it. 10.30 pm, on August 6, 1976, found two little lads at the foot of the Walker Spur. This time we had decided to beat the ‘schrund’ with a short left cross. Water was still running, but the face was quiet and the night clear. To start the spur, we took the left-hand rock alternative (the initial ice-slope did not exist) and followed this as far as the main ice-slope that cuts into the buttress on the right. Then it was softly, softly rightwards, to slip between the upper ’schrund and the rocks above, out on to the ice-field for a tense tip-toe affair, like ants going the wrong way up a bowling alley, with not a sound uttered lest we bring the house down.

We hung left to avoid being anywhere below the mouth of the Japanese Gully- vulnerable, so vulnerable. A roar: hearts in boots, we froze in fear, but it was only a plane passing low from the south. 2.30 a.m. We hung back on our ice screws, sorting the gear,roping up, peering and wondering, because it looked steep up there. At least, it looked steep as far as we could see, which was as far as you can throw a head-torch. There was no moon and it was dark in the couloir.

There followed five pitches in a grand Scottish illusion: steep, bulging, demanding, all engrossing, totally rewarding. Up through a spindrift flow,in the teeth of a biting wind. Belays for sitting, but not for falling. Few runners- no time-fantastic stuff. We emerged with the daylight on to the ice-field separating the two rock-bands. Around us, ropes darted in and out of the ice like frozen umbilical cords. I counted footage, but thought in cash. We rescued a couple of shiny krabs and took a hefty swing at a little blue sack, but its coffin was hard and rubbery and it would have taken an hour to release, so we left it with parting tears.

It was no place to linger: a sensational, exposed, vulnerable, 50° platform in a vertical sea, a mean place to quit in trouble. Above, fixed ropes ran up a broad shallow gully of compact looking rock, but we were hungry for ice and, a little to the left, there seemed to be a connection with the runnel above. It looked a little like The Curtain on Ben Nevis, but the first 50ft. or so turned out to be unconsolidated powder, so we took to the steep and deceptive pile of rubble on the right. It was loose, a fact to which Nick swore blind as he sailed past for a sixty-footer on to a hapless second.

“Just hold tight and I’ll monkey up the rope.” He did, and reached the top of the pitch for a belay. There followed a full and interesting run-out, on the border between ice,and rock, and finally we were through the second barrier, with 1,000ft. of sensational climbing behind us. Then it was away up the cold, blue runnel that broadens out into the second ice-field. We front-pointed. Audoubert understands:

Now begins that very special ice dance, a rhythmic ballet in four movements, a mixture of barbaric and primitive gestures and classical movement. The character before his mirror of ice makes precise steps with his front points, like a lead dancer rehearsing. In this special ballet pirouettes are forbidden. The emphasis on the  curve of his calves and the strength of his ankles equals the fierce, attacking look on his face. The best dancer, like the best toreador, strikes only once.

It was a long haul. Away to our right we could pick out more ropes, relics of the mammoth Japanese siege. Somewhere round here Lachenal and Terray passed by, but I think it must have been in pretty bad visibility. We heard voices but saw no one. The ice was hard and, after three years’ wear, my poor Chouinards (God bless him!) let my toes know there was no more curve left. What had appeared to be three pitches up the ice extended to five, and we regained the rocks with creaking calves.

The final head-wall is about 800ft. In it, a well-defined gully system curls up and left in behind the Red Tower, to join the Walker Spur about two pitches below the summit. For about 400ft. It is backed by a thin ice weep. But this wouldn’t take the gear, so we kept to the right wall. It was mean stuff: deceptive, awkward, and inevitably loose. And this was no time for mistakes, for we were tired now. It seemed a long way from that 9.0 a.m. rise the day before. In the northerly wind, the rock was bitterly cold. Above, sunlit walls beckoned, but progress was slow and any thoughts we had dared to entertain of reaching the heat receded to the summit. Incredibly, we had seen no stones all day, but Nick made up for that by burrowing away through the rocks above. In places the second is nastily exposed. I took a slate on the leg, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Nick solved the problems of getting back into the gully bed by falling off.

“What’s happening?” “Nowt-just fallen off.” and finally we arrived at the summit of a dream, a couple of pitches down and desperate for a brew.We charged on up but then there were these two little ledges just asking to be sat upon, so much more comfortable than the cold, wet snow on the other side and so much more convenient. So we sat down, just five minutes short, to dine on cheese and ham butties, with coffee by the gallon. Rare moments: we were asleep before the night came. Next morning we woke late. The weather had closed in and it was doubly bitter.

The stove worked, but the theory didn’t. 20 minutes could only provide water on the rocks. We dozed over this cold brew until shouts from below drew us out of our lethargy. Two lads appeared, fresh as daisies, despite their fourth bivi. They were the first party up the Walker for weeks. We chewed hurriedly at laces and gloves and raced them to the summit. They had come thousands of miles to climb this hill. It was like Christmas on top of the Walker.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot...... And they all lived happily ever after.

Alex Macintyre: First published in Mountain 1977

An excursion over Kirkstone Pass in 1807

On the third morning after my arrival in Grasmere, I found the whole family, except the two children, prepared for the expedition across the mountains. I had heard of no horses, and took it for granted that we were to walk; however, at the moment of starting, a cart - the common farmers’ cart of the country-made its appearance; and the driver was a bonny young woman of the vale.

Such a vehicle I had never in my life seen used for such a purpose; but what was good enough for the Wordsworths was good enough for me; and, accordingly, we were all carted along to the little town, or large Village, of Ambleside - three and a half miles distant. Our style of travelling occasioned no astonishment; on the contrary, we met a smiling salutation wherever we appeared - Miss Wordsworth being, as I observed, the person most familiarly known of our party, and the one who took upon herself the whole expenses of the flying colloquies exchanged with stragglers on the road. 

What struck me with most astonishment, however, was the liberal manner of our fair driver, who made no scruple of taking a leap, with the reins in her hand, and seating herself dexterously upon the shafts (or, in Westmorland phrase, the 'trams' of the cart.)

From Ambleside - and without one foot of intervening flat ground - begins to rise the famous ascent of Kirkstone; after which, for three long miles, all riding in a cart drawn by one horse becomes impossible. The ascent is computed at three miles, but is, probably, a little more. In some parts it is almost frightfully steep; for the road being only the original mountain track of shepherds, gradually widened and improved from age to age, (especially since the era of tourists began), is carried over ground which no engineer, even in alpine countries, would have viewed as practicable.

In ascending, this is felt chiefly as an obstruction and not as a peril, unless where there is a risk of the horses backing; but in the reverse order, some of these precipitous descents are terrific: and yet, once in utter darkness, after midnight, and the darkness irradiated only by continual streams of lightning, I was driven down this whole descent, at a full gallop, by a young woman – the carriage being a light one, the horses frightened, and the descents, at some critical parts of the road, so literally like the sides of a house, that it was difficult to keep the fore wheels from pressing upon the hind legs of the horses.

Indeed, this is only according to the custom of the country, as I have beforementioned. The innkeeper of Ambleside, or Lowwood, will not mount this formidable hill without four horses. The leaders you are not required to take beyond the first three miles; but, of course, they are glad if you will take them on the whole stage of nine miles, to Patterdale; and, in that case, there is a real luxury at hand for those who enjoy velocity of motion.

The descent into Patterdale is much above two miles; but such is the propensity for flying down hills in Westmoreland that l have found the descent accomplished in about six minutes, which is at the rate of eighteen miles an hour; the various turnings of the road making the speed much more sensible to the traveller. The pass, at the summit of this ascent, is nothing to be compared in sublimatity with the pass under the Great Gavil from Wastdalehead; but it is solemn, and profoundly impressive. At a height so awful as this, it may be easily supposed that all human dwellings have been long left behind: no sound of human life, no bells of churches or chapels ever ascend so far.

On the solitary area of tableland which you find at the summit - though, heaven knows, you might almost cover it with a drawing-room carpet, so suddenly does the mountain take to its old trick of precipitous descent, on both sides alike there are only two objects to remind you of man and his workmanship. One is a guide-post - always a picturesque and interesting object, because it expresses a wild country and a labyrinth of roads, and often made much more interesting (as in this case) by the lichens which cover it, and which record the generations of men to whom it has done its office; as also by the crucifix form which inevitably recall, in all mountainous regions, the crosses of Catholic lands, raised to the memory of wayfaring men who have perished by the hand of the assassin.

The other memorial of man is even more interesting: - Amongst the figments of rock which lie in the confusion of a ruin on each side of the road, one there is which exceeds the rest in height, and which, in shape, presents a very close resemblance to a church. This lies to the left of the road as you are going from Ambleside; and, from its name, Churchstone (Kirkstone,) is derived the name of the pass, and from the pass the name of the mountain. The guide-post - which was really the work of man - tells those going southwards (for to those who go northwards it is useless, since, in that direction, there no choice of roads) that the left hand track conducts you to Troutbeck, and Bowness, and Kendal; the right hand to Ambleside, and Hawkshead, and Ulverstone.

The church - which is but a phantom of man’s handiwork - might, however, really be mistaken for such, were it not that the rude and almost inaccessible state of the adjacent ground proclaims the truth. As to size, that is remarkably difficult to estimate upon wild heaths or mountain solitudes, where there are no leadings through gradations of distance, nor any artificial standards, from which height or breadth can be properly deduced.

This mimic church, however, has a peculiarly fine effect in this wild situation, which leaves so far below the tumults of this world; the phantom church, by suggesting the phantom and evanescent image of a congregation, where never congregation met; of the peeling organ, where never sound was heard except of wild natural notes, or else of the wind rushing through these mighty gates of everlasting rock - in this way, the fanciful image that accompanies the traveller on his road, for half a mile or more, serves to bring out the antagonist feeling of intense and awful solitude, which is the natural and presiding sentiment – the religio loci - that broods for ever over the romantic pass.

Thomas de Quincy