tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83818188089831964532024-02-22T02:08:42.478+00:00Those Who DaredTwo hundred years of adventure journalismRichard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.comBlogger193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-80509260338348617902018-07-20T12:58:00.001+01:002018-07-23T09:32:27.016+01:00The Hurly Burly - Outdoor Swimming Society's autumn adventure<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Set in North Wales on the edge of Snowdonia, the Outdoor Swimming Society's Hurly Burly is a challenging 10km swim up the<span style="font-family: "minionpro";"> Mawddach estuary. Heading off on a fast incoming
spring tide, swimmers travel through stunning scenery and changing water conditions, before ending up at the hamlet of </span></span><span style="font-family: "minionpro";"><span style="font-size: large;">Penmaenpool. <a href="https://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/the-hurly-burly/">This year's event</a> takes place on 29 September, but my experience at the inaugural Hurly Burly can be read in <a href="https://outdoorswimmer.com/">Outdoor Swimmer</a> magazine.</span> </span></span></span></span>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihwgSUiEOlTi836eE2tTm-Rxxn_89PMKqZ9agR8IGIvHbzzarvq0KRWCBMm45mBTickvP0tL5wd3whTwAzmdy7VjnsC9R8S8G1OQ9yhRFZpFJ2yORCRsHz8Rg9jx9X8ssyDqd2dwYZ-Qc/s1600/Hurly+Burly+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1029" data-original-width="1600" height="409" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihwgSUiEOlTi836eE2tTm-Rxxn_89PMKqZ9agR8IGIvHbzzarvq0KRWCBMm45mBTickvP0tL5wd3whTwAzmdy7VjnsC9R8S8G1OQ9yhRFZpFJ2yORCRsHz8Rg9jx9X8ssyDqd2dwYZ-Qc/s640/Hurly+Burly+copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdaKIOPm1lzgOJDM-ZsJ_Ye9qBb8BzElg1s7KeBmLuHMm873QVeyteIu9faXZRbOlHvadvyotsD0nc_C0T5OJ_TVLCQauZdzS87uaSvuK-Z1pr59gzUWdifRULB8i_Mnih9OgfTsvzUs/s1600/Picture+969.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="822" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdaKIOPm1lzgOJDM-ZsJ_Ye9qBb8BzElg1s7KeBmLuHMm873QVeyteIu9faXZRbOlHvadvyotsD0nc_C0T5OJ_TVLCQauZdzS87uaSvuK-Z1pr59gzUWdifRULB8i_Mnih9OgfTsvzUs/s400/Picture+969.png" width="346" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Outdoor Swimmer, November 2017.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-55233649516848242392018-04-21T22:55:00.000+01:002018-04-21T23:14:44.302+01:00Tarnbagging in the Lake District<span style="font-size: large;">In the 1950s, Colin Dodgson and Timothy Tyson swam in every tarn (463 according to them) in the Lake District. I tell their story in the April edition of <a href="https://outdoorswimmer.com/">Outdoor Swimmer</a>. Apart from a couple of news reports in 1959, little has been written about these two outdoor swimming pioneers so it was good to bring their amazing feat to a wider audience.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, 'collecting the tarns' came after many years of bagging mountains. By 1951 they had climbed all the Munros (Scottish mountains over 3,000 feat), plus most of the English, Welsh and Irish peaks. Real outdoor heroes.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHW6WYdrfoX8Pe8mBGaaL8kOsj-CGwi4gw5KWe_Eybtw6hMRSUp3Y2wLQPQHQ-mTByjO0VTNlGnixaMyOQC9pPFrfTB3MQkUZQ62hvophKOQNIbtEqESNE5vhOfrBBj1gfvp6et6frpBw/s1600/Tarnpic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1572" data-original-width="1174" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHW6WYdrfoX8Pe8mBGaaL8kOsj-CGwi4gw5KWe_Eybtw6hMRSUp3Y2wLQPQHQ-mTByjO0VTNlGnixaMyOQC9pPFrfTB3MQkUZQ62hvophKOQNIbtEqESNE5vhOfrBBj1gfvp6et6frpBw/s640/Tarnpic.jpg" width="475" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outdoor Swimmer, April 2018.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Read more in Outdoor Swimmer, Issue 13, April 2018.</span>Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-46760180834913479352017-07-13T11:50:00.001+01:002017-07-13T12:57:34.221+01:00Adventure Films Underground<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjedNZA-MDbkoMUKePKn2lQUFysbIvQrauiXV0epmTCcL-GES2aJBTOOW-WoP38B-koF-5rcQZZsGHxA4haX0ZZr6jHr_rNft43Yx2SrraJqBc4Js8c9wLiIxS3ieysd8dsjiTP2JeTZQ/s1600/Brunel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="512" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjedNZA-MDbkoMUKePKn2lQUFysbIvQrauiXV0epmTCcL-GES2aJBTOOW-WoP38B-koF-5rcQZZsGHxA4haX0ZZr6jHr_rNft43Yx2SrraJqBc4Js8c9wLiIxS3ieysd8dsjiTP2JeTZQ/s400/Brunel.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doorway inviting adventurers to a night of film in the Rotherhithe shaft.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">London based <a href="https://secretadventures.org/">Secret Adventures</a> hosts all manner of 'off grid' events for urban dwellers in search of excitement. Set up on networking site Meetup in 2014, its adventures include everything from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/13/kayak-on-the-thames-at-night">kayaking up the Thames</a> at night, secret swims, to husky sledging in the Arctic Circle. <br /><br />But the activities also act as a way of connecting with like-minded people and - hopefully - generating ideas for future trips.<br /><br />This was certainly the case at <a href="https://secretadventures.org/secret/adventure-films-underground/">Adventure Films Un</a><a href="https://secretadventures.org/secret/adventure-films-underground/">derground</a>, a recent venture held at the <a href="http://www.brunel-museum.org.uk/">Brunel museum </a>in Rotherhithe, London. Here, in the soot scorched shaft that was the entrance hall to Brunel’s 19th-century tunnel under the Thames, three inspirational films were shown to an excited crowd of thrill-seekers. <br /><br />First up was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skew7cgkW9w">The Swimming Granny</a>, a short documentary about Maria á Heygum, an 85-year from the Faroe Islands who swims everyday in the sea. She found it helped cure her postnatal depression when she was a young woman and has been swimming in the sea ever since.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Next on the bill was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgzqo-PHr2c">North of the Sun</a>, a film about two Norwegian surfers who spent nine months on an isolated beach in the Arctic Circle - part of the time in permanent darkness. There was plenty of exciting surfing - and even snowboarding - footage but most inspiring was their ingenuity in constructing a cabin, complete with stove and chimney. Building materials consisted of driftwood and rubbish found on the beach.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Mgzqo-PHr2c/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mgzqo-PHr2c?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Before a short break, Madoc Threipland, founder of Secret Adventures, urged everyone to exchange exploration ideas with at least one other person. I ended up chatting to fellow audience members about new (possibly illegal) wild swims along with places to camp near major cities. There was also a chance to visit the excellent museum. <br /><br />The second half of the evening saw the screening of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLZ8G2IYhno">And Then We Swam</a>, the tale of two friends who decided to row across the Indian Ocean - despite neither of them ever having actually rowed before. It was a classic 'enthusiastic amateur' escapade, although it certainly contained a few very dark moments. The key lesson though seemed to be learn how to be a strong open water swimmer. <br /> <br />A very enjoyable evening that hopefully left everyone thinking abut future adventures. </span>Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-1101745192915401302017-07-12T15:36:00.003+01:002017-07-13T09:12:02.956+01:00Höga Kusten: Sweden's High Coast<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0R1JouwIxpnZC-oz82UMDNTmp8_Wb8JqKhtvhuzXD76OU9TailokolP1poCPyNi2e6hE4GGfVrFej62o2yNClwML1BFPe6lKlvv1VW0RuKdLuVoN45ow2f1po2h_NY-vmgb2ymnEZAas/s1600/Picture+633.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="799" data-original-width="1143" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0R1JouwIxpnZC-oz82UMDNTmp8_Wb8JqKhtvhuzXD76OU9TailokolP1poCPyNi2e6hE4GGfVrFej62o2yNClwML1BFPe6lKlvv1VW0RuKdLuVoN45ow2f1po2h_NY-vmgb2ymnEZAas/s400/Picture+633.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/jul/02/sweden-high-coast-uplift-walking-climbing-camping">The Guardian, 2 July 2017</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sweden's High Coast is bizarre landscape that is quite literally on the rise. The area is real adventure wonderland offering everything from wild camping kayaking and a rather good via ferrata. Read about it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/jul/02/sweden-high-coast-uplift-walking-climbing-camping">here</a>. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span>Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-65896586371136438502016-11-02T16:46:00.002+00:002016-11-02T16:57:35.141+00:00Climbing Days <style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Verdana;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
@page Section1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;
mso-header-margin:36.0pt;
mso-footer-margin:36.0pt;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
</style><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Climbing-Days-Dan-Richards/dp/057131192X">Climbing Days</a>, by Dan Richards, is an exploration of the writing and climbing feats of his great great aunt and uncle Dorothy Pilley and IA Richards. The book borrows its title from Dorothy’s own 1935 memoir Climbing Days which chronicled the pair’s pioneering climbs during the 1920s - including the first ascent of the North Ridge of Dent Blanche. <br /><br />While vaguely aware of his relations’ reputation - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._A._Richards">IAR</a> was an influential 20th century literary figure - it wasn’t until Dan came across Pilley’s writing that he discovered the extent of their climbing achievements. <br /><br /> Rather than a conventional biography, the book is Dan’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/sep/15/dorothy-pilley-climbing-dan-richards-adventure-travel">attempt to understand</a> the pair by retracing some of their steps. He travels to Wales, the Lake District, and learns to climb himself in order to make an ascent of the Dent Blanche. <br /><br /> This is a highly enjoyable book, full of fascinating detail, that has sent me off in search of the original. Read how reviewers greeted it back in 1935.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwV9UrHG0BC-eYSiyySNSaCarnS9xJeaQ9SyBeBMOCPIgLcb7J2E9a9mQ_JPHL_sKUiV-RDg8WbTJda7r9y7jZxbibLdgfG3GP87EgG73Ctyg57QVvxV_dgb2amg9S0nryFJMs-RetZdk/s1600/ManGdn+29+May+1935.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwV9UrHG0BC-eYSiyySNSaCarnS9xJeaQ9SyBeBMOCPIgLcb7J2E9a9mQ_JPHL_sKUiV-RDg8WbTJda7r9y7jZxbibLdgfG3GP87EgG73Ctyg57QVvxV_dgb2amg9S0nryFJMs-RetZdk/s640/ManGdn+29+May+1935.jpg" width="344" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manchester Guardian, 29 May 1935.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
An advert for the book appeared in the Observer on 19 May 1935.</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS8acGyYIv3_wkWoXHaxpYI8ZpkkkYzQtQjdUl1bd7EcFjvbo-focYI4OWuQ_YiXyL0Zk5Lt6QPPYiikAOxLx9_FpnbCloPU8uo1ZGpLP2yMU4yegDyOTJ8Sxnk8xfo92le-0O6vr5pU4/s1600/Obs+advert+19+May+1935.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS8acGyYIv3_wkWoXHaxpYI8ZpkkkYzQtQjdUl1bd7EcFjvbo-focYI4OWuQ_YiXyL0Zk5Lt6QPPYiikAOxLx9_FpnbCloPU8uo1ZGpLP2yMU4yegDyOTJ8Sxnk8xfo92le-0O6vr5pU4/s400/Obs+advert+19+May+1935.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Observer, 19 May 1935.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-19529751425708094952016-07-22T15:29:00.000+01:002016-11-02T11:55:24.557+00:00Breca Buttermere swimrun<span style="font-size: large;">At the beginning of July, along with teammate <a href="http://www.wildswimmingbrothers.com/">Calum Hudson,</a> I took part in <a href="http://www.brecaswimrun.com/breca-buttermere/">Breca Buttermere</a>, one of the most gruelling swimruns in the calendar. It comprises of around 40km of fell running and 6km of swimming across the western fells and lakes of the English Lake District. It was a long, but brilliant, day and a report can be<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2016/jul/22/the-breca-buttermere-swimrun-gruelling-challenges-in-gorgeous-scenery?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_a-lifeandstyle_b-gdnlifeandstyle#link_time=1469184960"> read on the Guardian running blog</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-jsNip6IBnF79L5sBZ45JTtqCfu7w-GBGFqt7_ZL2CRDdiRpkq5AjTs9Wri4b9jraAJpwME_iQuUvVgTNUbOGdzNU9RKcbZumdgL_Jw0Qpyz7qDH_vZxEiQYH5qrAmIu9hFqmhZ0ugrY/s1600/Picture+297.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-jsNip6IBnF79L5sBZ45JTtqCfu7w-GBGFqt7_ZL2CRDdiRpkq5AjTs9Wri4b9jraAJpwME_iQuUvVgTNUbOGdzNU9RKcbZumdgL_Jw0Qpyz7qDH_vZxEiQYH5qrAmIu9hFqmhZ0ugrY/s400/Picture+297.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Despite everyone telling me to travel as lightly as possible, I carried a camera round the course - if only to capture the bizarre sight of people running across mountains wearing only a wetsuit and swimming hat. </span></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTcskPVWhCL_rZAjikBFPphHOQQ46AmybbsuWT2eJHMT8lVsgVSYpq-rSr46Ft0jspcjv1chwf9TZO4PheBPC7tG3dB_F2CflZZ3IF3B3CRjhb6lDoZ2ocXf9ZZ1MKypTGSsq1xuwObaI/s1600/Breca3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTcskPVWhCL_rZAjikBFPphHOQQ46AmybbsuWT2eJHMT8lVsgVSYpq-rSr46Ft0jspcjv1chwf9TZO4PheBPC7tG3dB_F2CflZZ3IF3B3CRjhb6lDoZ2ocXf9ZZ1MKypTGSsq1xuwObaI/s640/Breca3.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Climbing Low Bank after swimming across Crummock Water. Picture: Richard Nelsson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyPYqJPXil3qzhsAk4XRGQOzA6wNvm3KIyrvPjnmELCezqxHP-CIGBwTa8TrEDomxQqIxZwlFk7M4mrU0mekiceu7ktFuBD9-fBx5vOJPhR4IIpXpYY7oudYLZt5a4hKBV13U4vmhBKDc/s1600/Breca1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyPYqJPXil3qzhsAk4XRGQOzA6wNvm3KIyrvPjnmELCezqxHP-CIGBwTa8TrEDomxQqIxZwlFk7M4mrU0mekiceu7ktFuBD9-fBx5vOJPhR4IIpXpYY7oudYLZt5a4hKBV13U4vmhBKDc/s640/Breca1.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Calum Hudson. Picture: Richard Nelsson</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3QhhDWBR7HHrOwm6ZdMU6o-5IuyecbMVgOBrwKWHJbBSji9UzCxc3uzU65CNYd_Zs0YUCK9BdeZgE4gRSzdiJ4co9ksrxPrvWUItoxspCvoGE3hRFl0tt_oqprodJQBQ0MQ2gM0VrSTE/s1600/Breca2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3QhhDWBR7HHrOwm6ZdMU6o-5IuyecbMVgOBrwKWHJbBSji9UzCxc3uzU65CNYd_Zs0YUCK9BdeZgE4gRSzdiJ4co9ksrxPrvWUItoxspCvoGE3hRFl0tt_oqprodJQBQ0MQ2gM0VrSTE/s640/Breca2.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Climbing Low Bank. Picture: Richard Nelsson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-39661006790928284002014-10-24T13:44:00.001+01:002014-10-24T14:50:03.216+01:00The BMC - British Mountaineering Council's 70th anniversary<span style="font-size: small;">The <a href="https://www.thebmc.co.uk/">British Mountaineering Council</a> (BMC) has been celebrating its 70th birthday throughout 2014. The idea of an umbrella group to link disparate climbing clubs and associations was conceived by <a href="http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWwinthropG.htm">Geoffrey Winthrop-Young</a> at the turn of the century but it wasn't until the 1940s that his idea began to receive a sympathetic hearing. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">The Standing Advisory Committee on Mountaineering (SACOM) was created in 1943 and the following year Winthrop-Young, then president of The Alpine Club, was successful in bringing about a motion to create the BMC. It was formed in December 1944, in part to provide mountaineering advice to the wartime authorities. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">The press - or at least the Manchester Guardian - reported the setting up of the council in August 1945. </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85zcZlMEzPI9zOXHATzBEPxP0G1UIyIPlVuEW-7oTwiYDYYPC9hJW8KQVDnzH1nkjoyaWXCgcmuTV6vsNhXqtUssM8r7jqHuN0lN8bK6VgfTOXLGf58kYuIdDksW3KwBdZpo6T-ObQTI/s1600/BMC+7+Aug+1945.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85zcZlMEzPI9zOXHATzBEPxP0G1UIyIPlVuEW-7oTwiYDYYPC9hJW8KQVDnzH1nkjoyaWXCgcmuTV6vsNhXqtUssM8r7jqHuN0lN8bK6VgfTOXLGf58kYuIdDksW3KwBdZpo6T-ObQTI/s1600/BMC+7+Aug+1945.jpg" height="640" width="321" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Manchester Guardian, 7 August 1945</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">One of the BMC's initial concerns was the "Collection of climbing information from 'here and abroad' and to investigate scientifically the value of new equipment and how to procure it." By 1947, as the following piece illustrates, it was becoming recognised as the agency to discuss matters such as belay technique.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSDg88zL6u5uIDNIfJZDnTqSYhl7C96HEMt7laAST-0r6lGCUBX_zgM7lVYm3Ms0-za3akVLUrdcYvV-3NppSrpWehuPntlOGYiufze6_Ya_nlDtAeeYNPX2q6oWFO1bE34saEtUY4dA/s1600/BMC+21+JUly+1947.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSDg88zL6u5uIDNIfJZDnTqSYhl7C96HEMt7laAST-0r6lGCUBX_zgM7lVYm3Ms0-za3akVLUrdcYvV-3NppSrpWehuPntlOGYiufze6_Ya_nlDtAeeYNPX2q6oWFO1bE34saEtUY4dA/s1600/BMC+21+JUly+1947.jpg" height="400" width="355" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Manchester Guardian, 21 July 1947</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-50350853878007881102014-10-23T13:32:00.002+01:002014-10-23T14:51:59.736+01:00The Swimmer: running and swimming through London<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Times;
panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
@page Section1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;
mso-header-margin:36.0pt;
mso-footer-margin:36.0pt;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
</style> <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPCFyI_kYM1zofDAiZS3Eh1HsM7ATTH9UEwrlJ80tIaRLf6VxMNafZ4CGY-NmlpBsDnNSdnue7wHG6KMCZde-LeULsJZzQSAr9Q-k4Ma-EQikM7a02Sz2-FxqgS3YisvDsV3G4N3XeCig/s1600/Swimmer1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPCFyI_kYM1zofDAiZS3Eh1HsM7ATTH9UEwrlJ80tIaRLf6VxMNafZ4CGY-NmlpBsDnNSdnue7wHG6KMCZde-LeULsJZzQSAr9Q-k4Ma-EQikM7a02Sz2-FxqgS3YisvDsV3G4N3XeCig/s1600/Swimmer1.jpeg" height="204" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lining up for the first plunge of the day at Highgate Men's pond</span></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In The Swimmer, John Cheever's celebrated 1964 short story, Neddy Merrill decides to swim home via a dozen or so of his
neighbours’ pools. Of course, to link this chain of water, he has to run across
lawns, through woods and down busy roads.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />
<span lang="EN-US">Inspired by Neddy’s watery journey, two south Londoners, Will Watt and
Jonathan Cowie, came up with the idea of <a href="http://www.theswimmer.org/"><span style="color: blue;">The Swimmer</span></a>, a relaxed half-marathon that takes
in a number of London’s finest parks and open-air pools. Starting in Hampstead
in north London, the route heads down through the centre, crosses the Thames
and ends up “back home” at Brockwell lido, near Brixton.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9nQZFX-m4o26YtCgFhEiZkkLfLrGfYS4DWwjPuFyUF4pHE2pAryNOova-6IeATgrbzkbNdWgdlEIN_gIlaqU-N0i1CTzXfojlG0s0_N3mD48tb6Ml6icZFH4ForYXKTrAyT1apukd4bA/s1600/swimmer2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9nQZFX-m4o26YtCgFhEiZkkLfLrGfYS4DWwjPuFyUF4pHE2pAryNOova-6IeATgrbzkbNdWgdlEIN_gIlaqU-N0i1CTzXfojlG0s0_N3mD48tb6Ml6icZFH4ForYXKTrAyT1apukd4bA/s1600/swimmer2.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: x-small;">Running across the Heath</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">After months of admiring it
from afar, I finally signed up for the October Swimmer. It’s a brilliant event
and I’ve written up the day – or rather early morning – for the Guardian’s
running blog: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2014/oct/21/swimming-running-half-marathon-londons-parks-open-air-pools">The perfect joy of swimming and running through London. </a> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />
<span lang="EN-US">Continuing the theme of transplanting great sporting feats to the streets of London, someone has also
invented a London version of the <a href="http://thosewhodared.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/fell-running.html">Bob Graham Round</a>. <a href="http://heightsofmadness.com/">Heights of Madness </a>is a run that takes in all the inner London boroughs - 41 miles, 12 summits in an amazing six hours. Now if they combined this with the Swimmer...</span></span></div>
Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-79160708961464674302014-09-11T18:56:00.000+01:002014-09-11T18:56:25.517+01:00Sir John Franklin: From the archive<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZBsSS17Y5z7wichuHPdCsK8GGiyXITsFjNqypNrTVah27M_ShT2h5BSfbFN-eyjgHsA-sa2MHa0EI1stcuSd2Yv5s6_bSKQkSrzjscUnwbksHcpbK4NcjzlUYGr8CxS4862E8-PutPNw/s1600/Picture+41.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZBsSS17Y5z7wichuHPdCsK8GGiyXITsFjNqypNrTVah27M_ShT2h5BSfbFN-eyjgHsA-sa2MHa0EI1stcuSd2Yv5s6_bSKQkSrzjscUnwbksHcpbK4NcjzlUYGr8CxS4862E8-PutPNw/s1600/Picture+41.png" height="320" width="204" /></a></div>
The news that one of the two lost ships from Sir John Franklin’s doomed Arctic expedition has been found generated plenty of comment and speculation. My own contribution was digging out a few 19th century Manchester Guardian pieces about the 1845 Northwest Passage expedition and the various attempts to rescue the crew: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2014/sep/10/franklin-expedition-arctic-archive">Sir John Franklin: From the archive</a><br />
<h1 itemprop="name headline ">
<br /></h1>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-80957979551762635252014-02-20T15:55:00.001+00:002014-02-20T15:58:43.607+00:00Ice-climbing in Rjukan, Norway<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80XPPxHKR6pgeMwmHOZ3PKY8VBupRCQL8C6yhuMfrEbg3wvZ0T7jdu-1AY4ZSZ7E3sTP5CUPPYl_lz2eUltdRJ_gg_J7_NWOVJ11UpJhLyynYJEh72ycw_BVpRImkP5QhhTm5CejJGq0/s1600/Rjukan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80XPPxHKR6pgeMwmHOZ3PKY8VBupRCQL8C6yhuMfrEbg3wvZ0T7jdu-1AY4ZSZ7E3sTP5CUPPYl_lz2eUltdRJ_gg_J7_NWOVJ11UpJhLyynYJEh72ycw_BVpRImkP5QhhTm5CejJGq0/s1600/Rjukan.jpg" height="227" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I recently wrote a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/feb/14/ice-climbing-norway-rjukan-telemark-heroes">piece about ice-climbing in Rjukan</a>, Norway, for the Guardian's travel pages. Obviously I mentioned the famous World War II heavy-water raid and it was interesting to discover that two new film versions of the story are said be in production. Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle has signed up to tell the story <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/14/danny-boyle-telemark-tv-series" title=" Danny Boyle accepts mission for TV series about sabotage of Nazi nuclear weapons">in a 10-part TV mini-series called Telemark</a>, while <a href="http://cineuropa.org/nw.aspx?t=newsdetail&l=en&did=245432">The Heavy Water War</a> is a Norwegian television series featuring <a href="https://www.warhistoryonline.com/articles/world-war-ii-tv-drama-anna-friel.html">Anna Friel</a>. </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The story has previously been told in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A06EEDF1130EF34BC4852DFB566838D679EDE">The Heroes of Telemark</a>, a 1965 film starring Kirk Douglas and which has been criticised for departing from the facts. </span></span>Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-10384045976142453462013-05-15T22:29:00.000+01:002013-05-16T12:00:08.985+01:00Climbers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCAZTn2HBzFqgtvre-vADJleaAlvekeRvUwcNg0kTPcBjVp0CqL06QcababvQwl-2xV8HwyL4YWxFrqqfbDoP9t1BWl4skwTBTto0e4pFoBJQ3tNp9hgPhTUNs3td9zT7emMZy3RveeA/s1600/Climberscover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCAZTn2HBzFqgtvre-vADJleaAlvekeRvUwcNg0kTPcBjVp0CqL06QcababvQwl-2xV8HwyL4YWxFrqqfbDoP9t1BWl4skwTBTto0e4pFoBJQ3tNp9hgPhTUNs3td9zT7emMZy3RveeA/s200/Climberscover.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Climbers-Novel-M-John-Harrison/dp/0575092173/ref=la_B001H9TV6W_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368633654&sr=1-1">Climbers</a>, the 1989 novel by M. John Harrison, has just been republished with a new introduction by Robert Macfarlane (recently <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/10/robert-macfarlane-rereading-climbers">reprinted</a> in the Guardian's Saturday Review). <br />
<br />
It tells the story of a group of climbers in the north of England who escape life's mundane routines by spending their weekends seeking out the perfect route. This is as likely to be found in an old quarry - 'a gloomy hole in the hillside near Bolton', as on an imposing mountain cliff. As Macfarlane puts it:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The climbing they do is impure, tending to the tawdry. It lacks the cleanliness of winter mountaineering, or the epic scale of big-range expeditions. It is mucky, thrutchy stuff that happens from litter-strewn crag-foot terraces, within eyeshot of cities and earshot of motorways. </blockquote>
One of the many strengths of the novel is that <a href="http://ambientehotel.wordpress.com/">Harrison</a>, a climber, goes into painstaking detail about some of the routes. He also has a sharp ear for dialogue but it's the sense of place, particularly when describing the northern urban and rural landscape in the late 1980s, that really makes the book. It went on to win the Boardman Tasker prize in 1989.<br />
<br />
On original publication there was only one small review in the Guardian:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSCQ_OQT533Sj2OXmGO0lDqghCfqs6mU6DgtWG1UEy9HRiUzoBK9-5hyphenhyphenDBAM2rndX3Ahd89J81E_r7Ihm8Y1WuHee0AvDYYASp9N1WAdHO5gG9z9-DrZEcYnIcIs7SOaSgKsHgZ_k6Vs/s1600/Climbers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSCQ_OQT533Sj2OXmGO0lDqghCfqs6mU6DgtWG1UEy9HRiUzoBK9-5hyphenhyphenDBAM2rndX3Ahd89J81E_r7Ihm8Y1WuHee0AvDYYASp9N1WAdHO5gG9z9-DrZEcYnIcIs7SOaSgKsHgZ_k6Vs/s320/Climbers.jpg" width="259" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christoper Wordsworth, The Guardian, 7 September 1989</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Also in the recent edition of the Guardian was a review of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/11/all-that-is-salter-review">All That Is</a>, James Salter's new novel. However, it is <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Solo-Faces-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141189584/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368633821&sr=8-1&keywords=solo+faces">Solo Faces</a>, one of his earlier books that is probably of most interest to climbers. Set in the 1970s, it follows the fortunes of Rand, an American climber, as he makes his name doing big routes and rescuing people on the mountains of France.<br />
<br />
Like Harrison's Climbers, the novel is considered a climbing classic (admittedly a small field). It did though attract some criticism because, as Audrey Salkeld and Rosie Smith wrote in the introduction to <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=audrey+salkeld+and+clouds">One Step in the Clouds</a>, Salter was not seen as a 'true believer' - ie he only climbed as research for the book. Also, some got caught up with whether he explained climbing equipment properly. This though is a minor point set against his fine writing and story-telling. A small review appeared in the Observer:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg58P1LbfOSrYc72XZLCWOGbN26LAeU7tokcwMbr03vsOrevvI2K4ud54xGtRnHCuxLRKlsxzq-sHFWypmZIR3ObV92QxkKec0u8oDMCCRaonqrk3ipXzqvkOF_WFOMS6uyeEgT0BPS2Rw/s1600/Salter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg58P1LbfOSrYc72XZLCWOGbN26LAeU7tokcwMbr03vsOrevvI2K4ud54xGtRnHCuxLRKlsxzq-sHFWypmZIR3ObV92QxkKec0u8oDMCCRaonqrk3ipXzqvkOF_WFOMS6uyeEgT0BPS2Rw/s640/Salter.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anthony Thwaite, The Observer, 10 February 1980. Click on image to enlarge.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/11/james-salter-forgotten-hero-literature-interview">James Salter: the forgotten hero of American literature</a>, an interview with the writer, appeared in the Observer New Review on 12 May 2013.Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-73677675615135150522013-04-11T17:11:00.000+01:002013-04-11T17:11:40.095+01:00Rucksack fashions and fetishes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Re21cgdqYOzQfQc1gYOdA52yvh_wZfIZgjdvktJhFd5NH8aGMdSrYGnjEaYj_geEmXIitzTpHGTdoCX0p_ZGAzVasUQy18NoUteqNK8ILd4uWOB9Z1I-QB8D60FW5Ukip8VJeOrhzWE/s1600/Rucksackpic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Re21cgdqYOzQfQc1gYOdA52yvh_wZfIZgjdvktJhFd5NH8aGMdSrYGnjEaYj_geEmXIitzTpHGTdoCX0p_ZGAzVasUQy18NoUteqNK8ILd4uWOB9Z1I-QB8D60FW5Ukip8VJeOrhzWE/s200/Rucksackpic.jpg" width="156" /></a></div>
While digging around for Rucksack Club articles for a <a href="http://thosewhodared.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-rucksack-club.html">previous post</a>, I came upon the following piece from September 1930. Rucksack fetishists will no doubt enjoy the references to carpet bags and bad packing, but it does provide some interesting period details about outdoor equipment from the pre-war era. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxgUZ5dX0tzB6AWzTgMQsaTPAt-fbvnNc8jZQmbgN706U5NYl1fYQ8ZiAMV4lQ4jYrDv8B_kGEKGrDmGnHrTeRgWhsfquxu3HIi-84qDIwBKvtUZ-16GwRJWSiaDwMOlffp2s5heZMluw/s1600/rucksack+fashion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxgUZ5dX0tzB6AWzTgMQsaTPAt-fbvnNc8jZQmbgN706U5NYl1fYQ8ZiAMV4lQ4jYrDv8B_kGEKGrDmGnHrTeRgWhsfquxu3HIi-84qDIwBKvtUZ-16GwRJWSiaDwMOlffp2s5heZMluw/s400/rucksack+fashion.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Manchester Guardian, 10 September 1930</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-7915049047998449092013-04-08T18:11:00.001+01:002013-04-08T18:19:48.010+01:00The Rücksack Club<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Sharp-eyed fans of the Guardian's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/07/country-diary-foolish-hedge-sparrow-archive-1913">country diary archive column </a>(yes, there are a few) might have noticed that today's piece has a small news item about the Rucksack Club sitting alongside it.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3UZgYnYGIvGJ9uJkcFA6Fqczps2LtKElkhzG_IZNUc5dorZs1TKfAwVtgYy75VIwy5FLxikFtW8UeoD3phJ2BKEC_Kaq1y3QH9EgdsCEb-LOMieOd-veLonvzlhrXK7YuWv3KQG1Ing/s1600/rucksack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3UZgYnYGIvGJ9uJkcFA6Fqczps2LtKElkhzG_IZNUc5dorZs1TKfAwVtgYy75VIwy5FLxikFtW8UeoD3phJ2BKEC_Kaq1y3QH9EgdsCEb-LOMieOd-veLonvzlhrXK7YuWv3KQG1Ing/s640/rucksack.jpg" width="324" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Manchester Guardian, 11 April 1913</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Rucksack Club was formed in 1902 after JE Entwistle and AE Burns, two "novices with a good walking record and a secret ambition to handle a rope and axe", wrote to the Manchester City News suggesting that a mountaineering club be formed in the city. There was a good enough response to justify a start and it is <a href="http://www.rucksackclub.org/">still going strong</a> today. Read more about its history <a href="http://www.original.rucksackclub.org/history.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
There were strong links between the Manchester Guardian and the club, especially during its early years, with news of climbing activities and annual reports regularly appearing on the pages of the paper. Several members of staff joined the group including Laurence Scott, eldest son of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/gnm-archive/collection-in-focus-cp-scott">CP Scott</a>, the long-serving Guardian editor. <br />
<br />
On 14 November 1903, a small news piece appeared in which an umlaut has been added to the club's name, thus turning it into the exciting looking Rücksack Club. I rather like this, but the use of the diacritic appears to have been very short-lived. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTf_4G5RnoUk9B9YlDGjmkeCl062vF6SWJV3T-VYO-M3v9yEc0-hs8ngQhjqrcVnDjczrvZTMjGET9St-5_Xl-bx1AuaBOAIoG90Te3Qxdrol1J41i8CFZPZ6tj4CyZ5J3K_OmLL8-f7Y/s1600/Rucksack141103.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTf_4G5RnoUk9B9YlDGjmkeCl062vF6SWJV3T-VYO-M3v9yEc0-hs8ngQhjqrcVnDjczrvZTMjGET9St-5_Xl-bx1AuaBOAIoG90Te3Qxdrol1J41i8CFZPZ6tj4CyZ5J3K_OmLL8-f7Y/s320/Rucksack141103.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Manchester Guardian, 14 November 1903</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Read more stories like this in the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roof-World-Richard-Nelsson/dp/0852651201/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365438466&sr=1-7">Guardian Book of Mountains</a>. Also available as an <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/On-Roof-World-mountains-ebook/dp/B008XOFBAY/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1365438466&sr=1-7">ebook</a>.Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-13067521268766213372013-03-22T17:43:00.001+00:002013-03-22T18:23:26.509+00:00The Black Cliff<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8ttrtYXDmVcXDjT6qlvKsMnzNiKF5xsiorVMhjDZDPjn2Oy-FJXshe_2Mh8Kq5HgbKw3K4VC1REIpO_G0rLstW47SaFt41Uzj_CAJJgpkJig1K2xSVIODNX_p9krIX31oGl51L_9AgY/s1600/blackcliff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8ttrtYXDmVcXDjT6qlvKsMnzNiKF5xsiorVMhjDZDPjn2Oy-FJXshe_2Mh8Kq5HgbKw3K4VC1REIpO_G0rLstW47SaFt41Uzj_CAJJgpkJig1K2xSVIODNX_p9krIX31oGl51L_9AgY/s200/blackcliff.jpg" width="145" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Skimming through a March 1971 issue of the Observer the other day, I came
across an Al Alvarez review of Chris Bonington's Annapurna South Face. Tucked at the end
of the piece though, were a few words about The Black Cliff, a history of rock climbing on Clogwyn du'r Arddu, in north Wales. As Alvarez points out, many of the climbers on the Annapurna climb crop
up in Snowdonia book - including Don Whillans. Which is the perfect excuse to
post a link to a footnote from Jim Perrin's <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Villain-Life-Don-Whillans/dp/0099416727">The Villain</a>, a biography of
Whillans, that <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rT19_3nVBt4C&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=peter+crew,+black+cliff&source=bl&ots=kDXL64n16S&sig=aR9P6HpOj6BVFC1sG3L2wxkt8tc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g41MUYzrNtTP0AXY3ICIDw&ved=0CGQQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=peter%20crew%2C%20black%20cliff&f=false">neatly illustrates the point...</a></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> Alvarez was poetry editor and a critic for the Observer </span><span style="font-size: small;">from 1956 to 1966,</span><span style="font-size: small;"> after which he continued to review books and write the occasional climbing article for the paper. See also <a href="http://thosewhodared.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/rock-climbers-in-action-in-snowdonia.html">Rock Climbers in Action in Snowdonia.</a></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ePvzQVR2vWNG7gu6OrKNNSuMT0jqSNXn3MkGJVGLA7tuiR6U7-Pfhw-53eVbXqQ1OMXAJ07n8JIq9Zt8gRQYLiuG8hyphenhyphenXjDjt5dmN_CmnqTprtT_OsbIwQ-ZqXwnwVCZdUQhj9GBaeVU/s1600/annapurna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ePvzQVR2vWNG7gu6OrKNNSuMT0jqSNXn3MkGJVGLA7tuiR6U7-Pfhw-53eVbXqQ1OMXAJ07n8JIq9Zt8gRQYLiuG8hyphenhyphenXjDjt5dmN_CmnqTprtT_OsbIwQ-ZqXwnwVCZdUQhj9GBaeVU/s400/annapurna.jpg" width="291" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Observer, 21 March 1971 (click on image to read)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-83136389200410436332013-03-14T17:49:00.000+00:002013-03-14T18:28:17.439+00:00Ice-climbing at Rjukan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQcImcM1V39usOSgqEZNFKHkKNOLOwv5wiKKegw5vlH0czdy32BbVNB3PnlyprD-o36qwKlDouWY8fFcLWD3HG4ER_0hU0joxlg3Es3UZ-jtpTO6GMRc8x2Wo7AFqGWUm6hLDdvIDHRHs/s1600/Rjukanblog2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQcImcM1V39usOSgqEZNFKHkKNOLOwv5wiKKegw5vlH0czdy32BbVNB3PnlyprD-o36qwKlDouWY8fFcLWD3HG4ER_0hU0joxlg3Es3UZ-jtpTO6GMRc8x2Wo7AFqGWUm6hLDdvIDHRHs/s200/Rjukanblog2.jpg" width="148" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vemork power station, Rjukan </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Rjukan, situated in the centre of southern Norway, is possibly the best, and certainly most sociable, place to ice-climb in Europe. There are over 150 routes and icefalls in a deep gorge, all easily accessible from the road. Climbers can scale the frozen waterfalls without having to spend hours trekking up a mountain or worrying about getting caught out in the dark. And many of the routes are single-pitch affairs, often close to each other - thus enabling friends to chat between climbs. <br />
<br />
As well as having a stable climate that guarantees a long season and conditions that mean it is possible to climb almost everyday, another attraction of the place is its history. As <a href="http://thosewhodared.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/telemark-heroes.html">mentioned in a previous blogpost</a>, the ice-axe and crampon business takes place in the same area as the Heroes of Telemark raid, one of the most daring attacks of the second world war. Here, Norwegian saboteurs scaled the steep gorge sides before blowing up the part of the plant in which Germans were collecting 'Heavy water' which was needed to make a nuclear bomb. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_t2p_KE_Aruv4QkvZXweluMy_wnDO88RCaOZLky98hfIFcPqsw0wbFiJl6njlULoF90ejB5LWXXqLCJBsiRksci0jGYTQhzVj5d6IlRb9ANYVJyRMBG3bgWm635HIbeeMkN_72aN4rdQ/s1600/Bakvein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_t2p_KE_Aruv4QkvZXweluMy_wnDO88RCaOZLky98hfIFcPqsw0wbFiJl6njlULoF90ejB5LWXXqLCJBsiRksci0jGYTQhzVj5d6IlRb9ANYVJyRMBG3bgWm635HIbeeMkN_72aN4rdQ/s200/Bakvein.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Wilkinson at the start of Bakvien </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The remaining building is now a very good <a href="http://vemork.visitvemork.no/">museum</a> that is well worth visiting. However, on a recent climbing trip to the Rjukan area, I came a little closer to understanding just what the Norwegian saboteurs achieved. Tim, my climbing partner, and I had just finished Bakvien, a three-pitch route in the upper gorge that tops-out at the museum when we were approached by two people. It turned out that one of them was the daughter of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredrik_Kayser">Fredrik Kayser</a>, a member of the Gunnerside saboteur team. We were a little dazed after spending the past hour being battered by strong winds and falling ice, but it was fascinating to hear about her father's exploits during the war. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm79uYI6dA-Eq1Cd2G7dn74EMTE9pQAJt1gU_Wb-jGFJ1ixGc1ULEzZKdnsE7o_OxVK7voM4PbqmfXRvw_AfbNYAjLq2UJUqn52XPR6wLO0gjGxvwMz-ELya1ytUsfg6iH8okTSBCEMyw/s1600/rjukan3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm79uYI6dA-Eq1Cd2G7dn74EMTE9pQAJt1gU_Wb-jGFJ1ixGc1ULEzZKdnsE7o_OxVK7voM4PbqmfXRvw_AfbNYAjLq2UJUqn52XPR6wLO0gjGxvwMz-ELya1ytUsfg6iH8okTSBCEMyw/s200/rjukan3.jpg" width="133" /></a>Kayser's daughter explained that she was there to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the raid. A <a href="http://www.newsinenglish.no/2013/02/28/still-heroes-after-all-these-years/">high-profile ceremony</a> took place at Vemork on the 28 February, but she was back at the museum to meet a group of modern-day Norwegian soldiers who were just about to finish a re-creation of the original journey over the <a href="http://www.visitnorway.com/uk/Where-to-go-uk/Fjord-Norway/The-Hardangerfjord-Region/What-to-do-in-the-Hardangerfjord-Region/Attractions-in-the-Hardangerfjord-Region/Hardangervidda/">Hardangervidda plateau</a>. We were lucky enough to see them marching up the route of the old railway.<br />
<br />
Along with Joachim Ronneberg (the last surviving member of the raid), Kayser's role was to place sausage-shaped explosive charges on the cylinders used in the heavy-water process. These were located in the cellar of the building, but the door was locked so the two found an entrance through a cable duct. After crawling through this, they surprised a Norwegian caretaker, whom Kayser held at gunpoint while the team began to lay their charges. Eventually the cylinders were destroyed and 3,000 pounds of heavy water, about four or five months' production, flowed towards the drain.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-_ZjgGDdZihuvbx2GtyR1uuqaicDxeXQsXVX2Fi00gWqCtghE4v0WxTN0terBSqY-DdlNOTXuO8VnSohuhq18Y-32r99Zr374Kg80Aeqi2B0OiJBNWWPjRyiVAOygrv_zzMWF3LIlaU/s1600/Vemork+bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-_ZjgGDdZihuvbx2GtyR1uuqaicDxeXQsXVX2Fi00gWqCtghE4v0WxTN0terBSqY-DdlNOTXuO8VnSohuhq18Y-32r99Zr374Kg80Aeqi2B0OiJBNWWPjRyiVAOygrv_zzMWF3LIlaU/s320/Vemork+bridge.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vemork bridge. Photograph: Mathias Willerup</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-10378449186900717722013-01-08T17:34:00.000+00:002013-01-08T17:40:23.217+00:00Recreating Shackleton's journey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKyS0pOMDoycfCpJAfP1rw0kyfvC9P6Dj68ubLLr3T6E3uOQowfKkFTzVU6QxRGTVC0MeKDy_AXbfJz7jdIT1cMMY_f8dmVyg1wW2gI3FcBhbk0QTekSadi8UmnTiYU3wtKcHTAY7ZnWA/s1600/epic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKyS0pOMDoycfCpJAfP1rw0kyfvC9P6Dj68ubLLr3T6E3uOQowfKkFTzVU6QxRGTVC0MeKDy_AXbfJz7jdIT1cMMY_f8dmVyg1wW2gI3FcBhbk0QTekSadi8UmnTiYU3wtKcHTAY7ZnWA/s200/epic.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span id="goog_885389664"></span><span id="goog_885389665"></span>A group of Australian and British explorers is about to <a href="http://shackletonepic.com/">recreate Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1916 trans-Antarctic voyage</a>, one of the greatest journeys of human survival ever made. I wrote about the expedition as part of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/04/shackleton-journey-adventures-left">a piece about following in the footsteps of the famous</a> for the Guardian's Comment is free pages. <br />
<br />
The 2013 voyage, led by British-born <a href="http://www.timjarvis.org/">Tim Jarvis</a>, aims to row the same route as Shackleton in a replica seven-metre lifeboat, navigating with a sextant and even eating the same food as the original team. However, lack of space prevented me from mentioning that this isn't the first time someone has tried to retrace the route. Crossings were made in 1955 and 1994, while in 1997 a crew of Irishmen had to give up their attempt after capsizing three times in 24 hours. A few years later, mountaineers Conrad Anker, Reinhold Messner and Stephen Venables trekked across the mountains and glaciers of South Georgia for the Imax film, <a href="http://main.wgbh.org/imax/shackleton/index.html">Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure</a>. No doubt there have been other attempts.<br />
<br />
Jarvis' venture though appears to be to a genuine attempt to recreate the entire 1916 'double' voyage from Elephant Island all the way to Stromness, on South George. It is fraught with danger and the only concessions to the use of period items will be emergency equipment on board the boat, and the presence of a support vessel, Australis in the Southern Ocean. You can of course follow the progress of the trip via twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/ShackletonEpic">@ShackletonEpic</a>.Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-62162375501519825382012-11-28T12:40:00.000+00:002012-11-28T16:38:06.104+00:00Mountaineering books published in 1938<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlJfoZ40PJqqc0H_cSl2samnkMij8A7vRth19OnlTIbRk4G4jE0wIdRjr9FdA-lHzdwP2u2mum2UgFos2SG0oDSm4FIYtJ0OqK1SaMiyBnstNj-dcn2Xj2IjfSKt9QKJqO9qxjrWxYks/s1600/blank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlJfoZ40PJqqc0H_cSl2samnkMij8A7vRth19OnlTIbRk4G4jE0wIdRjr9FdA-lHzdwP2u2mum2UgFos2SG0oDSm4FIYtJ0OqK1SaMiyBnstNj-dcn2Xj2IjfSKt9QKJqO9qxjrWxYks/s200/blank.jpg" width="165" /></a></div>
The first week of December is traditionally the time when newspapers and magazines begin to publish their round-ups of books of the year. And of course publishers capitalise on this by advertising their wares to Christmas present-buying readers - as can be seen from the following advert that appeared in the Observer on December 4 1938. Hodder & Stoughton took out a half-page advert to display reviews of their output and, in particular, the Black Jacket series of climbing and exploration books. <br />
<br />
It's interesting to see which books are still talked about and what's been forgotten. Eric Shipton's Blank on the Map is still referred to, as well as Frank Smythe's books (including <a href="http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/valleyofflowers.pdf">The Valley of Flowers</a>). However, <a href="http://ardnagashel.wordpress.com/the-kaulbacks/ronald-kaulback/">Ronald Kaulback</a> is a name rarely mentioned these days.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnwbSSTad81jf4DdKN9gPQLZEQo7IMWT9y1Y27BLohl88IfKNfyXFgvLJ-HSMESMjGzeXQAfk5suHOiCL2VHYPxgoPFLGF94tBqoZZ8jAp7ZMVpt8LRxdopcuVe1B547WD2ACotMm7aAk/s1600/Books1938.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnwbSSTad81jf4DdKN9gPQLZEQo7IMWT9y1Y27BLohl88IfKNfyXFgvLJ-HSMESMjGzeXQAfk5suHOiCL2VHYPxgoPFLGF94tBqoZZ8jAp7ZMVpt8LRxdopcuVe1B547WD2ACotMm7aAk/s400/Books1938.jpg" width="376" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(click image to enlarge)</span></div>
Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-22185499436991040852012-11-15T09:58:00.000+00:002012-11-15T09:58:26.933+00:00The Boardman Tasker prize<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQqhaEqXxjt8GWvMwquk7uB8cWezc7NZ8QjYsNH7-Y9LZltlbDqOLt0PwDjL072eKVdZJVRKqUgfITroWTD4QGflsvGOAEslXT2F7RZh18QNnUtc5TSB_KV0nJDMmdP4PNHuP6E4gF5YQ/s1600/BTomnibus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQqhaEqXxjt8GWvMwquk7uB8cWezc7NZ8QjYsNH7-Y9LZltlbDqOLt0PwDjL072eKVdZJVRKqUgfITroWTD4QGflsvGOAEslXT2F7RZh18QNnUtc5TSB_KV0nJDMmdP4PNHuP6E4gF5YQ/s200/BTomnibus.jpg" width="125" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It is 30 years since Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker were last seen on Mount Everest attempting to traverse the <span style="font-size: small;">p</span>innacles on the unclimbed north <span style="font-size: small;">e</span>ast <span style="font-size: small;">r</span>idge. To commemorate the lives of the two climbers who pioneered a series of groundbreaking ascents, as well as producing books that have acquired classic status, the <a href="http://www.boardmantasker.com/index.htm">Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain literature</a> was set up by family and friends in 1983. The aim was to promote mountain related literature and, three decades later, it is still going strong. The winner of the 2012 prize (from a very strong <a href="http://www.boardmantasker.com/site/shortlist2012.htm">shortlist</a>) is announced on Friday 16 November. <br /><br />By coincidence, I've been working my way through the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boardman-Tasker-Omnibus-Peter/dp/1898573859/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352909631&sr=1-1">Boardman Tasker Omnibus</a>, a collection that includes the climbers' four books - two published posthumously. I was familiar with some of Boardman's work but less so Tasker's. Ap<span style="font-size: small;">art<span style="font-size: small;"> from the well told tales of clo<span style="font-size: small;">se calls and danger, </span></span>w</span>hat struck me about the latter's writing was his honesty about the risks and fears of life at high altitude. As he says in Everest The Cruel Way, an account of a winter attempt <span style="font-size: small;">on the <span style="font-size: small;">west r<span style="font-size: small;">idge </span></span></span>in 1980, 'whichever way a big mountain is climbed it is rarely enjoyable'. Of course there is the physical hardship but there are also the tensions that develop between team members forced to spend weeks together in close proximity. Tasker doesn't shy away from criticising fellow climbers, but handles it in such a way that the reader understands disagreements in the context of the expedition.<br /><br />Aside from this there are details that make you realise just how much has changed over the past 30 or so years. On his first Asian expedition, Tasker drives an old Ford Escort van across Europe, Iran and Afghanistan to get to Dunagiri, a 7,000 metre peak in Northern India. On the 1980 Everest trip, there is the excitement - in the pre-internet age - of receiving hand-written letters. Also, the team was filing news reports about the expedition for the Observer and in return the paper was mailing out a copy each week. Tasker describes the disorienting experience of reading news weeks after the event (including reports of John Lennon's death).</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQP6dcq2m_eTC6Hpx-XKOvmCEEEdTsJP8S3eOPKrs9X-jyNSR62ULq5b_RyChlRUy-nk5BRIbs_lZ_iSbtJC1E0bWmqRZjSHSCwHMnG2GCNO0yK8Z2fYazWKFOJwuk6I5lzoiPXKBGlw0/s1600/obs81.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQP6dcq2m_eTC6Hpx-XKOvmCEEEdTsJP8S3eOPKrs9X-jyNSR62ULq5b_RyChlRUy-nk5BRIbs_lZ_iSbtJC1E0bWmqRZjSHSCwHMnG2GCNO0yK8Z2fYazWKFOJwuk6I5lzoiPXKBGlw0/s200/obs81.jpg" width="149" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">One minor disappointment with the Omnibus is the lack of photos from some of the climbs </span><span style="font-size: small;">(or at least in my edition)</span><span style="font-size: small;">. I did come across came a Boardman Tasker feature about their<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>1980<span style="font-size: small;"> K2 west ridge and Abruzzi spur e<span style="font-size: small;">xpedition<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;">in the <span style="font-size: small;">Observer though. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">This does include </span>some stu</span>nning pictures. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;">Both writers provide accounts of the climb in their respective books<span style="font-size: small;"> - </span>one of the collection's strengths being the<span style="font-size: small;"> contrasting </span>views of <span style="font-size: small;">vario<span style="font-size: small;">us expeditions.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJXKUPyWy9o1FP6pEu3o-vD5JPw-pH0ORAlaNZskYRV5SZKEPLGx14FN7ey1bHlZ1Ej5R736LxdTrSSYDtnFWnZj5ucwCtwRE9oXHPryYpZY5ql1vYPpIdYVYQL2Y0jM4foHLXz-jNiTs/s1600/k2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJXKUPyWy9o1FP6pEu3o-vD5JPw-pH0ORAlaNZskYRV5SZKEPLGx14FN7ey1bHlZ1Ej5R736LxdTrSSYDtnFWnZj5ucwCtwRE9oXHPryYpZY5ql1vYPpIdYVYQL2Y0jM4foHLXz-jNiTs/s400/k2.jpg" width="268" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Observer, 15 February 1981</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Some interesting notes by Boardman about his early climbing career, written in 1981 for a talk at Stockport Grammar School, can be read <a href="http://www.stockportgrammar.co.uk/2012/09/pete-boardman-memorial-calendar-and-stockport-grammar-memories/">here</a>.</span></div>
Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-44286639169858881272012-11-11T22:24:00.000+00:002012-11-12T09:00:04.490+00:00Olympic medals and Everest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgKNHA4CldEJxspn0PqjVBmZUA4jGj4PqtsF-djgsWim3uImC-5xzGtUlKpNjqg0Gqfuqf3UvEjaWxAF7-QP6WexNcJ1cKCGfL9xP3mrOwLyGA7x9CUBzdu9aYFMzbi9WuXa6ftQNVq0/s1600/MountEverestFoundation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgKNHA4CldEJxspn0PqjVBmZUA4jGj4PqtsF-djgsWim3uImC-5xzGtUlKpNjqg0Gqfuqf3UvEjaWxAF7-QP6WexNcJ1cKCGfL9xP3mrOwLyGA7x9CUBzdu9aYFMzbi9WuXa6ftQNVq0/s200/MountEverestFoundation.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
The debate over whether climbers and mountaineers should compete for medals in organised events has been going on for decades. In the mid-1970s there was furious opposition from British climbers to a USSR suggestion that the sport should be part of the Olympics (see end of article), but more latterly there has been some excitement that ice climbing will be a cultural event at the 2014 winter games - not to mention climbing being considered for the main Olympics in 2020.<br />
<br />
Against this background, the <a href="http://www.mef.org.uk/">Mount Everest Foundation</a> recently organised a discussion, <a href="http://canepal.org.uk/pages/doug-scott-lectures/2012-lectures-web-site-entries/mef-at-rgs-2012.php">Race to the Top - What place does competition have in the mountains?</a>, at the Royal Geographical Society.<br />
<br />
The starting point for the evening was Kenton Cool's talk about his expedition to take a 1924 Olympic Gold Medal for Alpinism to the summit of Everest. Following the success 1922 assault on the mountain in which the team got to within 500 metres of the top, the International Olympic Committee decided to mark the achievement by awarding medals to all 21 members of the team. The presentation was made at the 1924 Winter Olympic Games and Edward Strutt, deputy leader of expedition, vowed to return to Everest and leave one of the medals at the summit. However, by that time a number of the climbers were already on their way back to Tibet for another attempt at the mountain and the promise remained unfulfilled. Cool finally honoured the pledge in May 2012 by taking a medal that had belonged to Dr Arthur Wakefield, the oldest member of the group, to get to the top.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicPWC1WryPpFrGtmbS6ZX7RAG3mp3PpxZuS-IsGUNfsFV5it1OPh6MjB5Yna0wuVuwQ77ouXPejpA2HU1jqx6b06fim5qsCLtA4fi9hMbrrbMgU6BKa1zWKRqpB8GZ5OdOsQZuUX5LIME/s1600/medal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicPWC1WryPpFrGtmbS6ZX7RAG3mp3PpxZuS-IsGUNfsFV5it1OPh6MjB5Yna0wuVuwQ77ouXPejpA2HU1jqx6b06fim5qsCLtA4fi9hMbrrbMgU6BKa1zWKRqpB8GZ5OdOsQZuUX5LIME/s320/medal.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manchester Guardian, 6 February 1924</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It was an exciting and enthusiastic talk, illustrated with dramatic film footage of Cool's ascent. While a cynic might suggest the whole medal business was just an excuse to make another adventure film, set in the context of the excitement surrounding the 2012 Olympics, and the heroic story of George Mallory and the climbing pioneers of the 1920s, the whole exercise seemed to make perfect sense.<br />
<br />
Why people actually want to go up mountains was explored by Sir Chris Bonington. One of the key differences with other sports, he said, is the element of risk. Bonington gave the example of the 1977 Ogre expedition where, despite Doug Scott having to crawl down the mountain due to breaking both legs above the ankles, and suffering broken ribs himself, there was a certain exhilaration of just being where they were, high on the mountain. He also showed a rare 1970 interview with Dougal Haston and Don Whillans on Annapurna. Asked why he climbed, Whillans said it was partly to do with the fact that as a tradesman, he liked to do a job well. This 'practical' approach, he contrasted with his climbing partner's 'intellectual' approach. Haston claimed the attraction of the sport was the opportunity of being in charge of your own world. Both were valid points but Bonington admitted that climbers can be very egotistical, wanting recognition from their peers.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCgZ4YdQfi-FFinjQiyn_POxW1ZyEzx5zabru-6xkluuZqSoKWgm4KAWXrekQ4fUNk6t4yPvgStNSm2ez4FwdNGDv1folnhbe2lF2QSXQYlIfHBUzm-ZghLfMlUHka_3NWBmj2LaRjTTE/s1600/lenin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCgZ4YdQfi-FFinjQiyn_POxW1ZyEzx5zabru-6xkluuZqSoKWgm4KAWXrekQ4fUNk6t4yPvgStNSm2ez4FwdNGDv1folnhbe2lF2QSXQYlIfHBUzm-ZghLfMlUHka_3NWBmj2LaRjTTE/s200/lenin.jpg" width="175" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graham Tiso, Peak Lenin, 1974</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The danger of climbing for more than just peer recognition was explored by Doug Scott. In 1974 he was invited to take part in an International climbing camp in the Pamirs, at the invitation of the Russian Mountaineering Federations. The purpose of the gathering was in part due to the Russians' wish to promote high altitude climbing as part of the Olympic Games. Unfortunately eight women climbers from the host nation died near the summit of Peak Lenin. Apart from being badly equipped, they were under pressure to succeed which may well have led to them making the wrong decisions high up on the mountain. (A <a href="http://thosewhodared.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/abalakov-thread.html">Scottish team</a> was also invited to the camp).<br />
<br />
If Olympic medals were indeed to be awarded for mountaineering achievement, Sandy Allan and Rick Allen would be in line for the gold. Earlier this year they conquered the Mazeno ridge on Nanga Parbat – one or the last great climbs in the Himalayas. Their story can be read in this <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/03/mountaineers-details-last-great-climb">Observer piece</a>.<br />
<br />
The panel discussion included the speakers plus Lindsay Griffin and Phil Bartlett, and chaired by Ed Douglas. It soon became clear that two strands of the sport were being debated: organised competitions on artificial walls, and serious ascents at high altitude. The general consensus appeared to be that it is fine to make awards after the event - such as the <a href="http://www.pioletsdor.com/">Piolets d'Or</a> or indeed something like the 1924 medals - but pointless, if not impossible to operate and very dangerous if designed to get people to 'race to the top'. It was also mentioned that such awards usually come from outside the sport, not the actual practioners.<br />
<br />
There was also agreement, or at least a tolerance in some quarters, that there is no harm in the organised climbing competition. Kenton Cool though did make a strong case, citing the fact that with 'mountaineering' being one of only four sports in the UK to show an increase in participation, it should be in the Olympics. If nothing else it would raise the profile and attract sponsorship. Apart from that though, as anyone who has ever watched such an event will know, they can be incredibly exciting, and easily on a par with many other Olympic sports. As an example, Ed Douglas urged the audience to take a look at <a href="http://www.thebmc.co.uk/ifsc-climbing-world-championships-and-paraclimbing-world-championships-2012"> footage of British climber Fran Brown</a>, Paraclimbing world champion.<br />
<br />
The event was held to raise money for the Mount Everest Foundation and <a href="http://www.canepal.org.uk/">Community Action Nepal</a>.<br />
<br />
<i>The Guardian, 29 October 1976:</i> <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNgAe0z1ASUuS8k1A6Igu7k2hflAhjhOFfrjb-SiLL3HsF4j_8LkNsmI8yfvhVpMQXzSL0-DekAeER2ZiHwo9f8VPsSKRqgh6NYQoL9lVoPQrjungbxB30yo6UhP2LS6BBL2p9f0CUklY/s1600/clock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNgAe0z1ASUuS8k1A6Igu7k2hflAhjhOFfrjb-SiLL3HsF4j_8LkNsmI8yfvhVpMQXzSL0-DekAeER2ZiHwo9f8VPsSKRqgh6NYQoL9lVoPQrjungbxB30yo6UhP2LS6BBL2p9f0CUklY/s640/clock.jpg" width="114" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwTi4gsd8Wvpi9DOCKqIc8vwzOZhKhow1O4iQ7oWKBH0amtdUyTWq8SAFvuBq1nKLN1Jtmy0ex-f0OZCTBUFwX51pUcdg6H6-BKwTdAj40CZtyq24i8CU4-InqGeBEiMmuc089VRKKpHg/s1600/clock2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwTi4gsd8Wvpi9DOCKqIc8vwzOZhKhow1O4iQ7oWKBH0amtdUyTWq8SAFvuBq1nKLN1Jtmy0ex-f0OZCTBUFwX51pUcdg6H6-BKwTdAj40CZtyq24i8CU4-InqGeBEiMmuc089VRKKpHg/s640/clock2.jpg" width="178" /></a></div>
<br />Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-22434127969281046072012-10-19T17:04:00.000+01:002012-10-20T12:29:19.366+01:001952: Mount Everest and the Russians<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: inherit; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAkXdW_PlxJTEtoKRqpsIboAcvEiYkxiRphMxHipT6UKDozmldPFAo4OmQ79qIppBmIZlZVQOpR0PBSUyXdBlNXiJ2nFsuNYmWEThG77Y5UmCFqaaCbfoaF7NWYwj865eXq4GhhL3fNLc/s1600/Sovietstamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAkXdW_PlxJTEtoKRqpsIboAcvEiYkxiRphMxHipT6UKDozmldPFAo4OmQ79qIppBmIZlZVQOpR0PBSUyXdBlNXiJ2nFsuNYmWEThG77Y5UmCFqaaCbfoaF7NWYwj865eXq4GhhL3fNLc/s200/Sovietstamp.jpg" width="144" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">USSR stamp, 1982</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Did the Soviet Union make an attempt to climb Mount Everest in the autumn of 1952? Following the failure of a Swiss expedition to climb the mountain in the spring of that year*, <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1964&dat=19570428&id=7AcjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tc0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=3129,5539817">news reports</a> in the west suggested that the Russians had mounted an assault in a bid to be the first nation to reach the top of the world. I recently came across the following 1953 Manchester Guardian article which suggests that in response to the 'tragic failure' of this expedition, another attempt was being planned for the following year. Apparently the aim was to erect statues of Stalin and Lenin on the summit.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTn27GxgHyT2PJLK8TzSHQztoDxgnOhmHKmTLn3HTNwqUiRopCAv6rAZ7SVobGzysIVIalz-PD082LAsVS9jgEOHvDU380ucBTLRCRbl-fDzmzcZz5pYjlM4XB3I4SElxQLsV4dM12k_Q/s1600/SovietEverest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTn27GxgHyT2PJLK8TzSHQztoDxgnOhmHKmTLn3HTNwqUiRopCAv6rAZ7SVobGzysIVIalz-PD082LAsVS9jgEOHvDU380ucBTLRCRbl-fDzmzcZz5pYjlM4XB3I4SElxQLsV4dM12k_Q/s400/SovietEverest.jpg" width="166" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Manchester Guardian, 20 October 1953</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There are a few stories online that suggest a<span style="font-size: small;"> R</span>ussian team of 35, led by Dr Pawel Datschnolian, did indeed set off for Tibet in October 1952. Certainly the country was starting to take an interest in mountaineering at<span style="font-size: small;"> th<span style="font-size: small;">e</span> time<span style="font-size: small;">, a<span style="font-size: small;">s noted by Mick Conefrey</span></span></span> in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everest-1953-Story-First-Ascent/dp/185168946X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350732028&sr=1-1">Everest 1<span style="font-size: small;">9</span>53</a><span style="font-size: small;">. </span> He writes <span style="font-size: small;">that while Soviet newspapers had in the past dism<span style="font-size: small;">issed<span style="font-size: small;"> the sport as a decadent, bourgeois, folly, it w<span style="font-size: small;">as now being presented as a</span></span></span></span> new front in the Cold War. However, <span style="font-size: small;">the story goes that six</span> mountaineers, including <span style="font-size: small;">the leader</span>, disappeared at Camp VIII at a height of around 8,000 metres. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This is a fascinating tale but the Russians have always denied that the expedition ever took place. Walt Unsworth <a href="http://bit.ly/Pfl0Rl">mentions it</a> in Everest: The Mountaineering History (1989), but the most thorough investigation into the mystery is <a href="http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1998_files/AJ%201998%20332-359%20In%20Memoriam.pdf">Yevgeniy Gippenreiter</a>'s 1994 Alpine Journal article, <a href="http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1994_files/AJ%201994%20109-115%20Gippenreiter%20Everest.pdf">Mount Everest and the Russians: 1952 and 1958</a>. A well respected Soviet mountaineer, he could find no evidence to support the rumour. It would be interesting though to know if any new information has emerged over the past 18 years. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The proposed 1954 expedition didn't take place either, but a Soviet team made it to Everest in 1958 as part of a joint venture with the Chinese. Finally, in May 1982, Eduard Myslovsky and Vladimir Balyberdin became the first Russians to make it to the summit. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* A second Swiss attempt was made in December 1952</span></div>
Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-61117565062962401112012-10-13T22:30:00.002+01:002012-10-16T17:43:21.756+01:001912: The year the World Discovered Antarctica<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK2kX_XJB4XplAkeeZilMqFHInuRtJepDkKPaOW5XOiH3q9IZo_avUt7Unj9noAV1tdFdEhw6jUxxpTL9rTYnpwVcXHxlWDJL_0hAqKVZfl5CeOeK34pMeagPx-2WntzHofraF2FbjWb8/s1600/1912book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK2kX_XJB4XplAkeeZilMqFHInuRtJepDkKPaOW5XOiH3q9IZo_avUt7Unj9noAV1tdFdEhw6jUxxpTL9rTYnpwVcXHxlWDJL_0hAqKVZfl5CeOeK34pMeagPx-2WntzHofraF2FbjWb8/s200/1912book.jpg" width="130" /></a><span style="font-size: small;">While the past year has seen a whole series of events to mark the centenary of Captain Scott's death in Antarctica, few are aware that his expedition was just one of five exploring the continent in 1912. Of course there was Roald Amundsen's Norwegian South Pole expedition but there was also a Japanese team led by Nobu Shirase, a German one led by Wilhelm Filchner and Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic enterpise. <br /><br />The story of the five teams can be found in a new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/1912-Year-World-Discovered-Antarctica/dp/1847921744/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1">1912: The Year the World Discovered Antarctica</a>, by <a href="http://christurney.com/Welcome.html">Chris Turney</a>. Not all were there to ‘race to the pole’, but rather their aims were to map the continent and record what they found. It is these scientific achievements that Turney champions in the book.<br /><br />The first chapters are devoted to the early history of Antarctic exploration and the scene is set for 1912 with Ernest Shackleton’s expedition of 1907-09 that came close to reaching the South Pole. Naturally there is the familiar tale of the Scott and Amundsen rivalry, but Turney provides good summaries of the events, covering all perspectives. <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">It is the lesser know expeditions that are most fascinating though. The Japanese ‘Dash Patrol’ encountered indifference at home, hostility (at least at first) in Australia and the team had little polar experience. Their first attempt at getting to the continent had to abandoned, as the news report below (not from t<span style="font-size: small;">he book) </span>explains.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEfw_NL6yF34y073aUFyrXYOJwLYDPwUWwAJ4YWllp1PpUJfAObvMRed0x5awMQ01YB3WvIbIpkrvBI5Qb9kDfN-Jzdf3cDQCKzsqcp4oXpOihNIebdKv4Q-XlXUvCpUybdE0ubRGLFlg/s1600/Shirase.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEfw_NL6yF34y073aUFyrXYOJwLYDPwUWwAJ4YWllp1PpUJfAObvMRed0x5awMQ01YB3WvIbIpkrvBI5Qb9kDfN-Jzdf3cDQCKzsqcp4oXpOihNIebdKv4Q-XlXUvCpUybdE0ubRGLFlg/s320/Shirase.jpg" width="110" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manchester Guardian, May 7 1911</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">However, they tried again the following year and this time were more successful. They found volcanic rock samples on King Edward VII Land that supported the idea of rifting in the Earth's crust, as well as charting new territory. Much important oceanographic work was carried out by Wilhelm Filcher’s German party although the expedition was marked by mutiny and discontent while the ship was trapped in sea ice for eight months.<br /><br />As for the Australasian expedition, Turney writes: 'Mawson's venture gave the world its first complete scientific snapshot of the new continent’. Their meteorological work showed how weather systems in Antarctica could have an impact on conditions in the rest of the world, while geologist Edgeworth David disproved the theory that Antarctica and New Zealand had once been connected by a land bridge, laying the groundwork for the theory of plate tectonics. But that’s not to forget Mawson’s unbelievable feat of endurance that included having to strap the frozen soles of his feet back on each day with Lanolin, during the desperate trek back to Cape Denison after surveying King V Land.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikHs_lx0UWuKDELsx4GuI1pOU7VrlLpEfNe1LirO-jPBsCkTxIOqMwmxkcsC8VThNvG2E-JOJUgsnJMQKLy9iXoay4P4QKLkL_wjIRCbOkMlvQrEepXVsx2MCNTeq6Ipv775V0CT8TipI/s1600/Mawsonmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikHs_lx0UWuKDELsx4GuI1pOU7VrlLpEfNe1LirO-jPBsCkTxIOqMwmxkcsC8VThNvG2E-JOJUgsnJMQKLy9iXoay4P4QKLkL_wjIRCbOkMlvQrEepXVsx2MCNTeq6Ipv775V0CT8TipI/s320/Mawsonmap.jpg" width="290" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manchester Guardian, February 27 1914</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />In the final chapter, Turney, a professor of climate change, goes into greater detail about the scientific findings of the expeditions. He also reveals that Scott’s death may partly have been the result of a food shortage - caused by the final returning party, led by Teddy Evans, his second-in-command, eating more than their fair share of food. This may well have been the case although other polar historians have written about the desperate state of Evans’ party which could explain the need to break into the supplies. </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Chris Turney strikes the right balance between telling the stories of these unique characters and writing about the science in an accessible way - while maintaining a sense of adventure throughout the book. On top of this, he enlivens the text by peppering the chapters with newspaper reports from the time, and anecdotes from his own visits to Antarctica. A fine addition to the polar exploration library.</span></div>
Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-15622245257691365692012-10-04T15:08:00.002+01:002012-10-04T15:12:59.439+01:00Scott's last expedition (Part II)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhio4Rv9fAsrHyGp7L8GcEH8DAHPkXROzJFem6F_JsL3iKzOxy-xHdn_0NDh-tlJ1n5wnFCL_TS7MW90Yxq8f-aO1Niyd3-hlt2C2Mzeq8hZmgi7GhrFYOua-7d769O8yNhhpfdv5U7ARA/s1600/Cabourn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhio4Rv9fAsrHyGp7L8GcEH8DAHPkXROzJFem6F_JsL3iKzOxy-xHdn_0NDh-tlJ1n5wnFCL_TS7MW90Yxq8f-aO1Niyd3-hlt2C2Mzeq8hZmgi7GhrFYOua-7d769O8yNhhpfdv5U7ARA/s200/Cabourn.jpg" width="127" /></a></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Fashion designer <a href="http://www.cabourn.com/index.html">Nigel Cabourn</a>'s latest creation is the <a href="http://www.scottslastexpedition.com/">Scott's Last Expedition Collection</a>. It includes garments named after explorers on the British Antarctic Expedition 1910. For example, there is the Henry Robertson 'Birdie' Bowers Deck Jacket, the Oates Roll Neck Sweater, or the impressive looking Apsley Cherry-Garrard Expedition boot.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Cabourn explains the concept in an accompanying <a href="http://www.scottslastexpedition.com/book.html">book</a>:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The persistence and courage of the 5 explorers who perished due to extreme weather conditions has inspired me to created the Nigel Cabourn Authentic Limited Edition 2 Winter 2012 Collection. The 12 garments in this collection are inspired entirely by this fantastic expedition and produced in the United Kingdom with British fabrics where possible.</span></blockquote>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Modelling some of the clothes is Ben Fogle who recently presented a BBC documentary on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhf1sEbO1bI">The Secrets of Scott's Hut. </a></span><br />
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">If you're into heritage clothing then these rather attractive garments are for you - just remember that
it's a limited edition with just 100 pieces of the outerwear. </span></div>
Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-15358578314318912112012-08-31T19:07:00.004+01:002012-08-31T19:13:05.430+01:00Scott's last expedition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTHWTBd-L7MvaCie5ohdzkk3ATLtej3W6OAAJuouFin71ymEcpvdXHgtNdSgi-FbuOzK7wUZDTUGr1tdTqRUhlbDR7YJe3949xi1KH-6h1rY3h7Y3V7gCqy4gMSTU7XAmg51RJWMZWb4k/s1600/lastexped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTHWTBd-L7MvaCie5ohdzkk3ATLtej3W6OAAJuouFin71ymEcpvdXHgtNdSgi-FbuOzK7wUZDTUGr1tdTqRUhlbDR7YJe3949xi1KH-6h1rY3h7Y3V7gCqy4gMSTU7XAmg51RJWMZWb4k/s200/lastexped.jpg" width="174" /></a></div>
I finally made it to <a href="http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/scott-last-expedition/index.html">Scott's last expedition</a>, the Antarctica exhibition at London's Natural History Museum. It closes on 2 September but I'll recommend it anyway. The exhibition features a wide range of personal items, photographs and some of the 40,000 scientific specimens brought back by Scott's team, as well as videos and a life-sized representation of the Cape Evans hut.<br />
<br />
It's an impressive collection and certainly sheds light on the often overlooked scientific aspect of the Terra Nova expedition. Perhaps a little more effort could have gone into making the hut feel like the real thing but at least it showed just how cramped the base was. <br />
<br />
Plenty of polar exploration books were on sale but <a href="http://thosewhodared.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/race-for-south-pole.html">Roland Huntford</a>'s titles appeared to be missing. All a bit odd, particularly as the introduction to the exhibition acknowledges the various revisions of Scott's character - and the aim to look at the expedition from all angles. Good to see though that by far the best seller (at least in terms of books left on the shelves) was Apsley Cherry-Garrard's, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Worst-Journey-World-Vintage-Classics/dp/0099530376/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346430589&sr=1-1">The Worst Journey in the World</a>. <br />
<br />
The journey in question was of course the quest to secure an unhatched Emperor penguin, something that had to made in the middle of the winter. Cherry-Garrard recounts in the book reaction of the Natural History Museum when he turned up in 1913 to deliver the three eggs he had brought back from the Antarctic: <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ4KTVE5vwJG6QgvURyzGk17vWqTNELKIjwoE9ePFk79U-FBQsp07YyuGrZoiyzE_fqgf4MitTp038YSKBXUDSUdIAsK0uNqoTYEFGgYZp6-SR9GCfLRH7C2qUQoMDibejQG4k9az7ciI/s1600/Apsley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ4KTVE5vwJG6QgvURyzGk17vWqTNELKIjwoE9ePFk79U-FBQsp07YyuGrZoiyzE_fqgf4MitTp038YSKBXUDSUdIAsK0uNqoTYEFGgYZp6-SR9GCfLRH7C2qUQoMDibejQG4k9az7ciI/s320/Apsley.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
<br />
However, as reported in the Manchester Guardian, the museum didn't entirely agree with this version of events:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu6TNmwIvWohII1b07Er7YDZYGRJQUQeJw6XndeprGC9o8ZvwSTp-FccBZLJ71Ov16Jf6VbFoYj1LNWR1sBpoMYCRokm02kcncPJN5-OdD0iheqhaAar3LicybnHlTyIOzt5d09ctCv90/s1600/Nathist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu6TNmwIvWohII1b07Er7YDZYGRJQUQeJw6XndeprGC9o8ZvwSTp-FccBZLJ71Ov16Jf6VbFoYj1LNWR1sBpoMYCRokm02kcncPJN5-OdD0iheqhaAar3LicybnHlTyIOzt5d09ctCv90/s320/Nathist.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1AAs1OSOXARcb1LXlS4GG5qR7kYHVm7vPFF1Lcw7lneZFUNWOU2JKWM5_lFrTegLhJdKaFMk0N1REuc9Py-vsZq66L-gW6-F9bNTzW3jjsSdWA3xW_HQw8Mbm0uVUhbKQ4CmI1xvtok/s1600/nathist2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1AAs1OSOXARcb1LXlS4GG5qR7kYHVm7vPFF1Lcw7lneZFUNWOU2JKWM5_lFrTegLhJdKaFMk0N1REuc9Py-vsZq66L-gW6-F9bNTzW3jjsSdWA3xW_HQw8Mbm0uVUhbKQ4CmI1xvtok/s320/nathist2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manchester Guardian, 12 December 1922</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-31238652655674640352012-08-22T16:18:00.001+01:002012-08-22T16:18:46.418+01:00Climbing and base jumping<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps it was because I recently saw Leo Holding's<a href="http://www.theasgardproject.com/"> The Asgard Project</a>, but the following story caught my eye in the Observer archive. <a href="http://www.leohoulding.com/">Holding</a> and his team scaled Mount Asgard, a 2,000-metre high tower of granite in a remote glacial region of Baffin Island in Arctic Canada, and then two of them made a wingsuit descent from the summit. <br /><br />George Felbermayr's adventure wasn't quite as dramatic but it was a surprise to discover that people were making such descents after serious climbs, nearly 50 years ago. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYZ4r6D4r5BXfojqaV40wIdr9M3NZbb-bGmto1aijbLIPTKgbkVSmca1Su8GbBizZefuc2Nf24RIGYQcFZTJuFa5KmrgUPgm56a5Cmnji5PDFjygWcdpAsCuvZiZBkcWNkEpLqEyPqyCQ/s1600/Felbermayr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYZ4r6D4r5BXfojqaV40wIdr9M3NZbb-bGmto1aijbLIPTKgbkVSmca1Su8GbBizZefuc2Nf24RIGYQcFZTJuFa5KmrgUPgm56a5Cmnji5PDFjygWcdpAsCuvZiZBkcWNkEpLqEyPqyCQ/s640/Felbermayr.jpg" width="308" /></a></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">More about the <a href="http://thosewhodared.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/rock-climbers-in-action-ien-snowdonia.html">Edge of the Impossible article</a> mentioned in the caption. <br /></span></div>
Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8381818808983196453.post-72632769343640805922012-08-14T17:53:00.004+01:002012-08-14T17:53:53.534+01:00The Guardian Under Canvas: A history of camping<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Q-FC8kOr7OqcdSq8SL1cDhkHfaW2NB3f9SXtBobsUptj4CBWviCS6XHX_eKAIvN3rh6ixm4bXMDFHsL4y9TbA0BzRrOx8N4Zf88a7oTFgqZNcxh3k0yc4TNqaB2Kk_pwRpv_nOHaeFU/s1600/Undercanvas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Q-FC8kOr7OqcdSq8SL1cDhkHfaW2NB3f9SXtBobsUptj4CBWviCS6XHX_eKAIvN3rh6ixm4bXMDFHsL4y9TbA0BzRrOx8N4Zf88a7oTFgqZNcxh3k0yc4TNqaB2Kk_pwRpv_nOHaeFU/s200/Undercanvas.jpg" width="151" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">It used to be said that Guardian readers ate muesli, wore sandals and went on camping holidays in the English Lake District. While there’s only anecdotal evidence to support the first points, the paper’s archive is full of articles about the joys of life under canvas.<br /><br />From declaring in 1901 that camping was ‘a most wholesome occupation’, the paper has reported on everything from new tent designs, bizarre outdoor movements, the sanitary arrangements on continental campsites, fire-making, to where to find the most authentic ‘glamping’ experience.<br /><br />The very best of these articles has been brought together in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Guardian-Under-Canvas-ebook/dp/B008L0MLXU/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1344878992&sr=1-3">The Guardian Under Canvas</a>, a new ebook that offers a unique history of camping in Britain.<br /><br />The story begins in the early 20th century with the emergence of the cycle-campers, a band of mainly middle-class men led by Shropshire tailor, <a href="http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/aboutus/history/">Thomas Hiram Holding</a>. After the first world war, a more diverse group began to sample the joys of the outdoor life and during the 1930s camping clubs and sites began to appear all over the country. In the decades following 1945, the paper reflected the fact that more and more of its readers were forsaking their beloved Lake District for the more exotic France, while in the 1980s many were opting for the easier life offered by readymade campsites such as Eurocamp. The growth in recent years of outdoor music festivals, environmental concerns, combined with the appearance of very cheap tents and equipment, has led to the current boom in popularity of camping.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ6KBjTd3-iSkTjzz1gZvB8Z9PZFtsxzJ_pM6oSgdmaoPmUSMv05IHvU7XOFdyPCSwvlyYKMjMoUqC6M5nePUR9ypFtGTETZLeREYkvlLCbQl0N9nThd_plZOkp-pjAE7UCPMJLzmmRJg/s1600/lloydgcanvas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ6KBjTd3-iSkTjzz1gZvB8Z9PZFtsxzJ_pM6oSgdmaoPmUSMv05IHvU7XOFdyPCSwvlyYKMjMoUqC6M5nePUR9ypFtGTETZLeREYkvlLCbQl0N9nThd_plZOkp-pjAE7UCPMJLzmmRJg/s400/lloydgcanvas.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Lloyd George, British chancellor of the exchequer (later PM) camping in North Wales. The Manchester Guardian, 29 August 1913<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;">But alongside these developments, the book also examines changes in society’s attitude to the great outdoors as well as attempting to find out why the comfortably well-off are happy to pay for the privilege of spending their holidays in a muddy field with basic amenities. More than one commentator casts a jaundiced eye over the recent commercialisation of what used to be called ‘roughing it’.<br /><br />This though is very much in keeping with the Manchester Guardian’s (Manchester was dropped from the title in 1959) historic interest in the great outdoors. The early growth in camping went hand in hand with a general concern for health and wellbeing, it being considered good for the nation’s health to escape the industrialised cities once in awhile. This was very much the view of the paper, which championed the outdoor movement and the need for all members of society to enjoy a holiday. As such, the paper promoted recreational camping from the very beginning and has <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/camping">continued to do so </a>ever since - whether it's discussing the relative merits of the yurt or the teepee, or urging readers to try wildcamping. </span>Richard Nelssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05822141092382845275noreply@blogger.com3