Film making again

It's been a long while since I've worked on any films - either side of the camera, and so it was nice to get back in the saddle working on a mini series with Polished Project. Polished Project are Wojtek Kozakiewicz and Lukasz Warzecha. I've known Lukasz for four or so years now as a photographer so it was exciting to be working together on a project.

I came up with a basic story idea for our three film series for Marmot following Steve McClure together with Leah Crane as they returned to revisit Steve's old stomping grounds in the slate quarries of North Wales. The first film focusses on Leah's ascent of The Mau Mau a tough E4 crack.

Of course one of the skills of good film making is being flexible with the real stories that evolve on the day - sometimes very differently than you might have scripted. Many of the other skills of good film making are evident in the quality of Wojtek and Lukasz's camerawork (I was the third and most 'junior' cameraman) and Wojtek's brilliant editing. There are two more films to come in the next few weeks so keep an eye out. In the mean time you can see the first film on Youtube here or UKC here.

Slate Questing

Enjoyed a pleasant outing this week on North Wales Slate. Despite arriving by early afternoon and having only my floppy boots (not wanting to squash my still nipped toes) we set off on a link up recommended by the superb new (ish) guide from Ground Up. Dubbed the West Face of Australia it climbs a mixture of trad and sport lines on each of seven tiers emerging at the top of quarries.Tier One: Looning the Tube HVS 5b (no pic of Tier Two which is climbed via Surprise, Surprise a 6a)Tier Three: Jon leads Sodor a 5cTier Four: M.I.L Arete an E1 and supposedly the psychological crux of the link up.Tier Five: Razorback (HVS 5a) this had the toughest and scariest climbing of all the pitches Tier Six: Act Naturally VS 4b superb 40m pitch and felt more like a mountain route than a quarry climb

Tier Seven: Goblin Party (VS 4b) to finish - better than it looks and perhaps worth a star.

After spending much of the afternoon in cold mist, it was nice to top out to blue skies and sunshine over Snowdon.

Happy Bunnies. There are quite a few similar links in the guide - I can't wait to get back.

Little miracles

I managed yesterday to finish off the photos for the Slate stomping ground and with the forecast having been set for showers it felt like a little miracle to get the shots. Of course it wasn't a miracle rather good luck. As was the fact we managed great light on first the Quarryman and then crucially the Rainbow Slab.

At the slab Mark ensured me plenty of "lob-shots" and gave the impression a lengthy siege was due. I was even a little worried that we might loose the light if Mark stalled and got the fear. It was a shock therefore to find myself running at full tilt swapping lenses as I rushed between viewpoints trying to keep up with Mark's stylish speed ascent. The real miracle of course is the Rainbow Slab itself, one of the most beautiful sweeps of rock in the UK.

In the hands of the masters

Yesterday I had another trip over to Wales to get some more Slate pics. Together with Matt Heason we managed to sneak in half a day on the Cromlech. One of the UK's finest crags, quality lines at every grade all soaked in reputation and history. Talking of which one of the routes we did was Grond, Whillans incredible hand crack from the Fifties. Laughably given E1 in the latest CC guide (its actually hard E2 and probably a grade tougher than the neighbouring Monster, given E2) this proved a bit of a lesson from history as despite my rack of shiny cams I had a right battle (including a quick slip out the crux jams). Bearing the scars of our encounter we headed down to the Slate to meet James McHaffie. James has also been following the masters although very much at the other end of the grading scale by taking on Johnny Dawes's unfinished project The Meltdown. This is total state of the art in terms of world slab climbing and back in the day Johnny came close to success before breaking off a hold. Whether James can have more luck we'll have to see but it was great to see him at work linking together many of the outrageous sequences.

James on the Meldown project.