Reviews - April 2010

Ron Fawcett was the finest British climber of his generation, overlapping both Pete Livesey’s reign of the 70’s and Jerry Moffatt’s rise to stardom during the 80’s.

Starting life as a shy hard working young lad, from the small and sleepy Yorkshire village of Embsay, from an early age Ron began exploring his local crags, cutting his teeth on the likes of Crookrise and Gordale. It seems that he had no expectations, intentions or even desires of becoming an international superstar, but with his outstanding ascents throughout the world, over the next two decades, that is exactly who he became.

Whilst Ron is recognised as Britains first ever ‘professional rock climber’ his uneasiness with some aspects of this lifestyle clearly shine through in the pages of the book, and it is with great thanks to Ed Dougls that this book came into fruition, with endless hours spent chatting to Ron, attempting to glean inside information on so many aspects of Ron’s adventurous, fascinating and at times troubled life.

Whether due to Ron’s shyness, or his faded memory of some of his climbs, 230 pages feels a disappointingly short read. But such is Ron’s character that he has presumably offered as much as he is happy for the world to know, and we should be grateful to have any book at all.

Having only started climbing properly myself after Ron had completed is last significant ascents, notably the super classic arête, Careless Torque, still now one of the most coveted prizes on gritstone, I hadn’t had the pleasure of regularly reading about Ron and his achievements in the climbing press or elsewhere. So when reading his book I learnt a great deal about his climbing and motivation; the endless hours spent training, his interest in travelling to new places, and his unwavering love of nature and being in the outdoors. I also learnt a few of the more obscure details - like the fact that he no longer eats black Jelly Babies because they hamper his breathing and make him wretch!

The varied and numerous photos give a great historical account of some of Ron’s climbing achievements, as well as his life in general, from his family upbringing to the more recent bringing up of his own family, and his introduction into the world of fell running.

The list of Ron’s 100 solo’s in a day, towards the back of the book, would cause even today’s more experienced gritstone climbers a little quaking in their boots, especially if asked to climb the revered Curbar classic ‘Ulysees or Bust’ as their last route of the day…

As well as his magnificent list of routes, many of which have attained iconic status in British rock climbing, Ron is perhaps best known for a famous quote, whilst being filmed climbing Lord of the Flies for the ground-breaking tv series Rock Athlete. Any climber, of any generation, if in a spot of bother, could do a lot worse than to repeat Ron’s mantra;

“come on arms, do your stuff”

 

Reviewed by Ben Heason

 

Retails at £20 - Vertebrate Graphics

 

 

Here's a list of some of Ron's more notable achievments:

1955
May, 6 Born Ronald Norman Fawcett in Embsay, West Yorkshire

 

1969
Introduced to roped climbing at Rylstone Crag by Arthur Champion, with an ascent of Dental Slab S 4a

 

1971
First recorded new route, Problem Wall (E2 6a) at Malham Cove, climbed solo.

 

1973
First visit to Verdon Gorge with Pete Livesey and friends, aged 17. Free ascents of Triomphe d'Eros (F6c), Solanuts (F6c) and Necronomicon (E4 6b, F6c).

 

1974
Second trip to Yosemite, again with Livesey. Made first ascents of Crack-a-go-go (5.11c), The Cookie Cliff, and Bircheff-Williams (5.11b), Middle Cathedral. Also made an early ascent of Astroman (5.11c), Washington Column.

 

1975
Near-free ascent of Cave Route Right-hand, Gordale Scar, Yorkshire, with Livesey.

 

1976
FFA of Liberator (E3 6a) at Bosigran with Livesey.
FFA of Cream (E4 6a) with Livesey during BMC International Meet.
FA of Cream Team Special (E5 6b), Raven Tor, with Geoff Birtles and Al Evans.
FA of Supersonic (E5 6a), High Tor, Derbyshire.
FA of Slip'n'Slide (E6 6a), Crookrise, Yorkshire. Arguably the most serious gritstone climb in Britain at the time.

 

1977
FFA of Void (E3 6a). Early attempt on Strawberries.
FFA of Citadel (E5 6b), Gogarth.

 

1978
FFA of Milky Way (E6 6b), Ilkley, Yorkshire.
FA of Desperate Dan (E6/7 6b), Ilkey.
FA of The Cad (E5 6a), Gogarth, Gwynedd. Controversially places two bolts, which are later removed.

 

1979
FA of Lord of the Flies (E6 6a), Dinas Cromlech, Gwynedd.

1980
FA of Strawberries (E6 6b), Tremadog.
FA of Atomic Hot Rod (E5 6b), Dinas Cromlech.
FFA of Dinosaur (E5 6b), Gogarth.
FA of The Big Sleep (E6 6b), Gogarth.
FA of Psycho Killer (E6 6b), Clogwyn Du'r Arddu.

 

1981
Visits Frankenjura, making FFA of The Blue Roof.
FFAs; Cave Route Left-hand (E6 6c), Cave Route Right-hand (E6 6b). Gordale

 

1982
FFA of Indecent Exposure (F7b+), Raven Tor
FFA of The Prow (7c), Raven Tor
FFA of Body Machine (F7c), Raven Tor,
FFA Scritto's Republic (E7 6b), Millstone, Derbyshire.
FAs in Pembroke: Stennis the Menace (E6 6b), Yellow Pearls (E5 6b) and Boss Hogg (E6 6b).

1983
FA of Master's Edge (E7 6b), Millstone, Derbyshire.

 

1984
FA of Mescalito (F7c+) and New Dawn (F7c) at Malham Cove, and Defcon 3 (F7c+) at Gordale.
Fast repeat of Revelations (F8a+, FA: Jerry Moffatt, 1984) at Raven Tor.

 

1985
FA of Zoolook, the first F8a at Malham.

 

1986
Solos 100 gritstone Extreme-grade routes in a day near his home in Derbyshire.
FA of Toy Boy, Froggatt (E7 7a)

 

1987
FA of Careless Torque at Stanage, one of the first Font 8a boulder problems in the UK.
FA of Moon Madness, Curbar (E7/8 6b)
 

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For years I managed with a succession of large load-carrying rucksacks when heading away on a trip. They are all well and good if you're trekking, hitching or backpacking, but for road trips, car boot camping, expeditions, or anywhere where you are based in one place for any length of time a decent sized kit bag is far superior. My first such bag was stolen from my tent at Arico in Tenerife - OK, we shouldn't have been camping there, but it was a frustrating end to the trip nonetheless. In the meantime I've had a few smaller versions, but the El Gordo has trumped them all.

It's relatively light-weight (1.4kg) given its 90l capacity, and can be lightened further by removing the heavy duty shoulder strap which is only necessary if you plan to carry the bag any great distance (when it comes into its own!). There are a pair of comfortable handles on the top, and one and each end, which make grabbing the thing , even when fully laden, from an airport luggage carousel a breeze. For those who simply can't let go of the need for a rucksack, it's worth noting tat the two top-handles are padded and are big enough to get your arms through to turn the thing into a fairly rudimentary rucksack, all be it with a very high centre of gravity. The end pockets are very well stitched - the manufacturer even encourages hauling from these handles - mygut feeling woudl be that hauling should be an occasional use.

If you're carrying any valuables then the padded base will give you some peace of mind, but I felt that this could have been ditched to save some additional weight. Like-wise there are compression straps on the outside meaning you can turn a half packed bag into something sleek and streamlined. Sounds like a good idea on paper, but again, I'd have preferred to drop these in favour of a lighter bag. On the contrary, I'd have liked to see a second side pocket - in a bag this size it's essential to have a few small spaces to put books, keys, wallets etc, even if just when in your tent, as things rapidly get lost inside the main compartment. If you do get the extra large version it does include a waterproof inner pocket for dirty / wet stuff.

Retailing at £65 for the 90l version I think this is a very good price for a versatile bag that will see a good number of trips under its belt.

 

Manufacturers Info:

- 37l, 64l or 90l

· XL size features wet/dry pocket

- Weight 1.4kg

- Dimensions - 37cm x 68cm x 37cm

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 The Primet 60 is one of a wide range of bags which cross over from outdoor-pursuits-based to conventional travel. It looks like a run of the mill, rugged, but smart kit bag, but has a pair of rubberised wheels and a telescopic handle to allow it to be easily pulled through airports and along pavements. Although some equivalent models have rucksack straps this one doesn't. These were missed, but the weight saving was noted and appreciated. The bag weighs a hefty 2.9kg which is noticable when checking in with some of the budget airlines these days, however, some of its rucksack strapped rivals are heavier still - this was one of the lightest on the market. 

 

Whereas most of these bags that have been produced have probably not made it out of Europe, this particular model was subjected to 4 weeks in the the Monsoon season in  The Philippines! Despite torrential rain for some of the trip the contents of the bag remained bone dry, a testament to the waterproofing in the outer material.

 

Carrying:

As already mentioned, the bag has a single-stem  telescopic handle that stows away when not in use. Some rivals have a double stem handle which reduces wobble when pulling, but we found the single-stem perfectly adequate on that front. In addition there are two more carrying options. The short handle on one side of the  bag was most used, with the more comfortable shoulder strap used rarely despite its apparent usefulness. There is also a short carry handle on the top of the bag.

 

Storage:

The main compartment, as well as being super-dry, has a decent capacity (60l) with rigid sides and compression straps allowing plenty to be crammed in. A couple of fold-away inner compartments are very hand when not packing the bag to absolute capacity. Perhaps the best feature of the bag is that there is never any need to re-pack as everything is accesible with the main lid open - fantastic when constantly on the move. There's aven an inner mesh pocket which was useful for storing dirty stuff separately. Lastly, there is an outer zip pocket which was used regularly as the trip library for paperbacks, cards, maps and guidebooks. 

 

Downsides:

Unfortunately the bag's dimensions are just outside the airline hand baggage dimensions of 56cm  by 45cm by 25cm

 

Conclusion:

Retailing at £80 (and plenty cheaper if you shop around) this is a very good value bag for stop-start travel. Proponents of 'real' travel will probably argue that without rucksack straps it's not worth the bother, but we'd argue that if you need to carry it on your back, then it;s probably worth getting a proper rucksack.

 

 

Manufacturers Info:

-600 D Esdura RS polyester / 600 D Esdura polyester for high durability and strength.
-Reinforced ballistic base.
-Adaptastrap system allows the bag to be carried as a rucsac or shoulder bag.
-Wheel cover for use when carrying the bag on your back.
-Reinforced top and side handles for easy use.
-Large internal mesh pocket.
-Pop out pocket to separate items.
-Internal zipped pocket for smaller items.
-Two external zipped pockets.
-60L capacity
-Dimensions: 64cm(H) x 42cm(W) x 25cm(D)

-Weight 2.9kg

 

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