Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

at the QE leisure centre we have a really good sety of walls, its indoors with no clunky gear to carry and i still have a new set of slippers that have never seen rock ! you know you want to !!!!!!!!!

we used to go to pembroke every easter bank holiday and the scariest thing about the whole trip was the descent at certain places, i didnt ever mind abbing in but climbing down was a bloody nightmare

just finished the book! what a bunch of nutters those early climbers were ,camping out in the cold then climbing all day and going back to work on Monday and with the very primitive equipment or none at all in the early days!Quite an eye opener for a non climber like me.Think i ll stick to sailing!! I m sure Don would have been great company though! Although he was a hard drinking ,fighting bloke etc I get the impression he was a good bloke to climb with because of his vast experience and in fact saved a few lives in his time.His wife must have been pretty tough too as they set off on his motorbike on a 1000 mile trip with her sitting on the rear mudguard all the way to the Alps!! Liked the little anecdote about Barrie Kershaw who , in the dock for biting a police dog said in his defence "well ,it bit me first!" Yes,I would recommend that book to anyone! Cheers guys John

Glad you enjoyed the book

I suppose we were a little crazy years ago.

Suggest you now read "Touching the Void" by Joe Simpson. You will not be able to put the book down.

Gordon, I daren't climb again. Off to hospital later today. Seems I have a crushed vertibrae in my upper chest from a fall over 20 years ago. Didn't find out about it until recently and so have spent too many years climbing and racing my bike with it.

I suppose we were a little crazy years ago!!

OK I ll try and get a copy of that.Sorry to hear you are off to hospital.Hope they fix you up as good as new

portrait of a mountaineer
Ormerod, Alick, joint author.
[by] Don Whillans and Alick Ormerod

get that as well, it is a bit more biographical regarding Don !

cheers Gordon! after reading Perrins book it would be interesting to hear Dons side of things!

I'm sure you meant to say Keith Harris and Ronnie Corbet

I cant remember Keith Harris but the two Ronnies would be a laugh a minute!!

gordan this must be a wind up

Russell was the only philosopher proved wrong by a kraut (Goedel)
einstein was a lecherous fraud
who's bill hicks?
freud was a pervert
who's don whillans?

a: its GordOn ( how long have you known me now????)

b: which bit of russel do you mean? russels induction thing? why he was not a christian? the fact he inspired wittgenstien?

c: you Cant just say "einstien was a fraud" without saying why !

D: bill hicks was a comedy genius, dennis leary ripped off his act.

E: Don was a great climber.

F: Freud was just funny and every party needs someone with stupid ideas!

as for Goedel we are talking about the "any world can exist and that existance of any world allows for all logical possibilities to exist" nutter are we? the man who starved himself to death due to mental illness? that Goedel? mmmmmmmmmmm

Mr fuzzy logic himself

and as for lecherous that'l do for me ! russel was the same as was Don and Hicks had a masive supply of drugs

This is going to have to be a Southern Region meet discussion, Groddan, we don't want to lose the others

Touching the void What a great read!!!!! those guys are completly crazy but you have to say they are heroes,bloody big ones!!!! I really dont know what to say except i m really impressed by their determination and dedication, also the relationship between them after the event is amazing,real people!! and some!!

Hi

I won't recommend anything else to read, I am starting to get itchy feet and twitchy fingers again

Went to the wedding of the daughter of my ex climbing partner last year.

The reception was high on a hill overlooking Lake Windermere, fabulous watching the sun go down over the peaks

Forgot her wedding anniversary, you have reminded me

Oh well, looks like it's all gone full circle

That's life.

Saw some great hills up in the Isle of Skye,in fact Don Whillans did some climbing up in the Black Cuillins didnt he? Opposite Arrochar at the top of Loch Long there are some big hills with a rock outcop at the top called the Cobbler cos it looks like a cobblers last.There was a memorial climb going on when we stayed there(for one of their friends who had fallen and died some years before).Twenty climbers alltogether,had a good chat in the bar that night.They were impressed I knew about Don!

Sorry, can't help out with the routes Don did in Scotland.

However, there are some fabulous routes on the Cobbler.

My only episode in Scotland was on the Ben; got snowed off one winter at end of January and had to retreat back to the Lake District for a week of snow and ice there. It was an epic journey up to Scotland and an even bigger epic trying to get out with road closures everywhere. Even managed to crash the tranny van on the way back. However, had an epic week in the Lakes. Loads of good snow and ice. Trouble with the tranny van again, spent one evening trying to put frozen snow chains on the rear wheels lying on my back in the middle of the road on the Kirkstone Pass

Those were the days my friend. Where have I heard that before.

Yes we were absolutely crazy.

Only, met Don after his epics on snow and ice. For me the pinnacle (no pun intended) was his first ascent of the South Face of Annurpurna. At the time the summit was considered almost unnattainable and to my knowledge, it is still an epic that few are willing to attempt.