The Sound of Silence

I was watching a YouTube of some old climbing footage this afternoon - in particular of a climber called Jimmy Jewell in a 1980s documentary by Alun Hughes - who was most well known for his solo climbing [unroped to the uninitiated] exploits. I never knew Jewell but I did know at least a couple of his close acquaintances from the era. Jimmy died soloing Poor Man's Peuterey, at Tremadoc in North Wales: a relatively easy [graded severe] route for him. What made me think watching the film though, was that, even up until relatively recently, getting decent, editable footage of climbs has not been straightforward. 

The interest in filming climbing for a more general audience really only dates back to the 1960s, in particular with the second ascent of The Old Man of Hoy by three parties of climbers. The first, repeating their first ascent of the previous year by their original route; and the second and third opening up two new lines of ascent. The original 1966 party was Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey; the three parties for the televised event were: Bonington and Patey, Joe Brown and Ian McNaught-Davis, and Pete Crew and Dougal Haston: it was broadcast over three nights in July 1967. Capturing useful footage for the documentary in those days involved an awful lot of preparation and gear-hauling by experienced climbers, as would be the case for decades after on subsequent films.

My train of thought though, was that now, we can observe remotely and easily pretty much any extreme sporting activity via drones capturing rock-steady footage in cinematic resolution, without the need for hauling camera gear or abseiling photographers, or repeated ascents by the climbers themselves to get different camera angles, etc. I guess that a truly live broadcast of a first ascent - at least of a rock climb: I've no idea how the tech would translate into the high mountains, but I assume it would at least be feasible in some form - should now be possible in real time.

The one thing that would stand in the way of the use of drone tech at the highest level of climbing is its inherent intrusiveness. When Jimmy Jewell soloed Left Wall on Dinas Cromlech for the cameras, he did the route six times, in order that all the camera angles could be covered for the final edit. His one proviso was that no-one talk to him at any point during those six ascents. Methinks the whine of camera drones might well have been somewhat more unwelcome and off-putting during his efforts...