This week's Friday Night Video is a wave of nostalgia for those north of the border. Shot in 1999, Cutting Loose captures the vibrant scene at Dumbarton, from the desperate bouldering test pieces, run-out trad, and the kids that use the crag as a hang-out. Sit back with a bottle of Buckfast and enjoy!
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Return to Latest NewsPeople in the wider world of climbing tend to hear about my climbing through the well known films E11 or Echo Wall or my book 9 out of 10 climbers make the same...
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Comments
Loved that! Great to see early days Dave MacLeod.
If you've not seen it, another film by Nick Tarmey, Living for the Weekend: a year in Glasgow University mountaineering club is superb. https://www.mntnfilm.com/en/film/living-for-the-weekend-1999
These days, in addition to being a doctor, NT is an impressive cyclist: https://theendurancehabit.com/what-does-it-take-to-ride-80km-50-miles-in-under-two-hours/
I enjoyed it as well and saw lots of familiar faces among the non-Macleod GUM club boulderers - I think Dave started at Glasgow the year after I left. But I knew Nick and a number of the others who were in both his films. Interesting to hear he's cycling at a high standard. Go Nick!
It's interesting how few bouldering mats there are. It doesn't seem so long ago otherwise, I reckon I still have my Animal fleece hat somewhere. I worked in a climbing shop 93 - 96, and although we got in the first GPS units, first wire gate krabs etc while I was there, we never had bouldering mats. It's like Ben and Jerry had to bring some up from Sheffield! I made one, cutting a cheap karrimat into thirds and duck taping it into a triple layer square mat. It wasn't very good. 😆
I fell off Stonefall Crack Direct just at the spot Kirk nearly did. I blamed the worn through rand on my Kamet Joshua Trees. Nearly hit the ground because my biggest cam (Quadcam 3.8 # anyone remember them?) only fitted about halfway up the main crack.
Some of the grading seems a bit wacky; I wonder if they've been updated now (boulders that should clearly be trad grades and some trad grades that are clearly boulders).
It's Dumby, it's supposed to be hard, not make sense!
;p
Have you climbed there? Some of the boulders are really big and at least when I was a lad (well, ok, when I was a student) no mats, so the big slab up Eagle Boulder felt like an HVS rather than f4 or whatever it gets now.