Marylebone Mountaineering Club
Library and Information > Newsletters
Library and Information > Newsletters
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Marylebone Mountaineering Club Library and Information > Newsletters |
| New Year Meet Report | Christmas Break | Touching the Void | Next Meet | Pub Nights | Social | Beta |
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North Wales: 23rd-25th January
Grid ref.: SH 737572
Organiser: Tara Creegan
tcreegan@civica.co.uk (h) 020 7627 3674 (w) 020 7760 2801 Staying in Capel Curig Bryn Brethynau, owned by the North London CC.
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Windmill, Clapham Common: Wed 11th Feb
Located between Clapham South and Clapham Common Tube Stations.
Contact Kate Gerard Contact Kate Gerard (m) 0781 0524 547.
Island Queen, Islington: Wed 10th March
Located at 29 Catherine Street, WC2B. Contact Kate Gerard as above.
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Pub Nights If you are a prospective member then this is your chance to meet the Club.
See Pub Nights for upcoming venues.
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Monday Night Jazz Steve Melvin plays with a band every Monday at the Three Stags Pub in Kennington Road,
nearest tube Lambeth North. This is an informal "jamming session" and a number of members have been meeting
on a Monday to support Steve, enjoy the atmosphere and to catch up with fellow club members. If you'd like
to attend, email Steve on steve.melvin@virgin.net or Kate Gerard.
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It’s Winter!
OK, so you knew that already. But don’t forget that winter conditions in the mountains can make
life really uncomfortable, not to mention life threatening, if you don't have the correct clothing and gear.
As a minimum you should have the following:
You should also have a plan! Do you know where you are going? What are the alternatives if things turn nasty half way through? Are your companions also properly prepared? If you're unsure of what you should be wearing and carrying, please talk to a current MMC member for advice before you come on a meet.
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Club Library
The club has an ever expanding collection of books for use by members. These include climbing and
walking guides, as well as guides to first aid, navigation, mountain weather etc. For a complete
list check out the library.
members@MaryleboneMountaineeringClub
You can now send an email to everyone in the MMC by sending to "mmc@f2s.com".
Marylebone Mountaineering Club Online
We are always on the lookout for new content, so if you have any ideas, copy or good photos
send them to: webmaster@themmc.org.uk.
Copy
Deadline for copy for the next newsletter is 5th February. Please send all copy to Andy Etheridge
at newsletter@themmc.org.uk or (h) 01252 835770.
The MMC Committee
Chair: John Bradshaw
Vice-Chair: Clare Attenborough Secretary: Lee Mellows Meets: Paul Grinnell Meets Assistant: John Nolan Membership: Kate Gerard Newsletter: Andy Etheridge Treasurer: Zoe Maughan Taylor ANOther: Simon Atkins |
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by Nick Kemp
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Hollywood has always had a problem with making movies about mountaineering. The standard staples of stunts, action, romance and characterisations are difficult to maintain with a mountaineering plot where the general aim in an expedition is to achieve the goal with the minimum of drama and personal conflict. Also the subtleties of the action be it crossing intricately crevassed glaciers, smearing up delicate protectionless slabs or front pointing up ice falls are difficult to represent cinematically and would be lost on most of the audience anyway. This probably explains the paucity of climbing movies and where they do exist the climbing is normally a sub plot to some greater skullduggery (e.g. Cliffhanger, The Eiger Sanction) or else the cinematic license taken is so extreme as to make the climbing scenes utterly ridiculous (Vertical Limit). Also the ease with which you can weave falling bodies and cut ropes into the plot means that it is frequently overused and hence loses its effect after a while. The best approach seems to have been the Cliffhanger method which is essentially a big name action movie using the paraphernalia of climbing to show Sly engaging in a lot of unlikely stunts. All the climbing scenes are utterly ridiculous (apart from Wolfgang Gullich soloing at the beginning) but as an action movie it is great fun. However we now see the emergence of Touching the Void. This has been done in documentary style with the recreation of the climb of Siula Grande interspersed with the talking heads of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates. |
Interestingly Simpson and Yates are not identified when they first appear and it is left to the story to identify them to the uninitiated. The documentary maker has his task much simplified over the film maker in that his plot is fixed in history. In this case the sheer dramatic quality of the story is such that it needs only a light touch to bring the horrors of Simpson’s experience to life. The re-enactment of the climb is beautifully filmed and the commentary by Simpson and Yates manages to fill in the technicalities to a non climbing audience in an unobtrusive manner. As most of the audience would be familiar with the essentials of the story (and fully assured of a happy ending as both of the protagonists are still around) the key events of leg breaking and rope cutting are handled in matter of fact manner. This ensures that the inevitability and logical necessity of cutting the rope are recognised by the audience rather than using a more flamboyant approach which would have served to give the audience a cheap shock. The former approach is far more effective as the moral decision by Yates is shared by the audience and further emphasised by the real torment still seen on Yates’s face. The long drawn out self rescue by Simpson with a broken leg is a grim study in fortitude and determination. Overall it is a marvelously entertaining film that sums up the spirit of climbing far better than any other mainstream production and can be thoroughly recommended to all. |
