When you’ve been a jobing (and non-jobing) writer for 30 years, you often come across things you wrote long ago that you’ve forgotten. Sometimes you’re in a climbing wall cafe and come across something in a pile of old magazines. Sometimes, someone tells you that they have something you wrote framed in their bathroom, which had a profound impact, but you have no recollection of writing (or even now believing). But mostly, it’s stuff you find, past writing, online, when you’re researching for something else, or when writing something new (or recycled). Below is a short thing I wrote for Trek & Mountain around 2014, I think, that is worth re-reading (plus a track at the end from around the same time).
Nice. A great metaphor for modern life too: chasing the supposed ‘dream outcome’ when you don’t understand what’s really important. My dad used to talk about the folly of knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing and I suppose this is kind of what he meant.
I still have a copy of ‘Cold Haul’, signed by Ian Parnell when I met him at some outdoor exhibition in Earls Court in the early 2000s. I picked it up and was looking at the blurb on the back when Ian sidled up and asked me if I was interested in climbing. After a brief conversation he mentioned that it was actually him and his mate, Andy, in the film. I felt that I had no choice but to buy it there and then as it didn’t have to balls to put it down and walk away. Glad I did get it - I think it is certainly the first time I’d seen/heard you on film. I’ve enjoyed your honest writing and live events ever since, with their twists and turns, comedy and lateral looks at climbing and life in general.
I think I also probably have some of your yellowing old booklets - free with various climbing magazines knocking about somewhere too - stretching back to some of the first stuff you wrote.
Hopefully, there’s some more writing in the pipeline at some point.
PS: can you remember the menu input you had to do to get the secret Easter egg interview on Cold Haul? I’ve forgotten…
Thanks Mike! I don’t actually own a copy of Cold Haul, which is a shame (maybe you could make a copy!), and I’ve so bar been unsuccessful at getting someone to put it up on Youtube (that’s where such old film belong). The Easter egg is an interview with JC Lafialle, but can’t remember how to find it.
Nice. A great metaphor for modern life too: chasing the supposed ‘dream outcome’ when you don’t understand what’s really important. My dad used to talk about the folly of knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing and I suppose this is kind of what he meant.
I still have a copy of ‘Cold Haul’, signed by Ian Parnell when I met him at some outdoor exhibition in Earls Court in the early 2000s. I picked it up and was looking at the blurb on the back when Ian sidled up and asked me if I was interested in climbing. After a brief conversation he mentioned that it was actually him and his mate, Andy, in the film. I felt that I had no choice but to buy it there and then as it didn’t have to balls to put it down and walk away. Glad I did get it - I think it is certainly the first time I’d seen/heard you on film. I’ve enjoyed your honest writing and live events ever since, with their twists and turns, comedy and lateral looks at climbing and life in general.
I think I also probably have some of your yellowing old booklets - free with various climbing magazines knocking about somewhere too - stretching back to some of the first stuff you wrote.
Hopefully, there’s some more writing in the pipeline at some point.
PS: can you remember the menu input you had to do to get the secret Easter egg interview on Cold Haul? I’ve forgotten…
Thanks Mike! I don’t actually own a copy of Cold Haul, which is a shame (maybe you could make a copy!), and I’ve so bar been unsuccessful at getting someone to put it up on Youtube (that’s where such old film belong). The Easter egg is an interview with JC Lafialle, but can’t remember how to find it.