Howard Troll Wall

The untold story of the British first ascent of Europe's tallest rock face
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-1-906148-38-6
Verlag: Vertebrate Digital
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

Norway, 1965. A team of young climbers from the north of England camp at the bottom of the tallest vertical rock face in Europe - the Troll Wall. No one has dared attempt this gigantic challenge before. Some say it will never be climbed. This will be the adventure of a lifetime. Rain and snow soak them as they climb. Avalanches and loose rock threaten their lives. A Norwegian team arrives to compete for the glory as the world's media look on. Pushed to the limits of exhaustion, the team spends days on the wall, refusing to given in, even when failure seems certain. 'Troll Wall' tells the gripping story of one of the most dramatic first ascents in British climbing history. Written days after their success, almost half a century ago, and newly rediscovered, Tony Howard's account is a fascinating insight into the challenges of climbing a big mountain wall.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Howard, Tony

Leseproben

FOREWORD

IT IS SOMEWHAT TYPICAL OF Tony Howard and the era when he did his greatest climbs that in 1965 he should write a comprehensive and, as it turns out, riveting account of his epic ascent of Troll Wall, then escape to the hills to avoid the limelight and forget all about it for nearly half a century. How wonderful that we can now read about the life and times of all the characters involved in this gripping Norwegian saga.

It is about time we had more information about this mountaineer, who has contributed so much to climbing here in Britain and abroad. This is a good, honest account, without exaggeration or too much understatement. Once begun, I found his account compulsive reading, a real page-turner, not just for those interested in big-wall climbing, but also for anyone who enjoys reading of epic journeys into the unknown.

The climbing of the Troll Wall by members of the Rimmon Mountaineering Club was significant in many respects. First, it brought into focus a new major area for big walls on a par with the Dolomites and Yosemite, albeit with a character all its own, affected by the cold moist winds blowing in from the North Sea. And the climb itself was an important development by virtue of the difficulties encountered and the commitment required to surmount them.

Of the seven Rimmon members on the Troll Wall expedition Rob Holt, Jeff Heath and Margaret Woodcock were there in support of the more experienced John Amatt, Tony Howard, Tony Nicholls and Bill Tweedale who planned to set off up the most natural line on the wall, straight up the centre with no possibility of escape other than up or back the way they had come.

This was a line Tony had previously reconnoitred. It captured their imagination and became their obsession. Their enthusiasm grew as they worked hard back in the UK to fund the expedition. The northern climbing scene had changed appreciably after the war. Climbing abroad was no longer the preserve of the Alpine Club or Oxbridge types. During the 1960s and 1970s many local club expeditions were launched to faraway places, the Oread of Derby went to the Lyngen Peninsula of Arctic Norway and to Kulu in the Indian Himalaya. The Nottingham Climbing Club went to the Tibesti Mountains of Chad and the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan, and so on.

Now anyone with initiative could take advantage of the increased affluence and ease of travel, which became far cheaper too. It was no longer unusual for young climbers to work for eight months and then take the remainder of the year off climbing, hitchhiking out to the Alps, supplementing the tax rebate with casual work on building sites or, in the case of the Rimmon, on North Sea trawlers.

Ironically, after all those millennia left in the shadows since emerging from the last Ice Age, the Troll Wall saw the arrival of two separate groups in the same week, one from Norway and one from the north of England. The media had a field day and concocted the idea of ‘a race’ to be the first up the Wall.

What concerned Tony and his team when they heard of this ‘race’ was not they would be beaten to the top of the Wall but that they may not be first up ‘their’ route. They would not be the first to go where no-one had gone before, with all the intrinsic interest of discovery, the hidden cracks and ledges for belay and bivouac and the unravelling of the mysteries on this part of the mountain. That can only be experienced once, for once it is done and known there is no longer that compulsive curiosity that keeps a team on course through horrendous storms up exposed rock at great technical difficulty. Another Lancashire lad, Don Whillans, acknowledged that ‘there has always been competition in climbing, but for the route, not to be better than anyone else.’

This was borne out subsequently when the Norwegians and Brits both succeeded in putting up two parallel and independent routes to the mutual admiration of both teams and although the Norwegians, as it happened, completed their route first they received whole-hearted congratulations from Tony, John and Bill and the rest of the Rimmon team. It mattered not a jot that the Norwegians were first up the Wall. In fact, as far as the Rimmon team were concerned, it was fitting that the Norwegians topped out first. It was ‘their’ mountain.

In the course of time the ‘English Route’ was recognised as a classic climb and became ever more popular. The Norwegian Route was not repeated until 1997 and only two or three times since. The Trolls had the last laugh, however, when the central part of the English Route peeled off in a massive avalanche. It has not been climbed since.

In taking on the challenge of the Troll Wall, the Rimmon lads took a huge step into the unknown. This was quite beyond anything any of them had attempted before. Consequently, the outcome remained uncertain until the end, which is always the hallmark of a great adventure. Modern climbers will find it hard to imagine how it was back in the 1960s on a 1,200-metre route surmounting huge overhanging sections, lashed by rain and sleet, climbing without harnesses, waterproofs and bivouac equipment, without ‘portal edges’, belay and abseil devices, pulley systems, or the modern protection we now take for granted.

They didn’t take walkie-talkies so as not to ‘rob the climb of the essence of being there alone and committed’ and were therefore reliant upon their own judgement as to the weather, route finding and for each other’s physical and psychological well-being.

It’s true it wasn’t an alpine-style ascent. They had cut down the odds against failure a little. Fixed polypropylene rope was employed on the lower approach slabs. The team did have to retreat when their bivouac gear failed in a prolonged storm leaving gear and food at their high point for a later attempt. They also had a few bolts, but didn’t use them.

Tony Nicholls had led some of the hardest pitches on the first attempt and a done lot of sack hauling without a pulley. He was exhausted and with damaged hands decided he would only be a burden on the others so opted to stay down with the support party. The other three had to adjust to their depleted team and the sadness at leaving a good mate behind.

Nowadays, it is not always appreciated that pegging is vastly different to bolting. Climbing up an overhanging wall for the first time, even with 280 pegs and wedges was never a foregone conclusion. If, however, the climbers resort to bolting, then with perseverance there is no doubt progress can be made. Drilling, therefore, really does ‘murder the impossible.’ Pegging, on the other hand, depends on the configuration of the crack systems. Progress is governed by the geography of the mountain and the climber’s chances are restricted to using what features are available. Tony’s description of negotiating the final part of the Great Wall shows pegging is not without risk and uncertainty. Only by stretching his strength, resourcefulness, imagination and courage to the limit could it be climbed even on pegs. Would today’s climber armed with a battery operated drill have struggled so hard to avoid drilling? To have done so would have robbed the climb of its essence and diminished the great effort it was.

This section required great determination from all three of the team to hang throughout the night from their belays and etriers. Three days later, they reached the top of the Trollveggen to complete their odyssey. The climb opened up many possibilities for the Rimmon lads and for climbers everywhere, especially in Britain. The Troll Wall climb demonstrated what could follow from a ground-ing in British and Alpine rock and ice climbing. Local climbing clubs launched trips to the remote mountains of Alaska, Patagonia, Baffin Island and the Himalaya. Within ten years much harder, longer, steeper and higher routes were being established up in the Karakoram and Himalaya. By then climbers had the benefit of all the latest American climbing hardware and the software the Troll Climbing Equipment Company produced, the company started by Tony and two other members of the Rimmon Club, Paul Seddon and Alan Waterhouse. Perhaps the most important factor was the more rapid dissemination of information with climbers knowing far more, and more quickly, about other climbers’ achievements everywhere.

In 1967, John Amatt, with Rusty Baillie, armed with skyhooks, rurps and the complete range of American hard steel pegs as well as bongs, climbed the 1,650-metre North Wall of Semletind in alpine style. John went on to become an accomplished public speaker and motivational lecturer. He emigrated to Canada where he established the Banff Mountain Film Festival.

Tony also continued, with other members of the Rimmon Club, to contribute, with a host of new climbs and the first walking and climbing guide to Romsdal. With Bill Tweedale, in 1967, he made the first ascent of Breitind’s 2,000-metre East Pillar, and the equally long Pillar of Semletind with Rob Holt and Wayne Gartside. Tony, Bill, Rob and Wayne also climbed the 1,800-metre South East Face of Kongen.

Working as designer at Troll, Tony developed the world’s first sit harness and later the Whillans harness. The lightweight version is, in the opinion of many, still the best mountain harness around. The day to day running of Troll was often largely left in the hands of Tony’s co-directors, such was the call of the wild.

Tony, with his partner Di Taylor, discovered one new climbing and trekking area after another, in Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Sudan, Madagascar, Nagaland, Oman and, in particular, the Wadi Rum in Jordan. As a result of explorations there by Tony and his friends, and the guidebook...