The BBC’s Live Climb
I’M anticipating a busy 2 or 3 weeks up to the BBC’s Live Climb on August 28. And we now know that Dave MacLeod and Tim Emmett have a route to go for on Sron Ulladale, something that’s obviously been worrying the lads a bit. Have a look at Dave’s blog
The outside broadcast will last for 5 or 6 hours on BBC 2 Scotland and Sky Channel 990. The last 2 hours of the broadcast will be networked nationally on the BBC’s HD channel. It should make for some great television and producers Richard Else and Margaret Wicks have been busy getting a commentary team together and making up a programme of short films which introduce the viewers to the Isle of Harris, the culture of the Hebrides and one or two great walks on the islands. My role will partly be introducing some of these feature films, as well as being part of the commentary team that includes climbers Duncan McCallum, Mark Garthwaite and Stephen Venables. The Adventure Show’s Dougie Vipond will be anchoring the whole programme.
But the real attraction will be Dave and Tim attempting their new route on Sron Ulladale, on what is probably the biggest overhanging rock in the UK. Dave reckons the route might go at E9 or even E10, which will be incredible given that it’s all pretty sustained for about half a dozen pitches.
The big worry of course is that the weather in the Hebrides, as in most other areas of the UK, has been foul this summer. I’ve spent the best part of a couple of weeks on Harris and Lewis and it’s rained every day so fingers and toes are crossed for the weather to improve dramatically by the end of the month. Some of you might well be asking why we didn’t make the broadcast in May or June when the weather was decent and the answer to that is simple - birds were nesting and raising chicks on the cliffs then, so we couldn’t climb.
However, contingency plans are in place should the weather be really nasty, and bear in mind that this overhang on Sron Ulladale is so great that the climbers probably wouldn’t get wet anyway! Unfortunately, the commentary team probably would…