Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Great Climb !

Yesterday I happened upon BB2 sometime around mid afternoon .
Two guys were climbing what appeared to be an absolutely impossible & at points overhanging, sheer rock face .,., in the wind & rain !!
I watched for only 10-minutes .,., or so it seemed .,., turned out to be maybe 1/2 - 3/4 of an hour or so !
I then went back to watching the footie ( yeah I'm a Saturday intellectual ) .,.,
And after the footie I watched a bit of the golf from Gleneagles ! ( the intellect just pours out of me at weekends ! )
You wonder how the beloved puts up with me don't you ?  Yeah, me too !
But she has her own things wat she does too .,.,., :)
Anyway an hour or two later I thought I'd check if the two climbers / madmen were still at it ?
It was maybe 5pm by now .,.,
I watched again for a few minutes .,., aye ok it was maybe about an hour this time .,., Jesus, these guys are either the bravest I've ever seen or completely mental and needing locked up in a secure establishment provided by the State ! ,,, ( my gut feeling tells me it's the latter ! )
It turned out that what I was watching was this .,.,
A spectacular live rock climb broadcast from the daunting overhanging cliff face at Sron Uladail on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Dougie Vipond commentated, while leading climbers, Dave MacLeod and Tim Emmett, attempted a first ascent of an extreme new route, which promised to stretch their physical endurance and skill to the limit. ( I'll say it did ! ) With absolutely no guarantee that they would be able to conquer the route, and the huge physical and technical challenges involved, this promised to be a unique and compelling live event.
And so it turned out to be !  It went on for a further two hours !!
It was absolutely compelling viewing ,, but very, very stressful .,.,
The beloved actually couldn't watch it, it was making her all fluttery and shaky just being in the same room !!
I was now completely hooked and watched 'til the lead man ( Tim ) on stage 4 made it to the top ,,,
Oh boy, What a relief ,,
I had to go and lie down for an hour .,., Phew ,,, what an exhausting day !
But tell you what .,., if you didn't see this, then do have a look .. you can catch it on the BBC iPlayer ,,
I was never attracted to this kind of extreme sporting activity, even when I was young & relatively fit ,, but this is really compelling viewing ,, TV at it's very best .,., I guarantee if you start watching it you'll be hooked within the first 1/2 hour !
And don't blame me if you decide to watch the whole 7-hour climb !!!

1 comment:

Alistair said...

You say Vougie Dipond was commentating?

That wisnae a climb - that wis an escape attempt.......


Sounds interesting. I'll have a look.....