Acting
Extract from a Pathe Review showing a team of men, including the Abraham Brothers, George and Ashley, climbing lower slopes before ascending Napes Needle, Great Gable. Climbers pose with their boots for the camera then tackle the rock face, including a view of the Wasdale valley below. George Abraham leads the Arête Route. Finally the mountaineers are seen reaching the top of the Needle. George and Ashley Abraham, the brother climbers and photographers from Keswick, recorded in pictures the evolution of early rock-climbing in the English Lake District.
Britain's first complete rock climbing film, by Stanley Watson. A film about climbing in the Lakes. Norah Johnstone, a teacher at Keswick Grammar School and later Watson's wife, starred as a Victorian climber. The film includes footage of Stanley Watson himself climbing Kern Knotts blindfolded and a young girl, Vivian Verity, whose first climb at aged 9 was up Napes Needle. Stanley Watson is a keystone in the history of British climbing. He established the British Mountain Guides Organisation in 1930.
Documentary featuring some of Britain's leading rock climbers demonstrating their skills on different British rock climbing locations. In the Lake District, the 71-year-old Rusty Westmorland and Monica Jackson climb Napes Needle. In Idwal, Gwen Moffat, the first woman mountain guide in Britain, leads a climb on the Idwal Slabs, seconded by her husband Johnnie Lees. At Windgather Rocks, Geoff Sutton and Gordon Mansell teach a group of novices some basic climbing techniques. The documentary also includes reflections on mountaineering and climbing by George Abraham, Geoffrey Winthrop Young, George Band and Joe Brown. The film ends with shots of Brown leading Suicide Wall at Idwal.
"The first of three films by Sid Perou that trace the story of rock climbing from its simple and accessible beginnings to the exclusive world of today's dedicated rock athlete. In this episode of Rock Athlete, leading Northern climbers in action show how the increasing use of technical aids eventually led back to the primitive contest between man and rock. The film starts with film footage of the Abraham Brothers climbing the Napes Needle in 1915 and ends with Ron Fawcett soloing Tensor on Craig y Castell (Tremadog). A TV series by Sid Perou produced by the BBC."
George Sansom and Siegfried Herford climb the Great Gable on Kern Knotts Crack in 1913. The film shows a detailed ascent of the rock pinnacle and includes shots of the mountaineers climbing in between the ridges of the rock face. This is maybe the earliest rock climbing film ever shot in Britain, made by George and Ashley Abraham, the brother climbers and photographers from Keswick who recorded in pictures the evolution of early rock-climbing in the English Lake District.
