What fun I've had over the last week, and what publicity. It's a shame i'm not sponsored, as most outdoor gear manufacturers would love the level of exposure i've gotten in the last week.
One friend commented that I'd "gone viral" with press coverage on the Guardian, Daily Mail, Metro and Radio Times webpages, as well as a printed article in Tuesdays Metro (above). However, you can see from the links/scanned articles below, that the truth about the ascents behind these photos has been royally bent out of shape by the writing and double re-writing of press releases.
The biggest cock-ups are, beyond the normal mainstream media hyperbole of "spider-man", "dangling by a thread" & "required to move like spiders":
- Daily Mail's ridiculous headline of "He makes it look so easy! Rock-hard climber conquers one of world's most treacherous peaks in just seven hour"; What the f*ck? Anyone with eyes can see that an arch of rock isn't a "peak" and who ever made up the 7hr claim? Like most sport climbing red-point efforts it took about 3min to complete (admittedly after a good 30min tea break after the previous go)
- Daily Mail's claim that El Delfin (7c+) a "Huge, rocky arch is considered one of the hardest climbs in the world - only one per cent of climbers succeed"; what tosh. Adam Ondra's recent 9b+ climbs "The Change" and "La Dura Dura" are the cutting edge, at 7c+ El Delfin is a good on-sight challenge for my amateur level of climbing. I was happy enough to complete the route on my 3rd go after falling from the crux on the previous two occasions.
- Printing photos of Turkey (any of the silhouette "arch" pictures) when the text refers to Spain.
The truth is, the photos of El Delfin are from a few days I spent in Rodellar with the photographer & friend, Dan Arkle in Sept/Oct 2011. El Delfin wasn't even the hardest thing I climbed that trip; I managed to on-sight another 7c+ at Rodellar and red-point an 8a in a day at Terredets. The remaining photos were from another trip with Dan and others to Antalya, Turkey in November 2010.
Dan's explanation of the Chinese Whispers that go on between him taking the photos, via the agency and finally the newspaper goes something like this:
"I was approached by Caters, a press agency last year and have ran a few photo based stories with them. They provide news content and photos to all the major newspapers, which is released to all of them at the same time.
I answer all their questions to try and help them produce clear and accurate captions that a non-climber could understand. This press release then gets rewritten by journalists at any of the papers which take up the story.
As it can be rewritten twice, errors can creep in, although I'm not sure at which point it changes from this (from my email to them)
"The route is graded 7c+, meaning around only 1 percent of climbers could manage it. However, the grading system goes up to a dizzying 9b+"
to
"Rock hard climber conquers one of world's most treacherous peaks in just seven hours" "
Radio Times:
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-06-04/brit-successfully-climbs-the-perilous-el-delfin (not even Dan's photo, but it does at least show why the route in question is called El Delfin (The Dolphin).
Daily Wail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335109/He-makes-look-easy-Rock-hard-climber-conquers-worlds-treacherous-peaks-just-seven-hours.html
Metro; Probably the best headline
http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/03/briton-hangs-by-thread-as-he-joins-elite-band-to-conquer-rock-known-as-el-delfin-3826841/
Gruaniad:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/picture/2013/jun/03/sport-picture-of-the-day-spider-man-el-delfin
P.s. Dan's website can be found here: http://www.danarkle.com/ and has a plethora of excellent compositions; check out his 3D globe pictures and his night climbing/head-torch trails in particular.
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