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Kim Carrigan BOOK 3-Mar-2017 At 9:54:56 AM simey

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On 2/03/2017 One Day Hero wrote:

>I'm not saying the stone masters didn't do cool things, but it gets rammed
>down your throat so often it's like commercial radio killing Hotel California.
>How about Henry Barber? He didn't get that good in isolation. There must
>have been a hard-hitting scene in New Hampshire. Who were the other climbers?
>I have no fuching clue, because American climbing media ignores that bit
>of history.
>
Some truly remarkable climbers do just suddenly appear from out of the blue. I don't think Alex Honnold was part of any scene for him to develop his soloing to the level that he does. In fact from a soloing perspective (of which Henry Barber was a leading practitioner), it is often a lack of climbing partners that pushes people in that direction.

And look at Angie Scarth-Johnson... here is a young girl that started pulling hard with no outside influence pushing her.

>>As for your climbing story suggestions, no one is stopping you from making
>>your own film or writing your own book.
>
>I wouldn't mind writing a couple of articles. Honestly though, is there
>room in the Australian climbing press for anything outside of the Wimmera
>and the Blueys?

I think there are heaps of great stories to be told in Australian climbing. Michael Meadows has done an awesome job of compiling much of the very early history of climbing in QLD and NSW in his book, The Living Rock. I never realised that Australia had such a rich climbing history. I totally recommend his book for those who haven't seen it.

However there is a colourful story to be told about the climbing scene in Australia between 75 and 85. And if you were to flesh it out the correct way, then it would appeal to a very wide audience, much like how the skate doco 'Dogtown and Z-Boys' appealed to an audience that weren't into skateboarding. If you capture the era, the characters, the rebel element and other themes, then you realise that decade has a lot going on which even non-climbers would relate to.