Birtwistle sitting 4th from left with the Rucksack Club at Kinder Downfall in 1950. Photograph: Rucksack Club Archive
Arthur Birtwistle in Grindsbrook, Nov 1997
Just to let you know, if you haven’t realised already, just what a Kinder Scout enthusiast I am. Here is a test map (tipped on its side) of part of a 12-day, 145-mile walking route I did around the entire Peak District, starting and finishing at Derby Cathedral, in the year 2000, called ‘The Peak Grand Tour’ in preparation for a book of the same name. Unfortunately the project was clobbered by the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease.
Crossing Kinder Scout from the north side to Kinder Downfall in Dec 2001. Gordon, left; John, right. Photo: Freda Raphael.
Ascending Fairbrook Naze, 2001. Freda and John
Gordon setting up a shot for the BBC promotion ‘Wild Britain’ on Kinder’s Fairbrook Naze in March 2003, helped by Freda (left) and old climbing friend Chris Thorp (right)
March 2003. Gordon lining up a shot on Fairbrook Naze for a TV promotion for a BBC series, ‘Wild Britain’, that unfortunately never materialised. We had both Rebecca Stephens and Brian Blessed interested as potential presenters (and shot test scenes with them). Here Gordon is using a Russian Konvas 35mm film camera with a wide-angle Cinemascope format lens that belonged to cameraman Peter Ormrod.
Freda in the final exit chimney of the scramble up Crowden Clough on the south side of Kinder in July 2003. The stream-bed gives several hundred feet of good scrambling up rock steps until this final chimney is reached.
Freda above Fairbrook, Kinder Scout, 2009
Freda above Fairbrook, Kinder Scout, 2009
Freda above Fairbrook, Kinder Scout, June 2009
The wonderful ‘Legacy’ (HVS) on Ashop Edge on the north rim of Kinder Scout. This ascending hand traverse is really about as good as they get at the standard, and the finish up a steep rib in the evening sun is wonderful. This is about the last rock climb I can remember leading well (in the summer of 1999), and really enjoying, shortly before shoulder and eye problems set in. I was seconded by Freda, whom I’d met just a few weeks before. Photo: Copyright Tim W., Aug 2005 (from UKClimbing.com)
A rare image of Gordon climbing. Here on very thin and virtually unprotectable Herford’s Route (HVS) on the Pagoda on Kinder Scout in the summer of 1996. Very advanced for its date (1910), for a long time it was graded VS, a real ‘sandbag’. Really not much easier than Birtwistle’s Diagonal Route.
The excellent Jester Cracks (VS) on Ashop Edge on the wild and remote northern rim of Kinder Scout. Here my old friend Steve Dean is tackling the crux in 1996 for my book ‘The Peak: Past & Present’
Upper Tor Wall (HS), Upper Tor, Kinder Scout, a classic first climbed by Arthur Birtwistle in 1936. Wonderful rock, and a bit undergraded. Here Mike Pearce is climbing the route for my book ‘The Peak: Past & Present’. Photo: Gordon, 1996.
Freda and Clare having a natter above Fairbrook Naze
Freda and Lizzie on south rim of Kinder
In ‘Kinder Gates’, the wonderful wild stream above the Downfall
Near the head of Grindsbrook
Peter Thair near Grindslow Knoll
Descending The Nab to Edale at the end of a perfect day
Emlyn on wonderful slabs above the Chinese Wall on the north side of Kinder Scout
