Army Mountaineers complete Hard Rock Challenge (VIDEO)
24 Aug 07
Two members of the Army Mountaineering Association have completed a fundraising challenge inspired by a 1974 climbing book which outlined Britain's sixty most difficult climbs. Report by Shell Daruwala
Richard and Mark on 'Coronation Street' in Cheddar Gorge
[Picture: Copyright David Simmonite Photography]
In the last 33 years only two people have completed all sixty - and it took them ten years. Now Captain Mark Stevenson and Richard Mayfield have done it in just five weeks.
Named after a 1974 compilation of essays by Britain's most prominent climbers of the time, the 'Hard Rock Challenge' was undertaken by Mark and Richard to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Army Mountaineering Association. Their efforts have raised over £5,000 for the Mountain Rescue Service.
See Related Links>>> to watch video footage and see more images of the Hard Rock Challenge
When he's not shimmying around rock faces or dangling from a piece of nylon rope high above the ground, Captain Mark Stevenson, aged 32, serves with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) assisting with the ground support of the Army's Apache attack helicopter, based at Yeovil.
When he and Richard planned the Challenge, they hadn't been counting on this summer's unseasonable weather:
"It felt like Scottish winter climbing," said Mark. "Two thirds of the routes were in damp or poor conditions. Just last week the BBC were scheduled to stage a massive outdoor broadcast from the Cairngorms but that was cancelled due to poor weather. We were there two weeks before in similar, if not worse, conditions and just got on with it."
Old Man of Hoy, Orkney
[Picture: British Army]
The low temperatures and poor weather conditions almost brought the Challenge to a premature end; Richard had previously been climbing in Norway and got frost nip in his fingers. The yellow waxy tips had returned to normal before the start of the challenge, but the cold wet rock and high winds on Craeg an Dubh Loch in Scotland saw the condition return with a vengeance:
"40mph winds and temperatures of 5-6 degrees Celsius felt like minus 10 or minus 15 degrees Celsius," explained Mark.
The highest cliff of the tallest mountain in Wales, Snowdon, holds two of the toughest climbs in the country - 'The Great Wall' and 'White Slab'. The Great Wall is, technically, the hardest of all the climbs, and when the climbers got there the forecast was for five days of rain, with a severe weather warning forecast on the fifth day. The incessant deluge of the first two days meant the pair could not contemplate getting up The Great Wall route, so instead of calling it a day, they decided to take on the (slightly) easier White Slab route:
"On White Slab, we were two pitches up at 7.30pm on a route that would normally take another five to six hours of climbing to complete," said Mark. "After taking a wrong route early on, we were seriously scared that we wouldn't make it up and back down by sunset!"
With precious few minutes of daylight left, the climbers decided to lassoo a spike high above and swing themselves across the rock face to the next step:
"The Challenge was as hard, if not harder than doing the Commando course!"
Richard Mayfield
"We got off that one with 20 minutes of daylight to spare," said Mark. "We would have had to try and scramble back, picking our way down in pitch darkness."
On their third day at Snowdon, the rain eased off allowing Richard and Mark to go back and scale The Great Wall.
Impossible to freeclimb, 'The Scoop' on Strone Ulladale on the Hebridian Isle of Harris has the most overhanging cliff in Britain and is an out and out aid climb. It took the pair two days to complete - climbing 60m on the first day before abseiling down at dusk. The next day started with a 60m climb back up 60m of free-hanging rope just to get back to where they had left off! Reaching the 150ft overhang, the climbers' biggest question here was: "Do we drop our ropes and keep on to the top?" Letting the ropes go, it would have been extremely difficult to get back down the same route, but they made the commitment and dropped their nylon ropes, reaching the top a couple of hours later.
"On that route there were a few hairy moments – Some of the old pitons were rusted through and when we clipped carabiners into them they would break off in your hand," said Mark.
But the scariest route was up 'Extol' on Dove Crag in the Lake District:
"It's a really steep, big hold section," explained Mark. "Rich got to the hardest section of the overhang where a piton used to be."
The original piton, a steel spike that is driven into a crack or seam in the rock with a hammer, was gone. Richard spent ten minutes trying to get new metalwork in to no avail. Hanging on the cliff face was draining his energy, so mustering a final burst of energy he wedged a camming device blindly in the crack and swung out over the 100ft drop.
Above that section, the climbers had to make a leap of faith – stepping up onto a ledge the height of a table with no footholds above visible from their vantage point below. In their guidebook bible, mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington had described standing at that exact point for half an hour contemplating his next move and taking his life in his hands by putting his faith in the pattern of the rock below:
Mark climbing 'Trapeze' in Glencoe
[Picture: Copyright David Simmonite Photography]
"You wonder, 'is there a foothold above that I can use which isn't too wet or covered in moss or lichen?'," explained Mark. "If you trust your reading of the rock and the climb level indicated in the book, you should know that there is going to be a good hold above, but when you're cold, wet and tired, you don't always think rationally and you can get psyched out!"
For mountaineers worldwide, Sir Chris Bonington is a living legend and on Day 24, Sunday 5 August 2007, Sir Chris joined Mark and Richard in the Lake District to take on 'The Praying Mantis' on Goat Crag:
"The Praying Mantis is an Extreme Grade 1 climb," said Mark. "In the UK, professional mountain guides need two grades below that, so, Chris is still climbing at the levels expected of a professional mountain guide at the age of 73!"
"We originally asked him to come up Extol with us… the one where he spent half an hour contemplating the step up onto that ledge; His reply was 'No, I'm not going to do that again!'"
L-R Capt Mark Stevenson (REME) and Mr Richard Mayfield celebrate after finishing their last climb at Berry Head, Devon
[Picture: WO2 Shane Wilkinson, British Army]
The pair made their final climb at Berry Head on the Devon coast to complete their Hard Rock Challenge on Friday 17 August 2007. 4,500 miles around Britain, and sixty climbs totalling around 22,000 feet of extreme climbing:
"Taking each climb on its own, they are not really that hard for the experienced climber," added Mark, "but keeping going day after day takes its toll both mentally and physically."
"The two of us had that forces' mentality of just getting on with it. The hardest thing was understanding the fact that the support team below were under a lot more stress than us."
Richard Mayfield served with the Royal Logistic Corps for eight years, leaving in 1995. He currently lives and works in Spain where he has set up a climbing centre, and teaches all levels of climbing and mountaineering skills:
More information on the Hard Rock challenge can be found on the Hard Rock Challenge website (See Related Links >>>).