The 2010 Programme is taking shape!
Friday night starts off with films, then Robert Strachan and Anni Hogan play a live music set featuring mountaineer and explorer Cathy O'Dowd. Composer, collaborator, producer and dj, Anni Hogan first came to prominence as a musician in Marc Almond's Marc and the Mambas. Hogan would continue to work closely with Almond until the early 1990s as a writer, arranger, performer and producer. Among many current projects, her compositions with Robert Strachan are particularly striking; micro-constructions and piano melodies blended into profound and beautiful new shapes. Mountain is the new album by Anni Hogan, an artistic collaboration between Anni, Robert Strachan and mountaineer and explorer Cathy O'Dowd, and is also the title for this striking presentation. Hogan composed a series of piano pieces inspired by mountains and in particular O'Dowds Everest conquests. Robert and Anni used the Himalayan peaks as a template for painting a sound-wave soundscape around the piano compositions. Cathy has supplied all the photographs for the album sleeve and has performed a fascinating monologue over the piece Deathzone on the album. Robert and Anni play a live soundtrack to an accompanying film which has been created from O'Dowds original film footage from her Everest summits.
Cathy will then present Himalayan Challenges: Lhotse
and the Kangshung face of Everest. Double Everest summitteer
Cathy recounts her successful ascent of the south-west face of Lhotse
and tells the tale of an unsuccessful attempt to climb a new route
on the Kangshung face of Everest. Anyone who has ever assumed that
Everest is crowded or that ‘everything has been done’
needs to hear this story.
Copies of Cathy’s book of her Everest adventures, Just for
the Love of It, will be available at a special festival discount,
an ideal Christmas present for someone!
South African climber Cathy O’Dowd was the first woman in the
world to climb Everest by both sides, and the fourth woman to ever
reach the summit of Lhotse. Cathy, who now lives in Andorra and spends
most of her time these days rock-climbing or skiing, is a well-known
face on the international corporate speaking circuit.
The Saturday morning session will feature films from independent film makers and the Banff World Tour.
On
Saturday afternoon, we have high octane films from the Banff
World Tour, then a presentation from the climbers of the Hard
Rock Challenge 2007. When Hard Rock was published in 1974
it was immediately recognised as a must for every climber's bookshelf.
Ken Wilson had assembled a distinguished group of climbers, including
Chris Bonington, Doug Scott, Hamish MacInnes, Ed Drummond, Pat Littlejohn
and Royal Robbins, who, in an inspired series of essays, relived their
experiences on some of the finest and hardest climbs in Britain.
The result was a feast of climbing literature, a celebration of 60
of the best routes in the land, illustrated with a superb collection
of crag and action shots.
In the late 1970s it was common to meet climbers rushing to crags
all over the country to tick 'Hard Rock' routes. Even today, it's
not unusual to find climbers, not even born in 1974, who know exactly
how many 'Hard Rock' routes they've climbed. Despite this enthusiasm,
such is the scale and challenge of the routes that Ken Wilson selected,
that only 2 climbers are known to have climbed them all. Peter Hardman
and Stephen Reid both took 10 years to complete their Hard Rock journeys.
Mark Stevenson and Richard Mayfield spent 5 weeks during the summer
of 2007 attempting a non-stop ascent of the “Hard Rock”
60 major rock climbs spread across the UK ,to help raise money for
British Mountain Rescue. With a dedicated support team bolstered with
individual re-enforcements they were assisted by key allies identified
within local climbing areas. The challenge comprised of over 22,000ft
of climbing and required 180 miles of walk-ins, 3000 miles of driving
and 4 ferry crossings to reach all climbs.
On Saturday evening we are delighted to welcome back
the "Queen of the Mountains" Catherine Destivelle. Unfortunately Catherine
had to call off at the last minute last year due to a family bereavement,
but we are delighted that she has agreed to come to Dundee this year.
Catherine’s mountaineering accomplishments are impressive. On
the 10th March 1992, it took her 17 hours to solo the north face of
the Eiger (3970 metres), in the Bernese Oberland, a mythical rock-face,
regarded as the most fatal in the Alps. During the same year, she
attempted the huge Latok in Pakistan. In 1993, she achieved the winter
solo of the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses, and attempted the
West Pillar of the Makalu in Nepal. In 1994, she soloed in winter
the Bonatti route on the North Face of the Matterhorn.
In 1995 she climbed the South West Face of Shishapangma in Tibet,
and attempted the South Face of Annapurna. The year 1996 was a break
in her activity, because of an accident in Antarctica, but she recovered
very quickly.
In early summer 1999, Catherine climbed the Direct North Face of Cima
Grande di Lavaredo in the Italian Dolomites. Catherine was again the
first woman for this solo ascent which took her 2 days. Catherine
has been involved in making many mountaineering films, the most notable
being ones being Seo, where she solo climbs a sandstone cliff
in Mali, Rock Queen where she solo climbs the Old Man of
Hoy and her latest film Au-dela des Cimes is often cited
my climbers as their favourite climbing film. Her talk this weekend
will cover all aspects of her career and is entitled “From
Bouldering to Mountain Climbing”.
