Hard Grit Explained

Hard Grit
Editing:Richard Heap
Director:Richard Heap
Producer:Richard Heap, Mark Turnbull
Production Companies:Slackjaw Film
Runtime:53 minutes (1998)
80 minutes (2006)
Country:United Kingdom
Language:English

Hard Grit is a 1998 British rock climbing film directed by Richard Heap and produced by Slackjaw Film, featuring traditional climbing, free soloing, and bouldering on gritstone routes in the Peak District in Northern England. It is considered an important film in the genre and regarded as a historic and iconic film. The film starts with a dramatic fall by French climber Jean–Minh Trinh-Thieu on Gaia at Black Rocks. Hard Grit won ten international film festival awards.

Content

The film dramatically opens with French climber Jean–Minh Trinh-Thieu taking a large fall from the top of the Johnny Dawes's gritstone test-piece, Gaia (E8 6c) at Black Rocks, from which Trinh-Thieu broke his leg. Rock & Ice called it "the most iconic rock climbing whipper [fall] of all time".[1]

Shortly after the opening, film narrator Niall Grimes gives a brief and humorous overview of the history of gritstone climbing. As well as traditional climbing routes, the film also includes ascents of extreme gritstone bouldering and highball bouldering problems by Ben Moon and others. The creators of many of the extreme routes climbed in the film, Jerry Moffatt, Johnny Dawes, and John Dunne, are also shown speculating, and top roping on, future projects such as Wizard Ridge.

The film shows other large falls, although without serious injury, including Swedish climber Richard Ekehed taking a large fall on Master's Edge, and British climber Seb Grieve falling from high up on Parthian Shot (E9 7a) on very thin protection. The film also features several important first and second ascents of extreme routes, including the first free ascent by Seb Grieve of Meshuga (E9 6c), at Black Rocks, and Robin Barker's first ascent of Marbellous (E8 7a), at Stanage Edge.

Cast

Niall Grimes acts as narrator.[2]

The climbers are (in alphabetical order):

Production

By 1997, Richard Heap had been climbing full-time and living off the British social welfare system (the "dole") for a number of years. He was part of what he termed the "Sheffield scene" of leading British gritstone climbers and was renting a room in Seb Grieve's house. After attending a video production course at a local college, Johnny Dawes asked Heap to edit Best Forgotten Art (1996), and then left Heap with his camera equipment as he traveled to America.[3] Heap spent the 1997 gritstone climbing season filming his friends attempting new routes, and Seb Grieve in particular.[3] After a day of shooting that captured Grieve's first ascent of Mesuga, and Trinh-Thieu's fall on Gaia, Heap said that "I knew we had something really special".[3] Heap engaged Mark Turnbull to help produce the film (they formed SlackJaw Film), and engaged Niall Grimes to create a narrative for the film that Heap felt was needed to give it structure and ensure that it was not just a "random collection of routes".[3]

In 2006, SlackJaw re-released the film as Hard Grit & Hard Plastic, which included extra material that increased the film's run time to 80 minutes, and had footage from the men's final in the Foundry International Bouldering Open of 1997 featuring Chris Sharma.[4]

Legacy

Hard Grit is regarded as an important and iconic film in the genre,[2] [5] regularly appearing in top-10/20 type lists,[6] [7] and was particularly noted for the blunt and direct portrayal of the risks and dangers of extreme gritstone climbing, and the portrayal of how the climbers dealt with the fear and stress they undertook climbing thinly protected extreme gritstone routes.[8] [6] [3] Director Richard Heap decided against a follow-up film, due to concerns that future films could involve serious accidents, inadvertently producing what he called a "climbing snuff movie".[9]

The film demonstrated the techniques that leading climbers were using in British traditional climbing, including top roping prospective routes to practice moves, and the use of headpointing (e.g. the pre-placing of temporary protection equipment on the route), to reduce the risks of serious harm and injury. It also introduced the use of bouldering mats and highball bouldering techniques.[10] [11]

Hard Grit showcased the unique aspects of extreme Peak District gritstone climbing to the wider climbing world, which involved moderate height 10-20 metre routes, with limited/thin protection, requiring balance and friction-based climbing on tiny pebbles/crystals, and that often took place in winter months when the dry colder air aided friction. American climber Kevin Jorgeson described the effect that seeing the original film had saying that: "Without Hard Grit I doubt there would have been a UK trip in 2008",[12] which was when Alex Honnold and Jorgeson traveled to the Peak District to repeat many of the routes featured in the film.[13] [14] [15] Other leading international climbers have been inspired by the film to travel to the Peak District and climb the featured gritstone routes, such as Belgian climber Siebe Vanhee (in 2021),[16] Italian climbers (in 2002),[17] and (in 2013).[18] [19] In 2006, American climber Lisa Rands, who had also watched the film,[20] travelled to the Peak District and completed the first female ascent of Gaia and the End of the Affair, becoming the first female to climb an E8-graded route.[21]

Featured routes

The following routes are climbed in the film (in the order in which they appear):[22] [23]

Subsequently climbed

Towards the end of the film, there is a section on future gritstone routes and projects (or "last great problems"), some of which are shown being attempted on a top rope (e.g. Johnny Dawes on Wizard Ridge, and Ben Moon on Smiling Buttress), and others are just alluded to (and in the case of Equilibrium, only very briefly). A number of these routes were subsequently climbed, including:

Two decades later, the most prominent "last great problem" from Hard Grit remains Dawes' Wizard Ridge at Burbage South Quarries.[35]

Awards

Hard Grit won ten international film festival awards:[36]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. . Weekend Whipper: Hard Grit! The Iconic Fall from Gaia . April 2017 . 10 February 2022 . 10 February 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220210011057/https://www.rockandice.com/videos/weekend-whippers/weekend-whipper-hard-grit-the-iconic-fall-from-gaia/ . dead .
  2. Web site: . Ape Index: Hard Grit Live . 13 March 2017 . Niall . Grimes.
  3. Web site: UKClimbing . Factor Two: Season 3, Episode 8: Hard Grit . Will . Treasure . 28 October 2020 . 11 February 2022.
  4. Web site: SlackJaw Film . Hard Grit & Hard Plastic (2006) . 11 February 2022 . 2006.
  5. Climbing. How does video affect climbing?. Dave . Gill . 19 December 2018 . 14 February 2022 . You'd be hard pressed to find many climbers that haven't stumbled across the horrendous fall in the opening scene of Slackjaw Film's iconic Hard Grit..
  6. . The 20 Best Climbing Films of All Time. Andrew . Bisharat . 6 September 2022 . 18 October 2022 . Number 10. Hard Grit.
  7. . The Top 5 Classic Climbing Films . Adam . Roy . 16 March 2011 . 10 February 2022.
  8. Web site: . 13 Great Climbing Films You Might Not Be Familiar With (And 5 of the Worst) . Cameron M. . Burns . 27 May 2020 . 10 February 2022.
  9. . Climbing Monsters: Excess and Restraint in Contemporary Rock Climbing . Ian . Heywood . 2006 . 25 . 4 . 455–467. 10.1080/02614360500333911 . 145136276 .
  10. . How the World's Boldest Climbing Area Got that Way . Mike . Hutton . 3 November 2022 . 13 November 2022.
  11. Climbing . No-Bolt Roulette: The Evolution of Headpointing on Peak District Gritstone . Mike . Hutton . 12 November 2019 . 11 February 2022.
  12. The Project Magazine . Neal . Mann . 12 March 2018 . 10 February 2022 . Hard Grit: Twenty Years On .
  13. Climbing . Americans Rampage on British "Hard Grit" . Dougald . McDonald . 25 November 2008 . 10 February 2022.
  14. Web site: ClimbingArc . Kevin Jorgeson Decks From And Then Sends Gaia (E8), Solos Meshuga (E9) . 20 November 2008 . 10 February 2022.
  15. Web site: PlanetMountain . Alex Honnold flashes Gaia E8 6c . 13 November 2008 . 10 February 2022.
  16. Climber . Siebe Vanhee mops-up the 'hard grit'. 8 December 2021 . 11 February 2022 .
  17. Web site: PlanetMountain . Mauro Calibani, Hard it = Hard Grit . Andrea . di Gallo . 1 November 2002 . 11 February 2022.
  18. Web site: PlanetMountain . Michele Caminati dodges rain and snow in search of sun on England's gritstone . 16 April 2013 . 14 February 2022.
  19. Web site: UKClimbing . Michele Caminati Hard Grit Interview . Sam . Schofield . 15 July 2013 . 14 February 2022.
  20. Web site: LisaRands . Moments . 19 May 2016 . 11 February 2022 . April 16, 2006: E is for extreme and Gaia's E8 grade has never been in doubt. This sweet, enticing line tackles a shallow groove in a free-standing 50-foot tall prow at Black Rocks, England. It was made famous in a sequence from Hard Grit, a film by Richard Heap and Mark Turnbull, which opens to Jean-Minh Trinh-Thieu (a top French climber) taking a harrowing fall from the climb's precarious upper section, breaking his leg..
  21. Climbing . Rands Headpoints Gaia . Dougald . McDonald . 8 April 2006 . 11 February 2022.
  22. Web site: Slackjaw Film – The Hard Grit Routes . www.slackjaw.co.uk . 15 July 2021.
  23. Web site: WorldCat . Running Order: Hard Grit . 1998 . 52904571 . 11 February 2022.
  24. Web site: UKClimbing . Ben Heason flashes Paralogism (E7 6c) . January 2003 . 10 February 2022.
  25. Web site: UKClimbing . Jacob Cook climbing The New Statesman, E8 7a . 6 December 2013 . 10 February 2022 .
  26. Web site: UKClimbing . Parthian Shot - The Saga . Jack . Geldard . 20 June 2011 . 10 February 2022.
  27. Web site: Climbing.de . Tom Briggs – Renegade Master – Ground Up . 25 September 2001 . 10 February 2022.
  28. Web site: SlackJaw Film . TALES FROM BEHIND THE LENS . 11 February 2020 . 2006.
  29. Web site: PlanetMountain . Neil Bentley climbs Equilibrium, Britain's first gritstone E10, contender for hardest trad route in the world . 30 March 2000 . 11 February 2022.
  30. Web site: PlanetMountain.com . 9 February 2013 . James Pearson repeats Elder Statesman at Curbar . 14 January 2022.
  31. Web site: PlanetMountain . James Pearson climbs The Groove E10 7b at Cratcliffe Tor. 5 February 2008 . 11 February 2022 .
  32. Climbing . The Groove – PROGRESSION. February 2010 . 11 February 2022 .
  33. . Interview with Ty Landman on the Smiling Buttress FA . Duncan . Campbell . 13 December 2013 . 11 February 2022.
  34. Web site: UKClimbing . Ty Landman On Smiling Buttress Update . Duncan . Campbell . December 2013 . 11 February 2022.
  35. Web site: UKClimbing . The Last Great Problems on Grit. Nick . Brown . 21 March 2016 . 11 February 2022 .
  36. Web site: turenbull/heap . aspenvalleyfilm.com . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20040117045053/http://aspenvalleyfilm.com/mntlink+/wwlist1/slackjaw.html . 2004-01-17.
  37. Web site: Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival . 2013-05-20 . dead . https://archive.today/20130705175834/http://www.vimff.org/archive/www.vimff.org/99site/vimff.htm . 5 July 2013 . dmy-all .

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