Echo Wall

 First impressions

by Neil Pearsons

Claire MacLeod's film of her husband’s first ascent of Echo Wall on Ben Nevis is essential viewing for anyone interested not only in the physical and mental aspects of climbing a hard bold traditional route, but also how it has to dominate the climber’s life to become a reality. This is nothing new of course – Mark Turnbull’s award winning Equilibrium, following the trauma of Neil Bentley’s ascent of the first E10 in Britain – was as famous for Neil staring into the middle distance in ponderance, and of his belayer practising his sprinting should it be necessary to take in a few yards of slack, as it was for Neil muscling his way up the route. In Echo Wall though the stakes are ratcheted up a notch - MacLeod seriously starts comparing the angle of the slab that he’ll hit from 20m if he falls, favourably comparing the probable impact zone to a nearby unlikely one – as “not bad - hopefully shouldn’t be terminal” – well that’s all right then - lucky it’s only F8c/+ climbing up there.
The film is a departure for Dave – normally the Hotaches crew have made films about him, bringing a level of professionalism in terms of filming, editing and effects that have made for a slick package. Echo Wall actually benefits from the raw, uncomplicated home-made nature of the film – we can really concentrate on MacLeod’s words – and he’s a real thinker, not just a thug – and actions - his turning to look at his wife just before the crux during the actual ascent as she films him is quite poignant; Claire admits she didn’t know what it meant at the time, whether it was  a good or bad sign.
As with all films about a single route we get to see the training boulder problems and routes Dave does and the various preparations going on whilst waiting for conditions – The making of the knee pad crucial to milking the knee bar rest before the crux headwall; the boulder problems (which to my mind look miles better than the ones in Elements, the Scottish bouldering DVD); the fast-motion sequence of Dave shovelling away snow from the top of the crag to stem the flow of meltwater down the line; the soloing of a F8c!
Whether you like this film or not depends ultimately on whether you fall for the quiet charm of Mr and Mrs MacLeod. There’s no big whippers as in E11 to get the heart pumping and it’s difficult to get a feel for how hard the runout bit of the route is as MacLeod’s style is to cruise the admittedly superb looking sequence – and who can blame him given the consequences of a fall - it’s no place to be sketching around, feet cutting loose and dropping your crucial RPs).
For me the film works because of its simplicity – it’s a just a man and his incredible dedication and focus looking to push himself on an amazing piece of rock. It’s even free of the confusing aspects of grading – Dave refused to grade the route when he climbed it in July and he still refuses to grade it. In this film we can all see how good it looks but only those who are prepared to go and try it will ever know how hard it is.

Echo Wall is released on 19th October.
To read more about Dave MacLeod visit: http: //davemacleod.com