Climbers

Antoine Le Menestrel:

You etched climbing in to our culture, you brought climbing up to an art form. You lived climbing, it was your lifestyle, I was still a student, looking on. I loved to watch you climb, your suppleness passed over in to my body. [1]

Lynn Hill:

Patrick will always have a place in my heart and memories. The times I spent eating dinner at his house, laughing, working together for "Rock and Wall" magazine, and climbing on the beautiful cliffs of Southern France were precious moments of life. Being from the same generation, I was inspired by Patrick's visionary achievements when he came to the States and on-sighted many of the hardest routes in the country. [1]

Jerry Moffatt:

A memory which stands out was when he took me out in his new HF Lancia Integral. He was a great driver and after warming up the engine went absolutely flat out! However at no time did I feel scared. Such was his charisma, he had an aura of total confidence and control. [1]

References

[1] Tributes to Patrick Edlinger, https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/patrick_edlinger_-_le_blond-5117

[2] https://www.facebook.com/climbing.in.the.80s/photos/a.270388289694020/3470129359719881

[3] https://www.facebook.com/climbing.in.the.80s/photos/a.270388289694020/928362310563278

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZlxY5rNGJk

[5] Portrait by Gérard Kosicki https://www.instagram.com/p/CpGPhnQqTbe/

[6] Climbing in Cimaï, 1980s https://www.instagram.com/p/C_7fEUvtS-r/

[7] https://open.spotify.com/episode/3GHP3L6JrJAAnjRlWaqxw7?

[8] https://open.spotify.com/episode/0tiGG5Q3q4kJYDvoIYIxZr?

Harding had a brief but influential spell at the cutting edge of UK climbing in the years immediately post world war two. Armed with improved ex-military gear, including the first nylon dynamic ropes, he was responsible for a small number of hard-for-the time classic routes on peak gritstone and in North Wales. He was an engineer by trade and this, along with climbing in the eastern Alps and availability of army surplus hardware, made him more receptive to the use of pitons than his pre-war counterparts. Harding was noted for his proficiency at hand jamming although it seems unlikely that he originated this technique as some of his contemporaries suggested.

### References

[1] https://rucksackclub.org/2023/04/14/a-dip-into-the-club-journals-from-1993-just-a-bit-difficult-by-peter-harding/?doing_wp_cron=1768307556.0177059173583984375000

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/dec/19/mainsection.obituaries

Fontainebleau slab wizard.

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/C1sFXT7NjK0/

[2] Niall Grimes and Rick Accomazzo chat about Tobin, 2024 https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SXhH433ltw5RhBrTedv2l?

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmYuLRm3Xec

The first olympic gold medalist in climbing (Tokyo 2020).

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbo2sSjp0mN/

The first Australian woman to climb 9a with her ascent of Victimes del Futur.

References

[1] https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/films/momentum-angie-scarth-johnson

Bill Birkett:

Arthur was one of the most important and influential figures in the history of British rock climbing, spanning the social gap between the old guard and the emergence of a hungry new breed of working class climbers. [1]

Joe Brown:

When you went to try one of his climbs you knew it was going to be hard.

References

[1] Yorkshire Gritstone Volume 1, Almscliff to Slipstones