Presenters 2008

Dave Macleod

Dave started climbing in 1993 at Dumbarton Rock and spent three years working my way through most of the boulder problems here. By age 18 he was repeating the hardest established routes in Scotland and started to open new routes of my own. In 1998 he started studying Sport Science and getting an understanding of how to improve more quickly.

By 2002 he graduated from this and began to get established as an all-round climber, managing to break new grades in Scotland in all the climbing disciplines. Since finishing his sport science MSc he has been climbing much more and working as a writer, coach and lecturer, trying to push his all round climbing as far as it can go. Dave lives in Lochaber with his wife Claire and his cat pusspuss.

Dave’s notable ascents are:

Rhapsody, E11 7a. Possibly the world's hardest trad route. F8c+ climbing a long way above gear. 70 days work and 500 feet of airtime went into the first ascent. Featured in the well known award winning film “E11”

The Hurting, XI,11. Scotland's hardest winter mountaineering route. M10 climbing with very poor gear.

Pressure, Font 8b. Scotland’s hardest boulder problem. An exceptional 30 move roof problem

Ring of Steall, F8c+. Scotland’s hardest sports route

Don’t Die of Ignorance, XI 11. Ben Nevis. Ground up first ascent, 2008

Dave was one of the climbers in the BBC outdoor extravaganza in 2007 “The Great Climb” which featured famous climbers attempting routes in the Loch Avon area of the Cairngorms. Unfortunately, most of the live action was curtailed by the poor weather. However Dave managed to climb To Hell and Back , E10 6c on Hells Lum Crag, which was featured on a BBC documentary.

Tomaž Humar

Born on February 18, 1969 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, now lives in Stranje. Works for the Customs Office in Ljubljana. He has been a member of the Kamnik branch of the Alpine Club since 1987. Tomaž Humar has completed 1500 ascents, 70 of them first ascents at home and abroad.

Tomaž Humar a mountaineer from Slovenia, is thought of as a man with either insanely good luck or connections money can't buy. It is believed that the Gods are fond of him. He believes that the Himalayas are fond of him. He doesn't climb for fame or mountaineering awards, although he has received many and his ascend of the south face of Dhaulagiri made him famous in the whole world. He climbs because he can only truly start breathing at an altitude of 5000 m. There is no rest for him in the valley - his heart, his mind, and his legs have been hauling him up there in the mountain faces for as long as he can remember. The reason he climbs is that the mountains are the only place where he is really close to Him.

He was never a man of rules. He decided very early on in his life that his story with the mountains would be his alone and that his journeys would be set by nobody but himself. He denounced classical Himalayan expeditions where one has to follow the rules of a leader and became the master of his own destiny. He climbed Dhaulagiri, the most difficult face of his carrier, solo, alpine-style.

He says alpine-style is basically about the simple art of surviving in the vertical, where there is no room for lingerers or great heroes. Ice and rocks are his natural environment. Instead of teams of experts he takes with him his 'private horde', as his Dhaulagiri expedition was called in some professional circles. It consists of his closest friends and co-climbers, a personal physician, a bio-energy practitioner - people who breathe with and for him and don`t try to get smart even when the situation seems hopeless.

After his successful return from Dhaulagiri, after surviving the impossible - he fell backwards into a hole while building a house and severely damaged both of his legs. In the next months spent in hospitals and health resorts, there were a few occasions when he was at the edge of surviving. The doctors were certain he would never walk again. After a series of operations it became apparent in May 2001 that he would be able to use his legs after all, although his right leg is a little bit shorter and the left ankle is partly immobile. But to climb again? Forget it! Nevertheless, to stop climbing was not a realistic option for Tomaž. He got better. A new journey has begun.

That Himalayas are fond of him believes Tomaž. Also are the gods claimed his doctors, when he was able to walk again after a terrible fall on the building site of his own house.

He broke his right thighbone and crushed his left heel. Ten operations. His life on a thread. Then the diagnosis: wheelchair till the end of his life.

" Gozdni Joža" as he has called himself since he was quite young, is back on his feet again. "Where there is a will, there is a way", but with consequences; the lower knuckle on his left foot is inflexible, and his left leg is 2.5 cm shorter. Walking is harder than climbing. His passion remains. After Daulaghiri - where now?

This question keeps turning up in the last years, like always in the past at milestones, when it seems that the development, atleast in reflection of oneself, is slowing down, if not standing still. For that we can blame the lack of real motivation and above all, the lack of ideas, which might bring an individual to new cognitions and these to new conciusnes.

He was waiting for an invitation and She - the naked mountain - Nanga Parbat - has called him.

 

Reinhold Messner

 

Climber, writer, photographer and Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004, Reinhold Messner was born in South Tyrol, Italy, on 17th September 1944. He grew up in the Villnöss Valley in the Dolomites and later studied at the University of Padua. He started climbing mountains at the age of five and has been one of the world’s most outstanding mountaineers for thirty years. In his over three thousand climbs he has achieved over a hundred first ascents, and was the first to climb all of the world's 8000-metre peaks. Messner was the first to reach Mount Everest's top without oxygen support. He has crossed by foot the Antarctic, Greenland, Tibet, the deserts Gobi and Takla Makan.

Reinhold Messner has written 50 books, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages. An eloquent speaker, he lectures throughout the world in international conferences, makes documentary films with well-known
producers such as the BBC and contributes to specialist magazines such as National Geographic, Stern and Die Zeit. He has received literary prizes and international awards in France, Germany, Italy, Nepal, Pakistan, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and the USA. He is honorary member of the Royal Geographical Society and of The Explorers Club in New York. Between his journeys he lives at Juval Castle in South Tyrol where he runs a museum containing a considerable collection of Tibetan art and an organic hill farm. At present, besides being a prolific writer, he is developing the Messner Mountain Museum project, five interrelated thematic museums dedicated to the art, culture, religion and peculiarities of mountain regions throughout the world. Recently he has found the Messner Mountain Foundation (MMF) in order to support the mountain races world-wide.

Messner has succeeded in opening numerous new ascent routes and has given an explanation to the mystery of the Yeti. In contrast to the modern figure of the adventurer-protagonist, Messner has never sought to break records,
trying instead to maximise the exposure to nature in its purity and limiting to the minimum the use of artificial tools. On Nanga Parbat he adopted Mummery's motto "by fair means", on the Arctic packice he has followed Nansen's "call of the North", and has crossed the Antarctic via the South Pole, following Shackleton's idea. In the era of mass communication, Messner chooses solitary trips,
without the support of artificial means, from nails to oxygen and satellite tele-phones, experiencing nature as he is confronted with.

 

 

Dave "Heavy" Whalley

Dave, known as “Heavy” by his colleagues, as he was a short and skinny recruit when he joined the RAF over 36 years ago, is guaranteed to give a passionate, entertaining and informative talk about his adventures and experiences as a mountaineer and mountain rescue team member.

Raised in Ayr, his Church of Scotland minister father regularly took Dave for walks all over Scotland, sparking his enthusiasm for the hills at a young age.

Based mainly at RAF Kinloss, he has taken part in over 1,000 mountain rescue and air crash searches including the Lockerbie Air Disaster for which he was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery. As well as being Team Leader at Kinloss, Heavy has also been Team Leader at RAF Leuchars and Deputy Team Leader at RAF Valley MRT in North Wales. Heavy spent the last four years of his career as a Controller in the Rescue Coordination Centre at RAF Kinloss, giving him a unique insight into general rescue and emergency response organization in the UK. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland for over 20 years, also serving for 3 years as Chairman. He is now the Accident Statistician for this important national body. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for Service to Mountain Rescue by the Scottish Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland in 2002.

Dave, 54, has now retired, but intends to write a book about his life, which is sure to be full of many interesting, sad and funny tales.

He has climbed all 284 Munros seven times, and was a member of a successful RAF expedition to Everest in 2001 when two members of the team summitted. He has survived three near fatal incidents including a large avalanche, a fall at Lochnagar, when he broke a couple of ribs, and another fall at Huntly’s Cave, where he fell and broke his jaw!

He is a member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, the Moray Mountaineering Club, the John Muir Trust, and the Mountain Bothies Association, and believes passionately in looking after our wilderness for the future and passing on his experience and love of the mountains and wilderness to others, especially young people. He is planning to join the Torridon Mountain Rescue Team in Feb 2008. Heavy lives in Burghead in Morayshire; he plays golf, enjoys watching football, practising photography, and he climbs or walks in the mountains at least twice a week!

Dave was awarded the MBE for his services to mountain rescue, and has also been awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM).