Dave MacLeod Lecture Chester 28-5-12

Dave MacLeod, born in Glasgow and living in Letterfinlay, is one of the UK’s most exciting climbers so it was a great pleasure to listen to his address in Chester this week. As well as climbing Dave writes and makes films and you can look at his helpful and detailed website at www.davemacleod.com He has done a lot of demanding climbs in the UK and around the world. What impressed me was the amount of training he undertakes and the sheer strength he has in his hands and fingers. He has a training “board” in a room in his home which he practises on.

The audience saw footage of the first death defying free ascent of Orkney’s Longhope route, conquering 400m of sheer rock face. He put a massive amount of effort into researching and getting familiar with the rock face, returning to this unique place on a number of occasions, before doing the climb. As well as the climb he had to deal with fulmars defending their “pitches” on the cliff face.

28-5-2012