John Cunningham Climbing Ben Nevis 1976

[MrSinclaircooper]

epic

[talkeetnaair]

awesome video. vintage. does anyone know the jazz soundtrack in the early part of the vid?

[andrewrcoggins]

pre helmet motorcycling!

[ftryew]

touch of class

[TheEvilscotsman123]

Fantastic video.

[jrtimson31]

Just been looking back at the photos of a wonderful year of outdoor pursuits at I M Marsh College of PE, Liverpool (1977/78) doing the Advanced Diploma in Outdoor Education there. Johnny was one of our instructors and it's great to add this excellent piece of video footage of the great man in action to my collection... a real ballet dancer on ice. Thanks, Paul, for posting it. Made my day...

[luisitoaa]

anyone knows which model is the motorbike?

[elgwiz]

How soft we have all become with our hard hats and safety boots , this is a good example of how to live , brilliant film

[sinclaircooper]

What a nice relaxing little film, wish I was up in the hills right now...

[Fr4nkWh1te]

Is he using Nailboots or crampons ?

[edboyter]

@Fr4nkWh1te

all is revealed at 4:42 ;)

[andrewdavid68]

Great little film.

[KevinMaule1976]

Holy cow this video is pure gold. Its so historically important, as much for John as the bike sequence and the ferry. He is so effortlessly cool, I'm inspried to run up stuff till I fall off!

Kevin

[BetarennaLondon]

Briliant video. As someone who is just starting out mountaineering, it's great to see john climbing and so fliudly, very inspirational to see him climbing solo as I would like to do!

[lyallbaybum69]

Wonderful!

Thank-you kindly for this wee film of a LEGENDARY man.

[gsjnp]

more from Graeme..Finally I asked him how he was so fast in the hills, on snow & climbing. True to form he showed me his techniques. I worked at it & improved out of sight - never looked back. Really helped on my North Pole Exped! (still found it hard to keep up with him though)

I learned so much from Johnny, he was a great inspiration & mentor to me. Fun tomes in pubs, bothys etc in the UK, he was a great story teller & a fantastic prankster!

[gsjnp]

Hi PaulMJCunningham, thanks so much for posting this. Wonderful to see Johnny in action again. It's just like I remember him, utterly outstanding climber, such fluid, rapid movement & superbly fit!

I was pretty fit when I was at IMM but Johnnyjust seriously kicked my butt (& others on the course) when it came to climbing & hill walking. I remember thinking quite often 'why the hell can't I keep up with this old bastard!'

Sadly missed. Graeme.

[bollockchops123]

he rode through the highland winter on his motorbike..without gloves. Brilliant bit of film, cheers mate.

[jingshelpmaboab]

Fantastic video, as many have said very evocative of the era - for me, fastening crampon straps in spindrift particularly so! I like JC's wee skips up the ice... compare that with most folks' battering away at every step.

[dpbimages]

Brilliant!

[tdatftr]

Great vid Paul, loved it. Totally evocative of the era and such H Def as well. I sent the link to a friend from here who spent a lot of time with JC when they were both at IM Marsh and Graeme always speaks super-highly of the bloke.

Thanks again for doing this and best from Austria, the big one in the South Pacific with the 'roos .....

[robrjarvis]

Cheers Paul - real pleasure to see him flowing up the ice like that. Think the starting gully with all the spindrift is Garadh. Here's hoping for some conditions like 76 in 10.... All the best, Rob.

[bobbynobrain]

Great video. The zoom-in shot looks like zero gully, but the film has been flipped horizontally so everything's in reverse. The shots of John moving quickly up ice with an icicle in the foreground nearer the end of the film reminds of the initial icefall of Glover's Chimney, but I'm only guessing. Yvon Chouinard showed this film at the Fort William festival last year, and it's great to see it again. Thanks, Jamie

[Optophobia]

Great film Paul. Very inspirational.

[gallusguy]

Thanks for posting this Paul,although Stuart Johnson emailed it to me this morning.

Mo-bike [Norton?] no helmet, no gloves, climbing the distilery gates north of the Fort.

Great scenes, great memories.

GG

[romandial]

ah yes the good ole days of chouinard alpine hammers, piolets, and rigid strap on crampons with super gaitors on leather boots. When ice climbing was a fringe sport done by a brave and crazy few.

Thanks for posting!

[exrock712]

yeah baby, shagadelic! the gritty mill town scottish working man out for a day in the moors.

[foliatehead]

paul, this is a gem! thanks for putting it up man and respect.

[onelastgotoday]

Top class video, thanks for putting it up. Brings back a few memories

[ripsawridge]

Really nice, thanks for sharing!

[jonnie3430]

Is that Orion Direct?

[PaulMJCunningham]

It's actually a mixture of shots form different climbs. I haven't quite worked out where he is when it zooms in from a distance...