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bookie
climber
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May 10, 2013 - 02:59am PT
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Messner and Habeler had been waiting all that summer for a break in the weather to do a speed climb on the Eiger. When the day arrived, Messner's wife Uschi drove them to Grindenwald in his VW. They did the climb in 12 hours, and were down at Kleine Scheidegg about lunch time. The film crew was there so their photo was taken all together and appears in Habeler's book Lonely Victory.
I just saw another stealth climbing classic on TV tonight, Elvis Presley in Fun in Acapulco, one of his musicals, released in 1963, 5 days after JFK was shot, and which became the biggest grossing movie musical that year.
There is a scene where "Elvis" free solos a real but not too steep cliff from the beach, maybe one long pitch. The stunt-man was obviously a graceful, experienced rock climber. The scene was shot at a distance, so you can't see his face, and all he was wearing was a bathing suit and shoes, as was Elvis in his closeups. The climber double is not listed in the credits either on Wikipedia or IMDB. Does anybody know who it was? And where it is, as Elvis himself never went to Mexico in the making of the movie!
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duncan
climber
London, UK
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May 10, 2013 - 03:27am PT
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"I think Messner and Habler had something to do with Eiger Sanction. Am I right? "
They are in a photo in the locations link. Near the bottom of the page, there is a photo labeled: Clint Eastwood and some of the Cast outside the Hotel Bellevue des Alps." Reinhold is next to Clint and Peter is on the right. Dougal Haston is behind...man there are some worthies in that photo!
Messner and Habeler had been waiting all that summer for a break in the weather to do a speed climb on the Eiger. When the day arrived, Messner's wife Uschi drove them to Grindenwald in his VW. They did the climb in 12 hours, and were down at Kleine Scheidegg about lunch time. The film crew was there so their photo was taken all together and appears in Habeler's book Lonely Victory.
Can anyone find the photo of Messner and Habeler in gucci guides sweaters posing in front of the north face after their ascent? It reportedly inspired the famous Bridway, Westbay and Long NIAD shot.
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Woz
Trad climber
NSW, Australia
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May 10, 2013 - 08:39pm PT
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Can't offer Habeler & Messner in Gucci under Eiger, but have them in Fila under Everest. Think it appeared eons ago in Mountain magazine. Not sure who the photographer was.
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Dangerous Dan
Mountain climber
Bodega Bay, CA
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May 10, 2013 - 09:42pm PT
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I attended Dougal Haston's International School Of Mountianering in Leysin SU in summer of 1974. He and Bev Clark were hired to do the stunt climbing and rigging for the movie. I was lucky enough to have done a few minor climbs with Haston after the school, and he asked me if I would like to come to Grindlewald- Klein Schidegg in Sept (where I was going to live with a Swiss friend (Hans "Jonnie" Weismuller) who was in charge of the Olin Ski Co. then. I was in Deuxx Alpes France training for the freestyle (Marlboro sponsored) circuit and broke my leg...thus ending my dream come true job offer, as I had to fly home and have my leg re-btoken thanx to the shoddy job of setting the broken tibia & fibula the frog doctors did. Another american who was hired on by Dougal ended up being killed by rockfall as I remember.
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Dangerous Dan
Mountain climber
Bodega Bay, CA
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May 10, 2013 - 10:10pm PT
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I attended Dougal Haston's International School of Mountaineering in Leysin, SU in summer of 1974. Was lucky enough to some post school climbing with him in Leysin area and Chamonix, alongb with his close friend and climbing partner Bev Clark (a wild character of the highest degree). I was goig to be living and working in Grindlewald - Klein Scheidgg in Sept. Dougal had told me I could help he and Bev in ridgging for a Clint Eastwood movie they had been hired to do. That dream-come true was shattered along with my left tiba & fibula in a freestyle-ski training accident in Deux Alpes, France that July 14. As I remember, another American climber hired to help with the cam-platform rigging was killed by rock fall during filiming. One of my most prized possesions is my autographed copy of "In High Places" - by Dougal Haston.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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May 11, 2013 - 01:57am PT
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Brenda Venus is an actress, author, ballet dancer, director, and producer. In June 1976 Brenda Venus met the famed writer Henry Miller. He became her mentor and she his muse. Over 4,000 pages of letters were written by Henry Miller which were later collected into the book, "Dear, Dear Brenda" – The Love Letters of Henry Miller to Brenda Venus(ISBN 0-688-02816-0).[1] In addition, she is the author of "Secrets of Seduction for Men" (ISBN 9780452286429) and "Secrets of Seduction for Women" (ISBN 9780760790700). Her books have been translated into 37 languages[citation needed]. Publishers William Morrow and E.F. Dutton sent her on a worldwide publicity tour making various appearances on TV, radio and press interviews. For over 6 years, Venus wrote a column for Playboy and freelanced for Cosmopolitan, Details and Esquire.
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RasVegas
Trad climber
Goodyear
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May 22, 2013 - 06:18pm PT
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Truly one of my favorite movies of all time! Once I saw it...that was it. I would devote my early life to climbing. Now I'm too jacked up to do it any longer, which really sucks. But I wouldn't trade any of it for anything in the world.
Peace and be safe everybody!
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Alan Rubin
climber
Amherst,MA.
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May 22, 2013 - 06:30pm PT
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The crew member killed during the filming was David Knowles from the UK, not the US. He was an active climber (I believe he had previously climbed the North Face)who was brought on to help safe-guard the film team and was killed by rockfall.
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rockermike
Trad climber
Berkeley
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May 23, 2013 - 01:06am PT
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The film "Solo" on youtube; poor quality, but I too remember that frog that got a free ride. big effect on my psyche as a teen.
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Al_Smith
climber
San Francisco, CA
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May 23, 2013 - 10:46am PT
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More on the tragic death of David Knowles from an account by Mike Hoover in American Cinematographer in 1975.
"Tuesday, [August] the thirteenth [1974], was also cold, clear and beautiful. By 9:30 the chopper had moved all 14 of us up to the West Ridge of the Eiger. Today we would finish one of the most difficult set-ups in the picture. Not bad.
By three we had finished on the face and had begun to film up on the flat area above, ascending the ropes back to the top for a sync scene where we establish that the German is a careless fool and that the Frenchman is a damaged careless fool. Then I remembered that we didn’t get the POV of the falling fake rocks that just miss Eastwood and hit Montaigne. So I had to go back down on the face and Dave [Knowles] volunteered to go onto the wall with me to help, while everyone else began to fly out in the chopper.
So the two of us rappelled down to our position on the wall and clipped into a group of pitons. I think we both were glad to get out onto the peaceful wall and let the others hustle all the junk back down in the chopper.
The shot was rather simple, Martin drops the foam rocks down on us and Dave bats any away that might hit the lens. Perfect, but really scary-looking through the camera as the rocks bomb down, I just can’t keep from flinching. Finished.
I suggest to Dave that he go on back up while I coil the ropes, put the camera away and take out the pitons but he says no and that he’ll stay and help So we joked and began to clean up. He told me about working with the BBC, I think on the “Old Man of Hoy.” One day he was carrying a very expensive video camera that was turned on and he didn’t know it. So the camera was transmitting back to the control truck while he was stopping on a tiny ledge to pick some exceptionally beautiful wildflowers. The guys back in the control truck were going crazy as he put the camera down on a ledge balanced some three hundred feet above the smashing surf. We were both laughing when we heard the sound of a big rock falling from above
It sounds real close and I instantly cover and crouch into the wall as close as possible, I hide my hands so as not to lose any fingers. Feel pretty good. It smashes into the small of my back and I almost black out as a smaller shower of rocks continues. I feel a weight on top of me. I can’t move my legs, so pinch them and am so happy to feel the pain. Dave must be okay, But he’s on top of me—hanging upside-down—dead.
He must have looked up right into it. I’m sure he never felt anything and was happy when he passed away—and it was so quick that there was no fear at all.
[Producer Robert] Daley and Eastwood talked about stopping production, but what for? We all knew that serious accidents were a real possibility before we started. But on the second day?
My pelvis had a small crack and all the surrounding muscles were smashed so I was out of action for about ten days."
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