News Archive

The Hot Aches crew were in Northern Ireland recently working on two separate film projects.

They were in position to capture Dave MacLeod making the third ascent of Divided Years, E10 7a. This route, put up by John Dunne at Buzzard's Roost in the Mourne Mountains, was the first to be graded E10. In the video 'The Big Issue' John described it as 'f8c climbing'.

This is certainly one of the best and most spectacular rock climbs in Britain. The route follows the line of the steep prow for 50 meters and has a sustained crux section at mid-height.

Dave succeeded on the route at his first attempt after working the moves over two previous days. (Compare this to the several years of effort it took him to climb his own route Rhapsody E11 7a). He also thinks this is the first ascent where all the protection has been placed on the lead. As for his opinion on the grade and of the route see his Blog.

The footage is destined for a film due to be released in spring 2007.

Dave MacLeod has completed his longstanding trad climbing project at Dumbarton. This is arguably the hardest route of its type in world; an amazing achievement by an outstanding climber.

The Hot Aches crew were there to capture MacLeod's moment of glory! We've been filming Dave's struggle with this route for over a year. Having been there for all lead attempts we've captured every ankle smashing, gear ripping fall! We have some incredible footage which we're very excited about. We can't wait to get working on the film, which should be ready in the autumn.

Hot Aches would like to thank everyone who assisted with the filming, particularly Tony Wayte, Guy Heaton and Gareth Bennett. You can read Tony's excellent account of the send day here

We've had many requests for video footage of this route and we will be producing a teaser/ trailer of our film shortly.

Read More:
Scottish Climbs Report
Planet Fear Report
UK Climbing Report

The Hot Aches crew were at Dumbarton in rather unusual weather for a photo shoot with the resident guru, Dumbie Dave. Pictured is Dave on Super Size Me font 8b, the second ascent of Malcolm Smith's big link up. This is Dave's third 8b at Dumbarton and there are still more hard lines to go.

The Hot Aches crew recently filmed Dave MacLeod and Fiona Murray as they made the first ascent of Defenders Of The Faith IX 9 on Creag an Socach in the Southern Highlands.

Dave described this as his 'hardest on-sight in winter'. He had previously on-sighted both Duel IX 9 and Demon Direct IX 9, but considers the new route to be harder.

The Hot Aches Team were out in Italy and Norway this winter covering British competitors in the Ice Climbing World Cup.

The best of the Brits was Scotland's Fiona Murray who made the final in Italy and narrowly missed out in Norway, achieving overall world ranking of 15th.

Check out the new monthly column in Climb Magazine from our own globe trotting climber, director, photographer and writer - Dave Brown. (April and May editions). News, views and photography covering winter climbing around the world.

The Hot Aches crew just spent a mad week chasing the Canadian Ice and Mixed climbing legend Will Gadd around Scotland. Will teamed up with Dave MacLeod, Tim Emmett, Fiona Murray and Kev Shields.

Venues included the Cairngorms, The Ben, and ironically a few weather enforced days back at Birnam (remember Fools With Tools?). Here Dave and Will climbed a new route graded at D12- and Kev, who was test driving a new prosthetic ice axe, made an impressive ascent of Fast and Furious D10+.

The footage is intended for a winter climbing film project which will be shot over several seasons.

Hot Aches have filmed Dave MacLeod on his new boulder problem, 'Pressure' Font 8b at Dumbarton. Dave has described this line as the "Hardest problem in Scotland". He spent approximately one hundred days over four years working this problem.

Hot Aches will be producing a short film telling the story of Dave's obsession with this line.
A short clip of this will be available on the web very shortly. (Early Jan 06)

Read about the First Ascent on ScottishClimbs.Com

You can watch a small video of Dave in action on www.urbanclimbermag.tv

Hot Aches were on the spot to film Scott Muir as he made the 2nd ascent of Europe's hardest continental mixed climb, Game Over M13, at Drylands in Austria.

Highlights of this footage were broadcast on the BBC's Reporting Scotland show.

The latest DVD from Hot Aches, 'All Mixed Up' is now available through climbing shops and the other outlets. Copies can also be bought online at Cordee. (UK price £18.99)

As well as the 38 minute feature, the DVD contains 47 minutes of additional material, including:

Fools With Tools
The Game M13
Neolithic M11
Extra scenes from 'All Mixed Up'

Hot Aches is delighted to announce that Cavewoman has been selected for the Banff world tour.

The tour spans the globe, making its way from Austria to Argentina and from Iceland to India. More than 160,000 people attend approximately 450 screenings in about 250 locations.

For details of the tour and a list of locations see Banff World Tour.

'Fools with Tools' and 'Cavewoman' are both going to be screened at the first Film Festival for Freesports. The Festival takes place at The Prince Charles Cinema just off Leicester Square, London.

The Festival features films on BMX, Mountain Biking, Freestyle MotoX, Skiing, Snowboarding, Mountain Boarding, Climbing, Kayaking, Free Diving, Kitesurfing, Wakeboarding, Surfing, Skateboarding, Inline Skating and Parkour.

The fest runs from the 7th Dec until 11th Dec. 'Fools with Tools' and 'Cavewoman' are been shown as part of the climbing session on the Sunday morning.

For full details see: www.freesportsexpo.com

'Cavewoman' premiered to a sellout crowd of 600 people at the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival.

We were very pleased with the reception the film received and delighted to be placed second in the public vote for 'Best Film'. Thanks to everyone who voted for us, we're glad you enjoyed the film.

We'd like to thank ExtremeDV for all their support over the weekend and we'd like to 'big up' Stevie Christie for doing such a fantastic job organizing this festival; we're already looking forward to next year.

Results: Peoples Choice for Best Film

1st Cano-Bagging (Blair Aitken, Tom Hutchison, Robin Hutchison)
2nd Cavewoman (Dave Brown, Paul Diffley)
3rd Twice Upon A Time In Bolivia (Alastair Lee & David Halsted)

Festival Sponsors:
Tiso, Wilderness Journeys, Highland Park, Climb, Digital Face, Glenmore Lodge, Rucksack Readers, Honey Stinger, Mountain Equipment and the John Muir Trust

We're very pleased to announce that 'Cavewoman' is to be screened at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. Kendal is now recognised as one of Europe's leading festivals of mountain culture; we're delighted that 'Cavewoman' is to be a small part of it.

Main festival weekend: 18th-20th November 2005
There's loads of fantastic speaker and films, read all about it here: Kendal

"If you're going to Kendal, we'll see you in the bar!" - Diff & Dave.

For the second year running Hot Aches Productions have succeeded in getting a film into the prestigious Banff Mountain Film Festival.

'Cavewoman' will be shown alongside some of the best new mountain films from around the world. Paul Diffley will be flying over to Canada to attend the festival and introduce the film.

Screening Times:
November 5, 2005 at 3:20 p.m. in the Margaret Greenham Theatre
November 6, 2005 at 3:20 p.m. in the Eric Harvie Theatre at The Banff Centre.

For full details of the festival see: Banff Mountain Film Festival

The World Premier of 'Cavewoman', the festival cut of 'All Mixed Up', will take place at the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival on Sunday 23rd October.

Cavewoman (14 min) - Taken from 'All Mixed Up'

Scottish climber Fiona Murray has taken a career break to climb full time. She spends the whole winter season living and climbing in the Canadian Rockies. Fiona becomes obsessed with a route called 'Caveman', a classic hard mixed climb. When it was first climbed five years ago it was considered to be one of the hardest routes in the world. A humorous and inspirational tale for every female who has ever felt intimidated in the often testosterone dominated mountain sports arena. For blokes a fascinating and funny insight "though the looking glass".

The festival runs from Friday 21/10/05 to Sunday 23/10/05, Cavewoman is been shown as part of the Sunday night session. We'll be introducing the film in our traditional nervous and shaky style!

Hope to see you there,

Paul & Dave

HAP were there to witness Dave MacLeod repeating 'Breathless' (E10 7a) on Tophet Wall in the Lake District. This is only the third ascent of Breathless and the first time it has been caught on video. This ascent will feature on a Hot Aches DVD to be released in 2006. A short clip of the video is available on PlanetFear: www.planetfear.com

Hot Aches Productions first film 'Fools With Tools' is to be screened at the 27th MOUNTAINFILM in Telluride, Colorado. Screening Details: 6:00 PM Friday 27th May 2005, Sheridan Opera House. Our good friends Doug & Trish Bursnell will be there to introduce it. For more details see: www.mountainfilm.org

'All Mixed Up - In The Canadian Rockies' is well into post production and will be released in Autumn 2005. This feature length film follows two women through a Canadian winter season as one emerges to become Britain's leading female mixed climber.

A shorter version of the film will also be released for film festival screenings.

Media Pack Soundbite:

Two quite ordinary female climbers from Scotland head to the Canadian Rockies to push themselves to the absolute limit. They journey through this spectacular mountain environment on a roller-coaster ride of self-doubt and determination discovering if they have what it takes on some of the craziest routes in the world - the super-steep, leashless, male dominated world that is - hard mixed climbing.