AT HOME IN THE STEEP PLACES: Documentary on pioneering climber, Bill Peascod, to be launched soon on YouTube

In 1955, pioneering Lakeland climber Bill Peascod visited Brisbane's Kangaroo Point and conducted an historic training session. It was the first time that local climbers and bushwalkers had seen carabiners, pitons and rockclimbing safety rope techniques that had been used in the UK and Europe since the late 19th century. 

Bill had emigrated to Australia a few years earlier, taking up a position as a lecturer in mining engineering in Wollongong -- but it was his experience with the Brisbane Bush Walkers that rekindled his love of the outdoors and climbing. BBW president Julie Henry had organised the Brisbane visit following the death of club member, Mickey Miller, on Tibrogargan and a plane crash on Mount Superbus where BBW members were the first on the scene. 

Bill's connection with Australia -- his new home for almost three decades -- and the inspiration to climb again following his friendship with Brisbane-based, Neill Lamb, is documented in a new video to be released soon on YouTube. But the doco offers a deeper insight into Bill Peascod's life, his 'escape' from the 'black depression' of life as a coal miner, and his transition in Australia -- with Japanese influences -- into an acclaimed artist. 

The feature-length documentary -- At Home in the Steep Places: the story of Bill Peascod -- has been produced and directed by musician-climber Steve Wharton. It outlines a climber's life far-removed from the experiences of most Australians and within a context of the emergence of rockclimbing in the UK. It is supported by an original soundtrack that embraces the rich musical heritage of the Lake District with songs written by local performers and climbers, including an Australian vignette. 

A trailer for the film is at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh9pteudfDk 

The finished film will be available online on Youtube but embedded on the landing page of the Mountain Heritage Trust website with that acting as the main location to send people to. The online launch will be timed for an evening (Australian/Japanese time) in September. 

The links and files for subsequent screenings of the film (mp4 and DCP) will be made available for free to schools, community groups and venues anywhere in the world on the proviso that should any ticket sales exceed the cost of the screening then a donation is made to a cause within the ethos of the film. This could be any causes or charities in the fields of climbing, art, nature conservation, mining heritage or folk/roots music (in a nod to the massive part that the soundtrack has played in the telling of Bill's story).

I was involved in a small way towards the end of the project and am very proud to have been associated with the production. I've seen an early version of the video so don't expect another video like Free Solo, for example. At Home in the Steep Places is a world apart from the modern climbing movie genre that tends to focus on action, adventure and superlative achievement. This is a moving, gentle story, delving deeply into the life and contexts that shaped this influential climber. It reminds us that we are all influenced by the different lives we lead away from climbing but it is this very dimension that is most often absent from the modern climbing video ethos. 

I'll let you know the official launch date and time as soon as I get the word from Steve.

The Living Rock hard copies sold out

Well, it's happened -- the last box of printed copies of The Living Rock has gone out the door and appropriately, to one of my strongest supporters: Emily and AJ at Pinnacle Sports, West End. Apart from copies I gave to each participant in the project, the first sale in 2015 was to Brisbane climber Alex Mougenot. It's been quite a journey during which I have met so many wonderful people making the experience as rewarding as compiling the book itself. Of the 1100 copies I hauled home from the docks in Brisbane -- ably assisted by my great nephew Trystan and a heavily overloaded car and trailer -- I estimate that around two-thirds have been sold to people I have met face-to-face. In our current frenzied online age, that's quite an achievement, I reckon. 

But there have been so many supporters of this project along the way: Greg Nunn and Mountain Designs, who hosted the 2015 launch and on-sold many, many copies for me over several years until the company's sad demise; Teresa Cause from the Boonah-based Far Outdoors -- always an enthusiastic supporter and friend; Glenn Tempest from Open Spaces in Natimuk who has managed to convince Victorian climbers to read about the exploits of their Queensland colleagues; Binna Burra Lodge, with its connections to the high-achieving members of the Groom family, embraced the book from the start and still has copies for sale following the devastating bushfires of 2019; K2-Basecamp in Brisbane has been one of the key Brisbane-based distributors; and there are the many others -- local libraries, small family-run bookshops (like Petrarch's in Launceston and The Hobart Bookshop), tourist information centres at the Glass House Mountain, Canungra, Rathdowney and even one in the northern NSW village of Tyalgum. Thank you one and all!

I've decided not to have another print run of the book, mainly because of the extraordinary effort required and to enable me to include additional digital material. And so the next version will be an Apple Books production and hopefully, I will have completed it before the end of the year. It will include additional photographs (including aerials of southeast Queensland mountain areas), some new climbing stories, corrections (thank you to all those who have contacted me about the inevitable errors and inaccuracies), and some early climbing videos -- silent 8mm film converted to digital format of climbing activities in Queensland from the late 1960s. 

Hopefully you'll find this e-version as engaging as the print copies. I apologise to all of you whom will be unable to access this without an Apple device but at present, alternative online publishing formats do not allow me the project file size I need to present all of the visual material. Here's a preview of the e-book cover...talk to you when I'm closer to going live.