At Home in The Steep Places
The feature-length documentary about artist-climber Bill Peascod, At home in steep places, is now available online at the website of the Mountain Heritage Trust. Co-directed by Steve Wharton and Perrin Walker, it tells the story of pioneering Lake District climber-guide, Bill Peascod's transition from climber to mining engineer to artist and his decision to emigrate to Australia to seek out a new life.
It was in Australia that he rediscovered his love for climbing, largely due to the influence of a young Queensland climber, Neill Lamb, and other members of the Brisbane Bush Walkers. Bill was invited to Queensland in 1955 to conduct a cliff safety course at Kangaroo Point, organised by BBW president, Julie Henry. While he was in Queensland, he climbed what was the first described climbing route in the state -- Faith, on Tibrogargan -- and introduced advanced rope safety techniques which inspired the next generation of climbers.
Bill Peascod belaying on the first ascent of Faith on Tibrogargan in 1955 (Photo: Neill Lamb)
Although at the time, many routes had been climbed in Queensland by a cohort of young climbers like Jon Stephenson, John Comino, Geoff Broadbent, Geoff Goadby, Alan Frost and Peter Barnes, before Bill's visit, few of their routes, if any, had ever been formally described in route guides and given a grade using international standards. Bill's visit changed that forever with climbers in Australia adopting the cumbersome British grading scheme (Easy 2, Difficult 3, Very Difficult 4, Severe 5, Very Severe 6). This was later replaced by John Ewbank's open-ended grading system in the late 1960s which we still use today.
