The progression of Dougal's climbing life, as well as so much mountaineering history, can be followed in these four fine films: THE BAT, THE EIGER SOLO, THE HARD WAY, AND EVEREST THE HARD WAY.
In the first film, we see an amazingly accurate recreation of his new route - The Bat - on Ben Nevis with Robin Smith. The narrative was gleaned from their own writings about this epic, a route climbed out of a need for revenge and Scottish pride when Whillans had climbed Sassenach and Centurion. The only factual liberties that were taken, were small ones, as the climbers (Rab Carrington and Brian Hall) were in EBs instead of PAs.
The next film by Leo Dickerson is a masterpiece, and my personal favorite. It covers the first British solo ascent of the Eiger North Face by Eric Jones. Along the way, the film also depicts the history of the North Face, including the first winter ascent of the John Harlin Direct, a route which brought Dougal to the forefront of alpinism in the 1960s.
The final two films I watched on the Steep Edge website, were one about the Annapurna South Face, and the other about the Everest Southwest Face. The first portrays the 1970 highpoint of the era of big expeditions, while the last one depicts what is generally considered to be the last historically significant big scale expedition to the Himalayas. In the former Dougal and Don Whillans summit Annapurna, and in the latter Dougal and Doug Scott summit Everest in 1976 at 6:00 PM and then bivouac at 28,700'. Indeed, one of the pictures in the collage shows Dougal being checked for frostbite at Camp Five ... Both climbers escaped unscathed.
OH, AND IF YOU HAVE NOT CHECKED OUT THE STEEP EDGE FILM WEBSITE YOU ARE MISSING A RARE TREAT.
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