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Rock Queen (Northern Films for ESPN/The Discovery Channel/Canal+, 1999) (50'/Beta/DV/4x3) Director:
Martin Belderson |
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Top female mountaineer and climber, Catherine Destivelle, sets out to become the first woman to solo climb the Old Man of Hoy, Europe's tallest sea stack. Solo climbing is dangerous enough but, on the greasy surfaces of the sea-washed Old Man, Catherine's balance and poise was to the utmost. The climb itself was well within her abilities but on a slippery route like the Old Man reliable protection is a very good idea. Catherine's only protection was a technique called self-belaying: very risky if you get it wrong. Filmed over five days and in between two storms, Catherine had to solo the route under extreme time pressure, all the time dodging slow Scottish climbers. She was also four months pregnant, yet raced past everyone else on the route. An added danger was the seabirds nesting on the Old Man of Hoy. Their defence against intruders is to vomit their part-digested dinner all over any climber who comes too close to their nests on rock ledges. Catherine's climb was liberally interspersed with exclamations of; "Merde". Rock Queen was entered by ESPN in the Sports Emmys and won an award for innovative camerawork (for the use of lightweight DV pen cameras attached to the head of a carbon fibre boom). |
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| Catherine Destivelle approaches the top of the first, easiest pitch. | Vomit Cam: captures a Destivelle-eye view of a guillimot spewing vomit at the intruder. | Catherine tops out the climb. What you cannot see are the three terror-stricken climbers who were ahead of her on the final pitch. They kept her waiting 30 minutes. Catherine was not impressed, and they were more scared of her than of the Old Man. | |||||||||||||||
