DON'T PUT YOUR SON ON THE STAGE MRS CUTHBERTSON!
Climbing the career ladder of climbing has taken Cubby to all sorts of places and let him rub shoulders with the stars.
See pics from Cubby's Life In Film
A friend called the other day. He was so fed up with the weather and desperately wanted to escape to sunnier climes but either nobody was around or they couldn't be bothered. Or as is often the case in the frozen north, they were sitting patiently waiting in scramble mode, wide eyed, sharpening crampon points in anticipation for the next spell of good winter climbing conditions. Granted I was busy but yeah let's go. Jules couldn't believe it. One of the good aspects to being self-employed. Unfortunately I caught a cold virus but ah well, such is life. I also got a suntan though!
I'm regularly asked how I started climbing and what did I do for work, or did I go to University. I didn't go to uni because I didn't have enough O Levels or Highers but even if I did, I don't think that I would have committed myself to climbing any less so. And to be frank, I wasn't that interested, at the time at least. Making this commitment was the crucial factor in my climbing career. It was a very conscious decision but I believed that if I was going to live a climber's life, then I would have to justify this commitment by achieving and that involved some vision and focus. I had heard of others climbing more or less full time, the likes of Fawcett but I didn't realise that most of these climbers had something to fall back on in terms of a trade or a teaching degree.
In my first job after leaving school, I worked as a ski mechanic in winter and in summer I got into guiding with Mal Duff when he started up Pinnacle Adventure Holidays in the mid 70's - his first guiding company. A cycle evolved; socialising, training and winter climbing while working as a ski mechanic between October and April. April to July, climbing for myself. July to September guiding in the Alps and September to October climbing for myself again. It seemed to work well and justified my existence, in my mind at least!
When I started to achieve some of my goals in climbing, I occasionally worked on TV and film, predominately under the father figure of Scottish climbing - Hamish McInnes and his team of climbers (mainly Glencoe Mountain Rescue) who were appropriately known as Hamish's Mafia. Providing safety for film crews was our primary role but in addition we would often get involved in doubling, stunts and some even operated a camera. I became one of Hamish's Mafia, along with Murray Hamilton. Both of us as young up and coming climbers, were asked to participate alongside Joe Brown and Jackie Antoine in a live BBC outdoor broadcast titled Spacewalk and Freakout, named of course after the two Aonach Dubh classics in Glencoe.
It was great fun and very exciting being a star and getting helicoptered to and from the crag. From a climbers perspective the film will always be remembered for when Joe rather untimely criticised Murray for using chalk. Murray had just completed the crux of Spacewalk and was in a perfect position to retort. I don't think Joe expected either of the quiet young lads to reply but Murray with his public school upbringing and dry sense of humour, said something along the lines - "that's rich coming from you Joe...etc etc..." who was about to move from one etrier step and into another on the crux of Freakout. You have to remember that this was peak viewing time, early on a Saturday evening!
A year or so later, I joined Hamish's Mafia again, this time in Switzerland to provide safety in the Fred Zinneman film, Five Days One Summer, which was directed by Zinneman himself (remember Gary Cooper in High Noon). The leading stars were Betsy Brantley (a young English New Orlean), Sean Connery and also making making his debut was a young french actor called Lambert Wilson. It was superb to be with so many climbing personalities such as Tut Braithwaite, Paul Nunn and Martin Boysen, Rab Carrington, Eric Jones, Leo Dickinson, Iain Nicolson and Joe Brown. Basically I think the film was a life long ambition of Zinneman's, who as an Austrian loved climbers and the mountains, which was great from our point of view because we couldn't do a thing wrong in his eyes.
The production company was based in various locations such as St Moritz, Pontrasina and Selarina, all of which nestled under the majestic Piz Bernina Alps. The company had been there for three months. It was a long time to be on location and by the time I joined them tempers were beginning to get a little bit frayed around the edges. There were so many great scenes but one of my favourites involved Lambert Wilson on the summit of Piz Corvatch. Without going into too much detail, Connery plays the part of a Clydeside ship builder set in the 30's and his two loves in life are his fiancee, played by Brantley and his passion for mountaineering. While on holiday in the Alps they hire a young mountain guide (played by Wilson) and off they go to climb the mountain. Betsy is left behind at the hut while the men go off to conquer their peak.
On the summit there is a brilliant scene where the guide (by now fallen madly in love with Connery's fiancee), turns to Connery on the summit and says that he is not worthy of such a beautiful woman. Prior to this there is a scene that involves setting up an abseil. The ropes are coiled and then thrown over the edge. But poor old Wilson did not quite perfect the knack and it took some eleven takes to get the shot in the can! By this time Connery and his wee bit of Scottish temper were beginning to show. Anyway, Connery then turned to Wilson, grabbing the lapel of his tweed jacket and is supposed to stress the point that being a guide does not entitle him to voice his opinion on what he can and cannot do with his fiancee. It was the first time I had been close to professional acting and it was very impressive. Instead of the lines that Connery was supposed to use in the script, he turned to Wilson and said "Lambert Wilson, the only f****** guide you will ever be is a f****** Girl Guide!" You can't imagine the silence. Forever the diplomat, the 70 plus year old Zinneman, or Mr Z as he was more commonly known would step in. "Cut...cut...that's enough for one day gentleman, we'll finish tomorrow - it's a wrap".
It was interesting for me because my dad went to school with Connery in Edinburgh. They worked on the same milk cart and hung out at the Palais on Lothian Road. "Sean, do you remember my dad?" feeling slightly awkward as I interrupted his space while reading the paper. Fortunatley I asked the question before the summit scene had taken place. "Cubby...Roy, the man with the bikes. Good god yes, how is he?" Well what else could he say? My dad was the only person to own a Harley Davidson in Scotland at that time. It was a beautiful machine. A 1200cc government surplus Knucklehead, all chromed and sprayed metallic cherry red. You'd get a blank cheque for it nowadays.
Since then I've been involved in many interesting TV programmes, films and documentaries. The Edge and Face series for example, Don't Try This at Home with Davina MacColl, Hamish MacBeth with Robert Carlyle and many more. But one of the more interesting roles I've played recently was in a Gaelic Short. My requirements were extended beyond the normal call of duty when I was asked to double for the leading lady. It was a long shot so as long as I wore a long dress and wig, it would look okay. At low tide, Andy Cunningham and I clambered to the foot of Split Rock, an eighty foot sea stack close to the west Highland village of Lochinver. I was soon made aware of the problems that women probably take for granted while climbing. Andy belayed while I led to the top of the stack which is about Hard Severe in standard.
The wind blew my long ginger hair into my eyes, while the dress obscured my foot placements. I could see the tabloid headlines, "transvestite climber trips over dress in dramatic sea cliff rescue!" I pulled the ropes out of shot and stood on the most exposed point of the stack. Apparently I was contemplating suicide for the jealous murder of my sister. On action I had to look forlornly to the south, then out to sea and slowly turn 180 degrees to the north. I tried very hard (honestly) to hold my posture like a woman's. A few takes and that was it. We retired to the catering tent for a snack where I was applauded for my performance. I assumed it was a joke, then several of the production came up to me afterwards and asked if I had been doing this for a long time which they followed up with, "you obviously have". I chuckled and replied, "yeah, yeah of course". It transpired that the crew were unaware of my primary role as safety officer and were under the impression that I was hired in at the last minute as a specialist who doubled for women! Oh well, there's hope for me yet!
Through my love and devotion to climbing, I have met and done so many things. My qualification as an International Mountain Guide has proved invaluable, not just in guiding but also as a basis from which to work in TV and film, where safety and looking after people is of prime importance. Climbing can take you all over the world and my involvement with TV and film has been very exciting in this respect. You don't have to be a top climber to achieve all this (but it does help) and what's more there are other avenues to explore such as writing, photography and lectures.
Good luck in your chosen field, believe in yourself but if it's anything to do with climbing - don't tell your parents about it!
Cubby
18/4/2001
