Our
team upped mats and moved over to another boulder in Northumberland. Out the
corner of my eye I noticed an attractive, athletic-looking woman trying a
steep, balancy slab problem. When she turned to greet us, I realised it was
Peta Watts, an old acquaintance from Edinburgh.
"Hi, Peta. Wow! You look fit!"
As we caught up on old news it transpired that over the last few years Peta's
interest in high altitude climbing had moved to the fore. Earlier this year
she summited Lhotse** and becoming the first British female to have climbed
this beautiful Nepalese peak, some 8561m and fouth highest in the world.
In terms of British, female high altitude mountaineering, this was a significant
achievement. Perhaps, with the exception of Polly Murray's recent ascent of
Everest, the number of British female climbers who have left an impression
in the Himalaya in the last few years, are few and far between.
While British women are flourishing in other areas of 'adventurous' climbing,
with the likes of Lucy Creamer, Louise Turner and Airlie Anderson showing
the way, the interest in high altitude climbing has been very much neglected.
Maybe things would have been different had we not sadly lost two of Britain's
most talented female mountaineers, Julie Tullis and Alison Hargreaves. I wondered
if the hard toil, or the inherent dangers associated with high altitude climbing
are what steers women away from challenging themselves further in this field,
or is it the expense, the time way from home, or all, or none of these factors?
After Peta's success on Lhotse, with confidence high, her focus turned to
an even greater Himalayan challenge - K2. Sometimes referred to as "The Savage
Mountain", K2 is renowned for its hostility and has not only rebuffed many
talented mountaineers but also claimed many lives. However, its reputation
has not deterred Peta, who believes she is now ready for such a challenge.
It interested me to catch up with her to see why she was following a road
most British women never even begin to go down.
"I'd
heard about the climb and remember saying to Mick, isn't this
meant to be quite hard. He was just very matter of fact and
said no, no, it's fine."
Peta, now
aged 46, (though more like a lively 38 year old), talked me through her
climbing life and what attracts her to the Greater Ranges.
Her first introduction to climbing was on the Gower peninsula in 1980,
aged 25. At that time Peta was living and working in London and had -
through her interests as an expedition kayaker - met several climbers.
She later joined the North London Climbing Club and found herself surrounded
by some adventurous climbing companions and together they travelled to
"nearly every area of the country" from London.
>>
Peta
Watts - high achiever
Over the
next few years both kayaking and climbing featured heavily in her life,
as did travelling. Eventually however, climbing took over and the areas
she visited expanded to include many European countries, Australia, Canada
and North and South America. Peta learned to climb in a very traditional
way and soon she was moving through the grades, learning through her mistakes
(and lucky escapes) and eventually leading around E3 or so.
Her first introduction to ice climbing was not so conventional. After
throwing her friends - well-respected mountaineers, Mick Fowler and Vic
Saunders - in at the deep end of a white water introductory lesson, Mick
vowed to get his own back by taking her ice climbing and so Point Five
(grade V) became Peta's introductory route!
"We
had watched wild storms sweep in every afternoon and we climbed
that ridge always looking over our shoulders."
"I was very
ignorant. I'd heard about the climb and do remember saying to Mick, isn't
this meant to be quite hard. He was just very matter of fact and said no,
no, it's fine. It was in atrocious conditions and I was using Terrordactyles.
I dropped one of my Dachstein mitts so climbed the second pitch without
it and mashed my hand incredibly."
In retrospect
Peta thought the experience was great, partly "because of the way he (Mick)
introduced me to winter climbing in such a matter of fact way."
After this weekend, Peta had "the winter bug" and started doing London-Scotland
flying weekends. Then in 1987, she moved to Scotland with her partner,
the renowned mountaineer Henry Todd and their two-year old daughter, Matti.
I asked Peta if it was difficult trying to keep up the climbing and look
after the family? She admits that juggling family with her interests was
not easy, especially when her daughter was younger but believed it was
worthwhile trying to do.
"I suppose you have to make a choice if you have kids - deciding whether
you think your climbing is still worthwhile pursuing and making those
time commitments. It's not too difficult if you are lucky enough to have
an understanding partner."
>>
Lhotse, all 8561m of her!
I asked
the blunt question, has climbing made her a selfish person?
"I don't know. I suppose you're selfish in the extent that you know yourself
and know what makes you happy and you think that you're worth going for
that. But there's always compromise, so on the other side of things I
don't feel that I am selfish. I think I have a clearer idea of what is
reasonable for me to do and we'll compromise on my time."
As Peta's climbing progressed, so too did her interest in mountaineering
and she began to visit areas such as the Tatras in Poland, the Bugaboos
in Canada and the Alps. Memorable moments that stood out from these trip
include taking a friend's non-climbing 63 year old father up Mont Blanc
and her first alpine trip to the Bugaboos with another female friend.
"It was only the classic Bugaboo Spire, some pitches of rock before a
long, high ridge. But we had watched wild, electrical storms sweep in
every afternoon and we climbed that ridge always looking over our shoulders
and were very proud of ourselves afterwards."
Much of her climbing has been with other women. She enjoyed female partnerships
because of the feeling of equality, saying,
"Certainly in climbing I find it easier to be a true partnership. It's
harder if you climb with another woman to lean on them so it's often more
of an equal partnership. It can be like that with men too but I find many
women I climb with are very supportive."
