Well if you weren’t there you missed the man himself. If you were in that afternoon you would have been able to discretely watch him rinse our boulder problems.

What was he like? Laidback sums it up.

The lecture itself was pretty laidback, Chris taking us through the significant events, boulder problems, people and routes in his climbing life accompanied by slides and clips from King Lines.

I for one was left with the overriding impression of someone who lives within himself and loves what he is doing for the sake of it, for the physical, emotional and, dare I say it, spiritual rewards it provides.

Here is a guy who is happy climbing in isolation, enjoying a move for itself, a route for the purity of its line or the overall challenge it provides. Someone who is famous not because he has sought fame, but to whom fame is a by-product of what he loves doing.

After his presentation he opened up to Q&A’s, some good questions were asked and answered openly, my favourite was, when asked if he’d like to do anything in the UK he said he’d like to do some of Steve McClure’s routes and some of the grit lines but he’d only top rope them! Honesty born of the confidence of someone who has nothing to prove.

There were around 150 people in the audience - all tickets having sold well in advance. With a portaledege providing an extra couple of seats for a birthday boy and his father.

We hope everybody enjoyed the lecture - I certainly did. Watch this space as we hope to bring more of your and our climbing heroes to speak at The Castle.

Geoffrey Odds