WIFE ON HOLD - Gritstone Bouldering

A British answer to the Swiss and South African season films, and the tick list is the reason to watch. Sam Carling, Leo Skinner, Solly Kemball-Dorey and Finn Parry work across the Peak District, Northumberland and northern Yorkshire: West Side Story, The Boss at 8B, Zoo York, Thick End of the Wedge, Renegade Master, Chip Shop Buddy, Bloodsport, The Joker, Mossatrocity, Careless Torque, and a slab finish on Crescent Arête at 5+.

This is for climbers who know grit or want to. The Boss, Ned Feehally's 2020 roof at Yarncliffe, and Careless Torque, Ron Fawcett's 1987 arete at Stanage, are two ends of the style, and the film gives you both: steep, powerful sequences and awkward, technical slabs. Skip it if you need the history. Renegade Master and The Joker were in Hard Grit in 1998, and the film does not say so.

What works is the range. Ending on Crescent Arête, a 5+ that Gabe Regan climbed in 1976, after a run of 8As is a real choice, and it says something true about grit. What it gets wrong is context. Twenty-five minutes and no names of first ascensionists, no grades on screen, nothing about the debate over the sit start on Thick End of the Wedge.

A Good Season, Mellow's Jimmy Webb film from Rocklands, is the same format on sandstone with one climber. Wife on Hold has four, and the friendships carry it. I prefer the grit.