On Sight DVD - Review

On Sight DVD - by Alastair Lee. Price - £19.99 www.posingproductions.com

What is it? On Sight's the latest DVD from mutiple award-winning film maker Alastair Lee. It's a visually stunning poke into the hornets' nest of climbing ethics and starts from the premise that climbing routes 'on sight', ie clean and without previous inspection or practice, is the absolute essence of climbing and what makes it exciting and raw. Or in other words, what it's all about.

Don't be put off by the 'e' word. It might spark a million climbing forum rants, but what On Sight is about is the essence of climbing and what makes it, well, what it is really. It might sound potentially dull, but with Lee's typically playful look at it, it never is.


The action sequences are awesome. Apparently Lee filmed over 150 hours of action for On Sight and it was definitely worth the effort, from Neil Gresham and Ian Parnell's on-sighting spectacular ice routes through to desperately steep cliff and crag climbing featuring the likes of Leo Houlding and Neil Dickson.

The whole film's held together with a thread of rawness, with the climbers themselves talking about what on-sighting means to them.
 
'The thing is with onsight climbing,' says Houlding.  'You only get one chance. It’s the
most finite thing ever. Once you’ve blown it, you’ve blown it forever. It’s kind of why it’s so beautiful as well.'


You get a overwhelming sense of that fine line from the climbing footage. Ricky Bell dynoing - jumping - for a hold high to his left on a massive rock face, almost latching his fingers onto it then taking a huge, swinging fall. And then again next day. 'It's terrifying', he says, 'but the most important thing is that you don't cheat the route and more importantly, don't cheat yourself.'

And then there's Gogarth, jeeesuz. And Pete Robbins on Strawberries at Tremadog, and John Redhead sitting below Cloggy comparing on-sighting to seeing animals in the wild, as opposed to in a zoo.


And it all builds to a stunning climax with footage from two different routes, two different climbers intercut dramatically. The great thing about On Sight, apart from the superb footage and raw drama of it all, is that you don't need to be a high grade climber, or possibly even a climber at all, to 'get it'. It's all there in the big falls on dubious gear, post-crux trembles and wide eyes.

Another cracking Al Lee masterpiece. But don't take our word for it, check out the trailers above :-)