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Joe Brown - Alpine Beginings 1953 -1954
Alpine Beginings 1953 -1954
1953 saw Joe make his first trip to the Alps - on the pillion of Don Cowan’s motorbike. On the East Ridge of the Crocodile Joe broke his wooden shafted ice axe and they had to cut their 250ft. rope into pieces after it jammed, disasters to the impecunious pair. They then made an abortive attempt to re-climb the Allain-Fix route on the Blaitiere after a major rockfall. This was a highly regarded route, the only one in the guidebook to have a VIb graded rock pitch. Indeed this was why they chose it, reckoning that they were up to any rock they encountered. Although they only got a third of the way up the difficulties Joe mastered the difficult crack, which would later be named in his honour ‘Fissure Brown’. Needless to say by the time these two novices left the valley they had made a considerable impression!
Easter 1954 saw another winter climbing trip to Ben Nevis. Whillans and Nat Allen had spent a couple of days trying to force a route through the overhangs on the Carn Dearg buttress before Joe joined them. Following a crack that cut the main roof he reached a chockstone on the lip and got a sling around it, but then retreated, removing his runners, ready for the following day. They decided that, because it was so strenuous, one would climb to the lip placing slings, then retreat and allow the other to climb through. In view of Joe’s effort the previous day Don offered to place the gear, and let him finish the pitch. However, once on the lip Don was still climbing strongly, and with Joe’s encouragement to keep going pulled round the roof into a far from easy crack above. At this there was a shout of "English Bastards!" from the CIC hut from where their progress had been closely observed. A classic Scottish line had fallen to English visitors! The name Sassenach (E1 with 2pts. aid, 4c,5a,5a,5a,-,4b,-) seemed appropriate.

Back in the Peak Joe and Don tossed a coin for the lead on The Sloth (HVS, 5b) at the Roaches — Don won, and so another now classic route was created.
By diligent saving through the winter of 1953-4 Joe and his companions had accumulated enough money to be able to spend a prolonged season in the Alps - sufficient they hoped to be able to wait out bad weather and achieve some really worthwhile climbing. Unfortunately 1954 turned out to be one of the poorest seasons that Chamonix had known, and little was accomplished. Their first success was to complete the route that they had retreated from on the Blaitiere the previous summer. They then turned their attention to the West face of the Dru, successfully making only the third ascent, and that in a record time. This impressive feat for still relative novices to alpine climbing gained them recognition not only in Chamonix but also among the established British alpine fraternity. This was to have major implications for Joe’s future life, as he would now start to get invitations to join expeditions rather than just climbing with his Manchester based friends.
So it was that Joe’s life became centered around climbing (he says it was from his very first day on Kinder Downfall), with everything else taking a subordinate role. To go to the Alps he and his companions had given up their jobs and they returned to England broke and unemployed. For the next six or seven years Joe continued to work as a self-employed jobbing builder as this was a way he could take off time when he wanted, to go climbing. Initially he under-priced his quotes, which meant that although he was never short of work he made little money, and had to work fast and hard just to break even at the end of the week. Tradition has it that Joe was a plumber by trade. This is not true, Joe and Archie were always general builders. However, Joe did have two brothers who were plumbers, so he would get advice on plumbing jobs from them, becoming a proficient plumber in his own right.

But work was just a means to fund the next climbing trip. Throughout the following years a pattern was established with regular winter trips to Scotland, weekends spent in Wales, or less frequently in the Lakes District, and an extended trip during the summer to the Alps or further afield. Winter weekends were sometimes spent pegging artificial routes on limestone — a social activity as much as serious climbing, with the group brewing up in a cave or under an overhang while one member climbed — with days spent in places such as Dovedale, the Manifold Valley and at Goredale Scar. Routes such as Brown’s Overhang (A3) at Stoney Middleton; Venery (A1) and Southern Rib (A2) in Dovedale and the classic White Edge (A2) on Ilam Rock date from this era. In warmer weather they went to the gritstone edges where in 1954, on Stanage, Joe climbed the Dangler (E2, 5c) and freed Quietus (E3,5c). Although there was no training in the modern sense, by climbing every weekend all year and doing manual work during the week he and his group maintained an exceptional level of fitness.
 
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