All talk

Last November, in a dark studio in the bowels of the Banff Centre, I had the chance to talk for an hour with the English climbing journalist Ed Douglas. I'd long been a fan of his lively yet careful writing, so it was a real treat to speak with him in person. He rose even further in my estimation when I found out that, being from Manchester, he knew some members of New Order. For a while Ed had a hard time steering the conversation away from that band's history and music, and those of its ill-fated progenitor. However, eventually we did get around to other things - like alpinism. By rights my friend Ian Welsted should've been there too, but he was actually climbing at the time.

Recently the Banff Centre started releasing on its YouTube channel the wealth of material it had collected over the years. There are some real gems there, like Geoff Powter's conversation with the quirky duo of Rick Allen and Sandy Allan. For the record, here's Ed's and my chat. I hope you find some bits interesting.


Comments

  1. KenCMarch 3, 2015 at 3:04 PM

    I watched the whole video and did indeed find it interesting! Thanks for sharing it.

    You are right, of course, that Prince George is no Paris but if you had been here the last couple of weeks you would have seen a town far different from the one you knew when you lived here. We've just finished hosting the Canada Winter Games and by any measure it was a huge success. With very good reason people from all corners of the country were more than just a little bit impressed with our little town.

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  2. Raphael SlawinskiMarch 3, 2015 at 6:30 PM

    There I go sticking my foot in my mouth again! I certainly didn't mean to put down PG. Once I'd adjusted, I really enjoyed the six months I spent there. In fact, it was in PG that I got my first taste of Canadian winter wilderness, and began the slow transformation from tennis player to climber.

    And thanks for taking the time to watch the interview, I'm glad you found it interesting. It says much for Ed's journalistic skills that after a few minutes it felt more like a conversation than an interview.

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