“It’s like looking through a keyhole into a smoke-filled room
Climbing Blind
AS a young teenager, Red Széll watched with awe as a BBC documentary described the first ascent of an iconic Scottish sea stack.
It was a film recording of Chris Bonington and Tom Patey’s audacious 1966 climb of the 127 metre (449 feet) Old Man of Hoy in Orkney.
Red, short for Redmond, immediately knew he wanted one day to follow suit and set about learning how to climb.
Unknown to the teenager, however, his dream would hit a major obstacle that few could overcome.
Six years later and aged 19, Red, an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge and by now a decent climber, was delivered the devastating diagnosis that he was losing his sight.
Medics told him the degenerative condition, retinitis pigmentosa, would leave him blind within a decade.
His hopes of the sea stack ascent
came crashing down and Red, now 49, admits he went into a period of self-destruction.
“Until that diagnosis there was so much about my life that involved sport and pushing my limits,” he says.
“I climbed, I played cricket and rugby, I cycled and ran. One by one I had to stop them because I couldn’t see.
“I pushed people away and drank too much. I don’t think that freefall stopped until about 10 years ago.”
It was a chance trip to an indoor climbing wall in his late 30s that put Red, by then a married dad-of-two, back on the path towards his dream.
“One of my daughters, Laura, decided she would like a ninth birthday party at a climbing wall,” he says.
“While the other parents seemed content to stand and watch their children climb, I was drawn to the wall. I started groping at the holds.
“I thought, ‘I want to do this again.’ When I asked the instructor, Trevor, if it might be possible he said, ‘Yes. Why not? I think it can work if we climb together.’”
By this point, Red, from London, had just 5% vision. Today, this is reduced to 2%.
“My field of vision has closed in around me,” he says. “I can see only a small hole of light and shadow. It’s like looking through a keyhole into a smoke-filled room.”
Red’s rediscovery of his first sporting love led to many hours of joy at the indoor wall.
“To climb again was similar to riding a bike,” he says. “It felt so natural and the skills came back quickly. It gave me such incredible pleasure to feel like I was reversing the tide of my worsening physical ability.”
Still, Red, a writer, broadcaster and househusband, did not believe he would ever climb outside again.
“If I couldn’t trust myself to climb on rock then how could I expect others to trust me?”
While climbing one day with his instructor, he mentioned the Old Man and was surprised by the response. “Trevor said that with a bit of work, it might be possible for me to climb the sea stack one day,” Red says. “Suddenly, I was floating on air.”
The Old Man of Hoy rises vertically out of the crashing
“I forget I’m blind. I’m immersed in the moment and focused on the rock ”
Atlantic, just off the island of Hoy, and maintains a towering reputation among climbers.
The “bit of work” turned out to be a huge amount of hard work, but in June, 2013 Red was ready.
Red’s successful climb is told in his book, The Blind Man of Hoy. He was supported by his friends Matthew Wootliff and Andres Cervantes, as well as mountain guides Nick Carter, from Inverness, and Martin Moran, Strathcarron, who died earlier this year in the Himalayas.
With his appetite whet, Red went on to summit another famous Scottish sea stack, the 60-metre (197ft) Old Man of Stoer in Sutherland in 2014.
In 2015, Red travelled with his crew to make an attempt of the final stack of a so-called “Big Three”, Am Buachaille in remote Sandwood Bay, also Sutherland, which rises 65m (213ft) vertically from the ocean.
Reaching the sea stack requires a 10km (6-mile) hike over rocky terrain, a 60m (196ft) scramble down a cliff face, then 500 metres (546 yards) of seaweed-strewn boulders and a 30m (98ft) tidal channel swim.
That time, Red did not make the climb. The wind and waves were too extreme to get to the base.
“Honestly, it was a relief. After hiking 10km of broken, boggy ground I was mentally and physically exhausted. It’s the getting to the climb that can be the hardest. I needed to find a smarter way to reach the stack.”
A new plan was formed which included a mountain bike tandem with Matthew and a prize fund.
“With Matthew as my pilot we could do the journey to Sandwood Bay in 45 minutes. I was also awarded the Holman Prize, which made it financially feasible.”
The Holman Prize is named after the British explorer James Holman, who became the world’s most widely-
travelled man before the advent of rail.
Backed by San Francisco LightHouse For The Blind charity, the prize funds three people to “explore the world and push their limits”.
On June 22 of this year, a suddenly favourable spell of weather and tide saw Red make a second and successful attempt of Am Buachaille.
To achieve his goal, Red reassembled the team that backed his 2013 Old Man of Hoy climb, sadly, except Moran. The final sea stack adventure took 12 hours.
“The bike ride gave us some hard knocks,” Red says, “and we fell off twice. The hardest parts were still those I had to do on foot, particularly the scramble down the cliff, which was treacherous.
“I love swimming, so I enjoyed that and the climb was amazing. When I’m climbing I forget I’m blind,” Red says, “I’m immersed in the moment and focused on the rock that I’m feeling. I concentrate on my balance and sense of place.
“Climbing Am Buachaille was the most exhausting day of my life but also the most exhilarating,” Red says. “I’m so grateful to all those who have supported me.”
As the first blind person to ascend the “Big Three” Scottish sea stacks, Red hopes to encourage others.
“I want to show people that blindness should be no barrier to adventure. I want them to explore and to feel the high of achieving something physical, whether it’s climbing or salsa dancing.
“Climbing has positively changed my life. I’m happy that instead of focusing on what I can’t do because I am blind, I now look at all I can do.”
Find out more at www.redszell.com