You can tell it’s the run up to Christmas again with everything suddenly being released in November. This year in the world of climbing DVD’s it’s a similar tale.

Lining up to be the big hitters this year include:
• Sender Films - The Sharp End
• Posing Productions - On Sight
• Hot Aches - Committed Volume II
• Dave Macleod - Echo Wall

The following review has been inspired by my recent watching of Posing Productions On Sight.

About Posing Productions
Posing Productions are a group of climbers who have brought out a successful bunch of films, their back catalogue includes;
• Twice Upon a Time in Bolivia
• Storms
• Set in Stone
• Psyche

Their ethos seems to lie in making films which break from the norm, whether that lies in the story telling or just of the more random amusing elements. They have defiantly got that human feel across to the viewers, with a peek into how the climbers tick.

I was defiantly looking forward to watching On Sight, as there had been a fair amount of prerelease musings at the crags and on the internet of what was coming. With Posing productions having a good reputation from their previous films there were high expectations.

On Sight
First some definitions...

To climb a route On Sight is to climb it without falling or weighting the gear and without any prior knowledge of the route.

A Ground Up ascent is to the climb the route and when the climber falls he/she is lowered to the ground and starts again, without trying any of the moves at their high point. In this way you still don’t know what’s coming next.

These two aspects are what this film focuses on. Plus a comedy look at various other terms from Yo-Yoing to Retro Flashing. I am glad that Headpointing and Redpointing are mentioned in the film otherwise it could have felt very anti pre-practice as the climbers in the film sometimes seem to shun it. And yes I do know that the DVD is called On Sight and whilst it is probably the most ethically pure way of trying a route, it’s not the only aspect of our sport.

The beauty of this film comes about because of the On Sighting theme that binds all the different parts of the film together, and as On Sighting can be a very intense game, especially when you are pushing yourself it makes great filming. So its great that a filmmaker has dedicated an entire film to hard onsights rather than intermingled with other material.

Following themes has produced some classic films before, Hard Grit for example, which follows the headpointing grit scene, and I have seen and heard some references to the similarity to Hard Grit and of On Sight, but in my opinion they are still different beasts. Both films are pretty intense, but on Hard Grit the climbers knew what was coming rather than the uncertainty of the moves in On Sight. Also I think that many climbers will have more of appreciation of On Sight as this is probably the most common way of climbing routes. And whilst we might not be sticking our necks out on E7/8s I expect that we have been in situations where we can relate to what’s been shown on the film, disco leg and all.

Film Content
Well I don’t want to give anything away. I think that no prior knowledge of this film is the way to go for that whole will they won’t they. So I will just say where the main focus of the filming lies. We have

Pete Robins on Masters Edge (E7) Millstone
Ian Parnell and Neil Gresham ice climbing at Kaldakinn
Leo Houlding on Balance It Is (E7) Burbage South
Jack Geldard, Pete Robins, James McHaffie and Neil Dickson on Gravediggers (E8) Llanberis Pass
Dave Birket on My Piano (E8) Nesscliffe
Neil Dickson's on The Hollow Man (E8) Gogarth
Ricky Bell First Ascenting at Fairhead Ireland
Scottish Winter Climbing
We also get to see how international climbing star Nico Favarese gets on at gogarth and Tremadog


It is exceptionally filmed (in HD too), and the emotions of the climbers have been brilliantly shot, also they have captured a feel for the locations, whether above the sea of Gogarth to the Scottish Mountains. A really good effort especially considering with the onsight only get one chance to succeed (with the camera or route).

Its very well edited, and considering the varying amount of climbers, locations and styles of routes they have done a great job. After all the short Gritstone routes are very different from the 2+ hour ascents filmed North Wales. There is a mixture of tense on the edge of your seat viewing of the routes mixed up with lighthearted banter between the like of Ron Fawcett and Jerry Moffet “The old fart and the young upstart” and John Redhead. This all adds up to make compulsive watching.

Conclusion
All in all this is an excellent DVD, I expect that it will stand out on the shelf for a long time to come amidst some of the more generic climbing DVD offerings out there.

If you are climbing DVD collector you will probably end up with this DVD if you haven’t done so already. For those that are very selective, this one is defiantly worth a go as I think this may well become a classic.

Purchase Onsight here.