UKC

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: this man is an absolute MACHINE!!!! what an absolute legend almost doing rhapsody then flashing 8b+!!! WOW

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

Glad this got its own new item - yet another incredible achievement. Maybe the lack of response to this thread is due to the fact that we almost expect this sort of thing from Steve.

Compare and contrast with Gaz Parry's comments reported on the first ascent news article!

'This year with rekindled enthusiasm and some spare time due to the cancellation of the Boulder World Cup in Belgrade Serbia, I spent four days on the line and finally got the link in very windy but excellent friction conditions.'

In reply to Ian Patterson: Yep, fine job by Mr Mac. Maybe he received some important beta from GP?

Can't help but marvel that this story gets 3 posts but the one on the scottish route gets 5 billion. Perhaps if Mick had given it an E grade or something it would have got a better response?

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: Blimey, good effort. I think my girlfriend's taken a bit of a shine to Mr McClure since seeing the video of him on the Kilnsey project. I shall be sure not to mention this to her...

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

Effort! And this news just seems to slip under the radar!

In reply to Lemony:

Just tell her he's quite short.

In reply to Richard Bradley: I think Sonnie's charisma, that he keeps a blog, and the route he is trying is one of the most famous in the country at the moment all add to that story. That aside this is obviously an amazing effort by Mr McClure.

In reply to galpinos: Sadly I tried that tack, she muttered something about me giving her a stiff neck sometimes and went all glazed...

In reply to Lemony:

Sounds like you'll have to resot to shaving your head and flashing 8b+.

Gutted.

In reply to Richard Bradley:

Well said. Always seems to be the way. It's like the Ondra stories hardly getting any attention (post wise) despite the fact that the kid is swiftly setting about revolutionising hard climbing as we know it.

8b+ flash / onsight is truly amazing and on UK limestone it's a different story to some places abroad where the holds are so much more obvious. See Steve warmed down with an onsight of Grooved Arete too. The mind boggles.

Steve is so far ahead of everyone else in this country sport climbing wise it's scary. I mean, Gaz is no slouch and yet this route took him a few days. The fact that he reached ST's highpoint on Rhapsody in a day should be enough for the trad brigade to sit up and take notice / realise just how hard the things that Steve is doing are.

In reply to seagull:

Definitely - I was talking about this on Sunday to someone who returned from Kalymnos with some excellent onsights and he was commenting on how different it would be to achieve the same in Yorkshire.


Totally agree.

In reply to galpinos: Oh well, if I must. Where're those clippers...

In reply to Lemony:

Lose the hair and those hardcore sport ticks will be a doddle......

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

I thought Ben's dreads were the key to hard sport climbing?

In reply to Anonymous:

No the key was the fact that he was (is) strong as f*ck and trained like a beast.

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

Congrats to both Steve and Gaz, I guess I need to get our website updated AGAIN!!

Sam

In reply to Ian Patterson:

Hi Ian yeah that was me you were taking to at Goredale! Totally agree 8b+ OS on british limestone is a world class effort but you wouldn,t expect anything less from Mr McClure!

In reply to seagull:

I always thought in English sport climbing circles that Grooved Arete was a mega classic? Funny Steve hadn't done it before when there can't be too many British sports routes he hasn't done. Wasn't Grooved Arete that Nadin onsighted? One of the earliest 8a onsight in the world or something?

In reply to TobyA:

That was The Groove at Malham I believe.

In reply to seagull:
And Urgent Action at Kilsey - another classic 8a+ - what a legend.