In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
Who bumped this thread? Anyway now that it's been bumped...
A couple of points for the record with regards to Steve McClure on Rhapsody (which Steve has acknowledged but others seem to have missed).
While I have no doubt that he could have climbed Rhapsody in the same style, with a similar sequence, as Macleod or Trotter if he'd spent a little more time on it...
Steve didn't place the gear on the lead like Sonnie, his ascent was more like doing a sport route missing the last two clips. Placing the gear would
probably have made no difference and I understand why he didn't bother but it would have been nice to know for sure.
(For those that don't know Dave place the gear on the lead and down climbed to the start of the route to rest a while before climbing the whole route to the top with the gear and rope in place. Sonnie placed the gear on the lead and climbed to the top in one push with a prolonged shake-out at the last gear and good holds.)
The photographs I've seen suggest Steve finished the route to the left of where Dave and Sonnie finished. This may have been a harder sequence or it may have been an easier sequence - I don't know - it was different and that along with the gear placing may be why he didn't feel like he got the E11 experience.
Dave’s belayer was on the ground in the position used by Sonnie and Steve on the day he climbed the route, so he too climbed the route with the extra weight of rope but luckily did get the benifit on the fall.
Yes, I know this has no bearing on James' E12 but just goes to show the comparing different ascents of even the same climb is like comparing apples with oranges (gram for gram apples have more calories).