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NEW ARTICLE: INTERVIEW: Steve McClure on Strawberries Onsight

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 UKC Articles 19 Jun 2014
Steve McClure sorting the fiddly lower runners on his re-enactment of his onsight of Strawberries, E7 6b, Tremadog, 4 kbFinally, after thirty years of waiting, numerous attempts from the best of British trad climbing, and a few foreign onsights, Steve McClure has made the first British onsight ascent of Strawberries, E7 6b.

Strawberries was first climbed by Ron Fawcett in 1980, and waited for seven years before it had its' first onsight ascent from Stefan Glowacz.

In this article, we bring you a bit of the history behind Strawberries and an interview with Steve on his ascent...



Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=6412
 LeeWood 19 Jun 2014
In reply to UKC Articles:

" Conditions were way worse despite it looking the same 'weather' on paper, but humidity was through the roof."

Sounds bloody hard. When you think UK climbers are usually content to find a route dry, not just worry about atmospheric humidity. Further consider it as 7c - how many people onsight 7c while hanging around to sort out awkward pro ?
 foxjerk 19 Jun 2014
In reply to UKC Articles:

"Ron spent three days on it, climbing in yo-yo style, and eventually pre-placed his equipment from abseil and pre-clipped in his ropes before the actual ascent"

sorry to be a bit silly, but what does this last bit about pre-clipping his ropes actually mean? it sounds like an esoteric form of top-roping!
 Puppythedog 19 Jun 2014
In reply to foxjerk:

follow the link on the first post. it's explained in there.
 Ramblin dave 19 Jun 2014
In reply to UKC Articles:

So at the risk of opening the other can of worms...

AIUI, British adjectival grades are given for a (possibly hypothetical) onsight ascent.

So when people say Strawberries is E7 and "difficult to onsight", do they mean it's E7 because it's difficult to onsight, or that it's harder to onsight than other E7s ie it's harder than E7?
 Michael Gordon 19 Jun 2014
In reply to Ramblin dave:

They mean it's E7. If it was harder than E7 to onsight it wouldn't be E7.
John Dunne 19 Jun 2014
In reply to Ramblin dave: I did it in late 1985 and it was harder than the E6s around at the time and more physical.
I still think of it as 7c+ as i think it would of had more onsights if it was only 7c.

only my opinion

 Ramblin dave 19 Jun 2014
In reply to Michael Gordon:

Ah, okay. I wasn't sure if it was one of those cases where the system gets bent a bit by the fact that not many people are onsighting at that level...

JD - thanks!
 Jonny2vests 19 Jun 2014
In reply to UKC Articles:

I can't believe he didn't even do his shoes up.
 Skyfall 19 Jun 2014
In reply to UKC Articles:

I think that's an honest but considered interview. Excellent, thanks Steve and UKC.
In reply to UKC Articles:

Interesting that he doesn't even mention (perhaps doesn't even know about) the bit 'everyone else' seems to mention where the obvious hold in the LH crack turns out to be useless and the better hold is not at all obvious. I thought that was supposed to be why it was so hard to make a true onsight of. Or did I make all that up?

jcm
 Kemics 20 Jun 2014
In reply to UKC Articles:

good to hear Steve mentioning the dichotomy of pegging routes

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