UKC

Continuing his excellent run of form, Steve McClure has flashed Impact Day (E8 6c) on Pavey Ark in the Lake District. For Steve, the E8 6c grade falls into the bracket of 'relatively safe but hard' and as such, had been a candidate in his mind for a flash attempt.

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Doubly impressive after all the poor weather over the last few weeks, I'm going to have to re think my excuses!

That's a good read.  We all recognise that last move feeling, even if not at that grade or with such a long fall attached. 

It is good- I don't seem to see so many accounts of climbs that really get you into the protagonist's head these days. And yes, that's one of the things about rock climbing that's always appealed to me, the way we can all relate to each other's experience despite our different levels.

Great read, impressive ascent. Realising when an opportunity presents itself and seizing it!

Good analysis from Steve. A fine effort!

Good write up and very impressive ascent. However, am I the only one that's a bit gutted that the piece has a real emphasis on his struggle at the top and that bits then cut from the video.......

Seeing one of the greats climbing like a wally might not be great for the sponsorship deal. Even on an E8.

Ha - yes, I'd have loved to see that scrap too! The bit of film was just taken by Neil Gresham on his phone in like 30 second chunks. He just happened to have his phone on him while he was looking at a different line and just pointed it my way. It would have been great to have a proper film of the struggle, but that involves way more faff and as you'd imagine, 99% of climbing is just going climbing with just you and a mate.

Thanks for some kind words. It inspires me to write more waffle. I loved writing for OTE and CLIMB and other places but with no where to put writing these days I've kind of gotten lazy. Still, after yesterday, I've got another one to write about now....

Really good account, exciting to read. Well done Steve.

I did feel that the title of the news article would be better if it was named "Steve McClure tries to flash impact day" then letting the reader read his account to see the outcome, rather than have the spoiler in the title.

There's really no good platform for it at the moment, is there? Obviously journalistic places like UKC but in terms of your own space where you can write but still get a decent footfall, nothing much comes to mind. 

Yes, I had a poor day at Wildcat on the 26th, generally messing about in the damp and intermittent drizzle and using it as an excuse for not getting on any harder things.  Found out later James McHaffie did Revelations that day!

I think this would be a great thing for UKC to think about supporting.  I would love to read some nice waffle from people like Steve, Hazel etc.  It is surprising that we do not get regular articles written by such people on UKC.  I would have no problem with them mentioning sponsors as part of the deal so that UKC does not incur additional costs to increase the volume of articles.

excellent piece. And of course regardless of grade, we have all gone through the same battles - very 'relateable', as they say.

I clocked the ascent was happening whilst on the way down via Jacks rake after a Cuillin ridge practice day on various routes and scrambles but didn't stick around to watch.  I don't  seem to have made it into the video though.....

Saw someone on it yesterday (on a top rope) and have a few phone photos, possibly Charlie Woodburn not Adrian. The top bit looked hard (not that the rest looked easy!!). Quite surprised it was dry.

I guess most of the hard trad ascents we see recorded are headpoints where the outcome is less in doubt and so it's more predictable to have someone there filming the whole thing. But I agree with you that it would be great to see more films of top flashes and on-sights where you can see moves being worked out/reversed etc - simply because this is more like most of our own trad experience even if there's a bit of a grade gap.