16-year-old Toby Roberts has continued his fine run of form by ticking Hubble (9a) (9a) at Raven Tor (Miller's Dale), The Peak District.

He first attempted the route in July 2020 after the first lockdown. It had been in the back of his mind for several years already after seeing Will Bosi climb the route back in 2016:

'I remember thinking to myself that one day I would love to climb Hubble. I then saw videos of old school room sessions and learnt about the route and its first ascent by Ben Moon, followed years later with ascents from other amazing climbers.'

After his initial session on the route, Toby was sidetracked by his attempts on Rainshadow and then a finger injury. After months of rehab, he was into competition season where he won a silver medal at the World Youth Championships in Voronezh, Russia.

'After redpointing Batman at Malham rain then stopped any progress I was making on Rainman and it seemed like a good idea to try Hubble again.

'It's now been quite a while since I've done any sustained training so I didn't know how I'd find the moves this time around - but I pretty much had the beta sorted on my first session back on it last Friday.'

Toby then returned home for a couple of days rest, before heading back on Tuesday 26th:

'When I got back to Raven Tor and got on the route earlier today I didn't feel great and couldn't really do the moves as easily as on Saturday. It was windy but the sun was out and conditions were seemingly bad - so I decided to kill a few hours along with a few others at the crag.

'Despite not feeling great earlier in the day I decided to go straight for Redpoints each time getting a little closer to sticking the drop in move. After about 20 minutes and on my 4th attempt I stuck the drop in move and I found the next 3 moves to the end of the boulder problem ok.

'Once I hit the last hold of the boulder problem I knew it was just a case of staying composed to the top - which was the same belay where I finished Revelations (8b)5 years ago!'

The past year has been exceptional for Toby who is without doubt one of the rising stars of British climbing. Last December, he became the youngest Brit to climb 9a with his ascent of Rainshadow, and more recently he ticked Batman (9a/+), also at Malham, as part of his process to climb Rainman (9b) – which we'll hopefully see him clip the chains on soon…