18 year old Ellis Butler-Barker has just made the third ascent of the Cheddar testpiece Death Star, 8c. Ellis climbed the route on his fourth session having been inspired by Tom Newberry's second ascent earlier this year (UKC News Report).

Having sieged Anstey's (UKC News Report) prior to his trip to Rodellar (UKC News Report), Ellis decided to try a harder project somewhere else, eventually deciding on Death Star at Cheddar after hearing that Tom Newberry had made the 2nd ascent. Ellis got some beta on the moves from Tom and headed up for a session on the route, managing to get a sequence for all the moves very quickly. 

Returning the next weekend, Ellis warmed up on The Empire Strikes Back, 8a+, after re-working Death Star, Ellis frustratingly fell off halfway through the final crux. Ellis then elected to rest up and have another go the next day, hoping that this would give him a greater chance of success.

Unfortunately, it was not to be and Ellis fell three times at the final crux, tired from his previous day's climbing and onsighting Try to Remember, E5/6 6b. After some power endurance training during the week Ellis headed back and after onsighting Star Wars: The Trilogy, E7 6c, learning to place gear as he went, Ellis made the 3rd ascent of Death Star. Ellis commented on his ascent on his blog: 

"My third 8c was done which felt pretty strange as just under a year ago I was clipping the chains on my third 8b. It’s great to see progress and it was great to do the route much quicker than I had expected! The route turned out to be much better than I first thought and also much harder than when I first tried it."

Ellis Butler-Barker is sponsored by: Five Ten and Mammut