Steve McClure repeats Choronzon in Pembroke, Wales

Britain’s Steve McClure is best known for his hard sport climbing and, for more than a decade, he has climbed into a realm of difficulty unrivaled by anyone else in the country. Almost all the hardest sport climbs in the UK are his, including Northern Exposure 9a+ at Kilnsey and Overshadow 9a+ at Malham Cove.

Yet despite this intense focus, "Strong Steve" has always climbed the full spectrum from 8B+ bouldering to big walls and trad climbing, and it comes as no great surprise therefore that the Englishman has now made the first repeat of Choronzon, the trad climb at Stack Rocks in Pembroke, Wales. Freed by Neil Mawson last September, at E10 7a it is believed to be one of the hardest trad routes in the UK.

The route obviously offers a mix of extremely bold climbing, above distant and poor gear and so McClure first abseiled down the line to get a feel for the moves, then toproped it clean. On bolts the route would be 8b+ circa, but it’s not and so he decided to return the next day. Typically it rained through the night and then, despite very poor conditions, he managed to repeat the route, fighting "... as hard as I’ve had to fight for ages".

Commenting on www.thebmc.co.uk, McClure stated "I went for a sport approach. These types of very hard trad/sport routes are hybrids; they’re not trad climbing in the conventional sense of the word. Trad climbing, for me, is when you climb from the bottom to the top, making it as hard for yourself as possible. For these routes, you should stack the odds in your favour and make them as easy as you can!"

McClure will continue to stay in Pembroke for a while and may well try Muy Caliente, the E10 put up by Tim Emmett in June 2010. It is worth remembering that E10 is almost the maximum of British trad climbing and has never been flashed before. James Pearson got extremely close in 2011, and with good but distant gear this route is a prime candidate for such a feat.