Rhapsody | E11/8c Trad climb at Dumbarton Rock

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First ascent.

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn8SaTntzG8

Second ascent.

Trotter climbed the route twice, second time placing all gear on lead in a single push. [2]

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTxPnQNWdIw

[2] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2008/06/steve_mcclure_climbs_rhapsody_trotter_does_it_again-44777

Third ascent.

Steve went left to the arête, skipping the two hard finishing moves.

Dave MacLeod, on viewing footage of McClure's ascent on the film 'Committed 2':

The most eye popping moment for me though was seeing Steve McClure on Rhapsody - going left to the jugs on the left arête two moves before the redpoint crux, a link I did in August 2005 and considered finishing the route this way and making an E10. It was contrived to carry on direct following the crack right to the top, probably daft on my part, but that’s what all the fuss was about, and for me what made it scrape into E11. I thought hard about it and eventually felt it would a shame to take the escape just before the culmination of the route, and also saw when I tried to link it going direct that this route had the opportunity to make a really tough route – that’s what I was after. I paid for that decision with several more falls from the final move, a winter of worry and many nights of training, all the time knowing I could just traverse left from the sidepull for an easy option and still get an E10 tick.

Only two last moves; but those are the moves that make you fall, as is obvious if you watch the film E11. It’s a shame that arête is there, and so the route I took has to have an eliminate rule. But at least the rule is super simple - don’t go to the left arête. I was glad Sonnie saw the significance of that. I got past that escape point on my second redpoint, same as Steve. I could have gone left, only had one small fall from the same place as Steve, and finished the project in 2005. But I wanted to make a hard route, so I went direct. All this is no problem in my mind, folk can and should climb whatever way they want on a cliff.

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uWnE5_Ln5s

[2]https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2008/06/steve_mcclure_climbs_rhapsody_trotter_does_it_again-44777

[3] https://davemacleod.blogspot.com/2008/12/home-in-winter-wonderland.html

Fourth ascent.

Pearson initially tried the route in 2008, failed to do it, criticised the independence the line and questioned its difficulty, whilst defending the proposed E12 grade of his own route The Walk of Life (E9).

James' ascent is all the more poignant following the public scrutiny he came under due to comments made about the route in 2008, where he questioned the difficulty of Rhapsody in comparison to his first ascent of Walk of Life in Devon, initially graded E12 7a but subsequently downgraded to E9 6c by Dave Macleod. Despite dismissing Rhapsody as insignificant and claiming it to be overgraded, James didn't manage to complete the route.[…]

James claims to have acted like "an arrogant, immature kid" and the consequences of his behaviour left him feeling uncomfortable in the knowledge that he was concealing an unresolved issue. For his wife Caroline, the unfinished business of Rhapsody - "a route that I had tried just before leaving the UK, had failed on, and to make matters worse had openly criticized rather than accepting defeat" - appeared to be the underlying issue.

Regarding the difficulty of the the route, James now claims that "Rhapsody is hard, it's really hard in fact, and a giant step up from any Trad route I have done before."[2]

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/tU-_hozN1v/

[2] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2014/09/rhapsody_e11_7a_repeat_for_james_pearson-69194

Fifth ascent.

References

[1] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2016/05/rhapsody_e11_7a_repeated_by_jacopo_larcher-70443

Sixth ascent.

The first no-falls ascent.

References

[1] https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/extreme-trad-climbing-in-scotland-gerome-pouvreau-and-florence-pinet-repeat-rhapsody-and-requiem.html

[2] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2018/10/florence_pinet_and_gerome_pouvreau_in_the_uk-71744

Belayed by Sam Ley.

I accepted that I needed to give it my all, as every time I fell from really high up, I knew I was rolling the dice to some extent. I flicked a mental switch on the send day and that was it - I knew that I was going to climb it that go. I exhaled on every move and climbed as well on the route as I ever had - it really was the perfect send go. [4]

References

[1] https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,10607.msg692659.html#msg692659

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZOxSKE3WN8

[3] https://www.instagram.com/p/C6WfA7-NU-E/

[4] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2024/04/mat_wright_climbs_rhapsody_e11-73664

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE16odNAHII

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DLK6GdvNQ5n/

[2] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2025/06/billy_ridal_on_his_ascent_of_rhapsody_e11_7a-73996