| From: | United Kingdom 🇬🇧 |
| Gender: | Male |
| Hardest Boulder (Worked): | 8B+ |
| Hardest Sport (Worked): | 9a |
| Hardest Sport (Flash): | 8a+ |
| Hardest Trad (Worked): | E9 |
| Notable Partnerships | |
| Jerry Moffatt | |
| Ben Moon | |
An early adherent of training on a woody who put his strength to excellent use, putting up many of the hardest problems in the UK from the early 90s to early 2000s. Notably he made the second ascent of Hubble aged just 18, one of the hardest routes in the world at the time.
He had the strength of character to turn his back on the tradition of climbing, the summit and the romance, and do his own thing. As he says, he's always got time for more training. [1]
As well as his hard bouldering exploits he also repeated many of the hardest sport routes of the time including making the second ascent of Evolution at Raven Tor, the second ascent of Progress at Kilnsey as well as early repeats of Bat Route and Cry Freedom at Malham Cove. In 2010 he established Scotland's first 9a with his ascent of Hunger at The Anvil.
[1] Dave Cuthbertson interview with Niall Grimes on The Jam Crack Podcast Jan 2023. 1hr13mins. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2cj6Zduv5LRmqwotmqg5Nd?
[2] Splinter, a short portrait by Ben Pritchard
[3] Stone Love
[4] Interview with Neil Mann, 2017 https://www.theprojectmagazine.com/features/2017/2/14/interview-malcolm-smith