Climbers

Belhaj has claimed ascents of a number of hard sport and trad routes, including Papichulo (9a+) and Cobra Crack (E9). However his claim to have repeated Action Directe (9a) was called out and widely doubted, calling his previous claims into question.

Henry Barber:

Steve was one of the most visionary climbers I ever climbed with. He put up hard climbs that were ahead of their time by a decade. I was known more for scary onsights, but his climbs compared to mine were futuristic by 20 years harder than anything I did. It took over a decade for Steve’s 'Psycho Roof' in Eldorado Canyon to be repeated. [2]

References

[1] Obituary by John Bragg, 2019 https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201215496

[2] https://www.facebook.com/rockandice/posts/steve-wunsch-one-of-the-best-climbers-in-the-world-in-the-1960s-and-1970s-died-f/10157714840455030/

[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20230202012326/https://www.rockandice.com/climbing-news/celebrating-the-life-of-steve-wunsch-by-your-own-lights/

Not to be confused with Tom Williams.

A stalwart of the 1980s climbing scene in Llanberis.

https://footlesscrow.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-final-pitch.html

Remember one of his stories about soloing on slate. He used to solo listening to music on a Walkman. Can’t remember which one but he was soloing an E5 and then disaster struck - the tape ran out!. He said turning the tape over was the crux. [1]

[1] https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,30612.msg608272.html#msg608272