Climbs

5.10b

References

[1] https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105833467/east-buttress

Echo Wall is a hard trad climb located high on Ben Nevis and established by Dave MacLeod in July 2008. It is an incredibly bold route, featuring climbing around french 8c in a position where you can't afford to fall off.

The route's location high on Ben Nevis necessitates some tricky tactics to make the most of the fleeting season. While working on the first ascent Dave Macleod would hike to the top of the route and shovel massive amounts of snow off the top of the route to minimise the amount of snow melt and maximise the number of days he could spend working the route over the season.

In training for his ascent, Dave famously soloed Darwin Dixit 8b+ in Margalef, one of the hardest solos in the world at the time.

At the time of the first ascent Dave did not offer a grade but he's later said it could be around E10 [1].

References

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

[2] https://www.mntnfilm.com/en/film/echo-wall-2008