I started climbing in 1993 at Dumbarton Rock and spent three years working my way through most of the boulder problems here. By age 18 I was climbing Font 7c and E7 new routes and started to get more and more interested in new routing. Around this time I was also repeating most of Scotland’s hardest climbs and hard grit routes in the Peak District. I started studying Sport Science and getting an understanding of how to improve more quickly. By 2002 I graduated from this and began to get established as an all-round climber, with Scotland’s first E9’s, Font 8a+s, Scottish IX onsight in winter and E7 onsight in summer. Since finishing my sport science MSc I have been climbing much more and working as a writer, coach and lecturer, trying to push my all round climbing as far as it can go. I live in Lochaber with my wife Claire and my cat pusspuss. My key routes are: Rhapsody
E11 7a – The world’s first E11 trad route.
F8c+ climbing a very long way above gear. 70 days work, 2
years of training and 500 feet of airtime went into the first
ascent. The
Hurting XI,11 – The world’s first grade XI winter route. M9/10
climbing with very poor gear. Pressure
Font 8b – Scotland’s hardest boulder problem.
This 30move roof climb took me a long time to work out. Ring of Steall
F8c+ –
Scotland’s hardest sport route. Darwin Dixit
F8c free solo – Possibly the hardest solo done in the world. Good
Training For Something M12-
Joint first ascent with Will Gadd. Here are some more of my best routes: Winter Trad Sport Bouldering Dry
tooling |
