It´s Official. E11 7a. Pictures & Report

It´s official. We´ve just got off the phone with Dave himself. He´s prepared to stand up and be counted, giving the route E11 7a. For those who aren´t aware, Dave MacLeod has just climbed the direct finish to Requiem at Dumbarton in Scotland. See yesterday´s news item for details. The fall from the crux is 60 feet onto an RP. If that snaps it´s a 70 footer. Dave took the fall 9 times in all, with the RP breaking on more than one occasion. The last fall he took, last week, he sprained both his ankles badly and cut his feet. Still, that didn´t stop him finishing the job! When asked about taking the fall Dave compared it to jumping off as boulder knowing full well that you would hurt your ankles doing it. He said that the possibility of inverting during the long fall and hitting the rock with his head was always a distinct worry, and not something he would have envisaged walking away from! Having climbed a number of F8c sport routes he reckons that this is at least as hard, and certainly harder than anything he has previously done on traditional gear before. When we asked him what next, he breathed a sigh of relief and admitted to having been fairly focused on a number of local projects, which he has now completed, and expressed a desire to start travelling and repeating more of other people´s routes. Watch this space… Dave has promised to send us a report asap which we´ll bring to you right away. All photos courtesy of Paul Diffley at Hotaches.com. The images are frames captured from a video of the actual ascent. Unfortunately the Hot Aches guys are reluctant to give us any video for the site just now. They are keeping a tight grip on the footage of Dave on the route; apparently including 9 monster falls! They are hoping to have a film out in the autumn… ———————————————————————– If you have any news worth reporting please contact Matt – matt@planetfear.com / 0114 2969114 ———————————————————————–

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