Steve McClure climbs Britain's hardest climb: Rainman 9b

Where is your limit? Would you recognise it? For Steve McClure it’s an endless series of matchstick edges and nothing holds, high above the Yorkshire Dales.
If this climb was one move longer, it would still be a dream… instead it’s the UK’s hardest-ever climb.
In 2017, BMC ambassador and top sport climber Steve McClure finally climbed his seven-year mega-project at Malham, Rainman, to give the UK its first-ever 9b.
The route, at Malham Cove in Yorkshire, climbs up the classic Raindogs (8a) then climbs the bulge into Rainshadow (9a). After the crux of Rainshadow, which moves left onto better holds, Rainman blasts pretty much straight up to eventually join Bat Route. It does link existing routes but there’s a bunch of new climbing.
See what happened when Adam Ondra tried Rainman: • Adam Ondra tries Rainm...
Read our interview with Steve about his ascent: www.thebmc.co.uk/rainman-stev...
A film by Ben Pritchard.
Watch more of our climbing playlist: • Inis Mór: a trad climb...
#climbing #sportclimbing #stevemcclure
We're the BMC. Climb walls, rock, hills, ice or mountains? Join us. www.thebmc.co.uk/join

[@Splintorious]

Dudes definitely British. Completes the hardest climb in the country and shows 0 emotion. Good job geezer

[@bartmane]

i think it's just that, by the time someone reaches that age they're just dead inside. Life just kills you lol

[@antoinehalik]

​@@bartmaneI'm 47 and I'm definitely not dead inside 😂 Just throughout your life you know, all your experiences looks a little bit different from the distance of weeks, months and years, and you already learned how to look at it from this distance, you're not so excited instantly because of yours achievements 🤷‍♂️ Especially you've seen great amount of energy and work, others people sacrifice to get somewhere and you ask yourself this question "did I really sacrifice so much, did I put so much effort into it"? And you don't know, because it can be only your sensation, your feeling and not necessarily the objective reality. So why to be so excited?

[@foxtrotwhisky4061]

The joy of watching auto-captions try to interpret Steve's Yorkshire accent - "You've got the crooks bulge of ring shadow which is a font a tear.." So inspiring as always Steve, it's really good to hear your reflections on this route, and redpointing in general, 10 months on.

[@mystyboarder910]

This guy is 47yrs old and crushing it, amazing!

[@jazzbassinc.2726]

Absolute legend, is he actually climbing 9B with his shoes untied though?!?!

[@icedbannanas]

Just noticed that...! Looks like he loosened his laces.

[@1981stonemonkey]

1:31 That, right there, are untied shoe laces.

[@1981stonemonkey]

@@icedbannanas 1:31 not tied...

[@ManitheMonkey]

Amazing footage, really awesome to watch! Good job!

[@coolich76]

So modest guy and honest. I really wish him lots of accomplished routes like this. He definitely deserves it.

[@sethgilbertson2474]

I have always had so much respect for Steve and he continues to inspire me and others, I’m sure! Congrats on the send!

[@inferiorquality]

Amazing! Great footage and comments alongside! Steve McClure is an inspiration, let's hope someone repeats the route in the near future :D

[@dsnewby]

Fantastic! Everything about this, just an absolute joy, really happy for you!

[@FloydMaxwell]

Awesome video. Great to hear Steve's love of the sport, and the climb.

[@tayoneumann9533]

Sounds like a fantastic journey! Congrats!

[@balke7935]

Ste Mac - totally out there on his own in the UK. 46 years old too! Awesome.

[@Cragcloud]

Stunning! Great work! Both climbing and video 😄

[@moleyboy9650]

wow!!! age is definitely just a number, a 9b and over 40!! amazing job steve!!! :D

[@YL_AmericadoSul]

Great short movie. Steve is THE BEAST!

[@mixolydian2010]

What a climber. He climbs in a way that is totally alien to me almost sloth like in its slow powerful deliberate style great to watch!. I did mostly gritstone cracks etc around stanage, millstone and so on. With either good friction or good jams climbing moves that are horizontal and all the weird angles he climbs at i was probably never going to get my head round. All credit to climbers like him for their skills. Take care Steve!

[@filipcapanda2818]

Congratulations - very inspirational.

[@florianhermans8412]

So inspiring!

[@rockblog6047]

Great :-) Steve still rocks :-)

[@lunavistapaola]

fantastic style

[@garyreno6795]

Well done Sir!

[@inigomoore2569]

Need to get this on the climbing daily 9b counter

[@AndersKnutsenBrille]

This was climbed in 2017. The counter is for 2018.

[@Christian-ud9rn]

Steve, is legend!

[@ninocrudele]

My idol !!!!! Incredible!!!!

[@Cragcloud]

Really amazing climbing!

[@ericastier1646]

Interesting his note on how he didn't feel as happy as he thought he would when he finally did it. That seems to be the rule for every hard achievement in life. Once you've been through the hard and harsh work and fail and try iterations and aquired what you needed to make it, then it no longer feels like a gift to be able to do it but something you've earned and that takes away the feeling of blessing. It seems the happiness only comes when you get something you feel you didn't earn or had to work hard through luck and probably didn't really deserve.

[@a.j.carter8975]

Well done that man!

[@ThisIsNotMyHandle]

Man! Tie your shoes! :O Good job!

[@paulmorrey733]

Thanks

[@mangotreechen]

YEAH!!! so we all just watched the same move about 50-times like... ...that really takes all you got! you need to have the perfect rainy lazy day, you need to have no people whatsoever to do other stuff with you, you need to be bored beyond believe, you need 3 sixpacks of beer and a truckload of crisps, the conditions just need to be absolutely perfectly right to get through this videoand when you suddenly realize there is an opportunity to do it, you need o be ready for it...cancel all your appointments, plug out te phone and just go for it...so: i made it even though it was with the last effort i could put into it...and i was absolutely psyched that i had it in me - GREAT video!!

[@hummerchine]

I climbed my best in my mid-40s too:D

[@dedxxxxxx]

And theres absolutely no chance watching any video of him climbing with tied shoes.. is it?

[@Regulus_key]

Drop knee 👍

[@phillcanning]

9b and he doesn’t even tie his shoes!

[@rossdavidson4578]

The route was 8c from the ground up that day he said,the site is the place that has a 9b route,and that's where he climbed,still 8c...

[@samshorto5433]

You really didn't listen, did you?

[@Scalabrio]

The route is made up of different pieces, and each one has it's grade I think. You should listen carefully to what he says in the video

[@retailskytrammarmot9327]

Adam Ondra: Did you say knee bar?

[@1981stonemonkey]

3:15 I still do not understand how a route that is "8c+ to there form the ground", and then 3:36 "after that it´s 8c+ of small edges... (etc)" is graded harder than 8c+ if he says that no move was harder than 8c+. To me, that´s sounds like a sustained 8c+. I don´t climb as hard of course... still, to me, at my limit, a route that has only moves of 7a, and a route that has one move of 7a and is otherwise way easier, are both 7a.

[@lukedavies900]

It's harder in the same way that running a marathon, followed by another marathon, is far harder than running just one marathon. You get pumped and tired on the first 8c+, and so the second one is exponentially harder. Two 8c+ routes back to back are much, much harder than 8c+ when added together, unless there is a crazy good rest between them.

[@1981stonemonkey]

@@lukedavies900 Aye, but the grading scale is meant to be technical grading scale, is it not? Instead of, say, a scale based on stamina. As long as there is no move on the route that is technically harder than 7a, be it all the moves or just one, the route to me is a 7a. Why judge an 8c+ any differently?

[@lukedavies900]

@@1981stonemonkey that's how tech grades and trad grades work (E5 6b for instance meaning there's no move on the climb harder than 6b), but not French sport grades. French sport grades, which he's giving in the video, are based on the entire difficulty of the route. Harder routes tend to have harder individual moves but not always, some are just super sustained. A route with 2 V6 moves in a row would be a universe of difficulty away from one with 80 V6 moves, which is why it wouldn't get the same grade.

[@lewistaylor2858]

Hardest climb or hardest sport route? Echo wall must be up there

[@craig83cg]

I thought echo wall was the hardest, only ever been climbed once

[@DenzelLN936]

craig83cg possibly the hardest trad route....this is sport

[@SpartaSpartan117]

Echo wall is the hardest trad route, but it's "only" 8c or 8c+ iirc according to Dave

[@cynic252]

surely your limit is where you fail

[@TheGreatBlob11]

jennifer the skeptic if you fall you've gone past your limit

[@MythAvatar]

Now the wait for ondra to come and downgrade it...

[@RB-kr6jo]

Ondra confirmed it, still hasn't climbed it

[@kevedwards]

Ondra was here a few months ago and confirmed it’s 9B, I believe he wants to come back and try to send it at some point.

[@teamBMCTV]

Adam has been over to try it - and we filmed him on it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipzHeH5mmZ2chc0

[@adventuresreunion7457]

Or perhaps upgrade it ! After trying it he's said to Steve : "You can be relax ! (for the grade)"

[@wailer27]

Weird how i've done this route and it wasn't actually that hard, but others seem to be saying otherwise, so I'm wondering what the issue is really, maybe i'm underestimating how good I am

[@MindSurf248]

Any proof or? I' a little skeptical that you're smashing a route Adam Ondra failed to complete.

[@wailer27]

@@MindSurf248 oh yeah well in the eyes of a non achiever the world is full of liars

[@SpartaSpartan117]

​@@wailer27 I actually warmed up on this route before hopping on my 10a project, I think Steve is just past his prime and technically deficient to be completely honest.

[@wailer27]

@@SpartaSpartan117 No he's excellent, he's in the top 0.5% of climbers in the world. And that's not me bragging, that's me showing respect. Just leave it at that.

[@fredbohm4728]

@@wailer27 What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

[@johnmcclane264]

damn i hate climbing videos where people talk about how they climbed it ...

[@FrLawRE]

Why John McClane? Don't you realise that people can be pleased and even proud after having accomplished a difficult task; so pleased that they wish to share this with others? After all, he, like you and I are human, so we enjoy telling people about the difficult things we have done. This chap seemed genuinely happy and it was a pleasure to see his climb and listen to him.

[@martimaseras8862]

Felicitats per la teva forma de fer escalada meditativa

[@MindSurf248]

Ratioed 😂

[@kriszteblade]

Terrible, too loud and distracting music. If you are making a clip interviewing one of the most interesting climbers, let usblisten to him.

[@Steamboatjohnson9934]

ah yes, world renowned film editor and documentarian 'kriszteblade' really coming through with the helpful feedback. thanks for all your contributions to the world. sick climb!

[@kriszteblade]

You were most definately not the brightest tool in the shed. My feedback was fairly easy to understand for anyone with a functioning brain (and much more helpful than your "SICK"). Don't put loud (and shitty) music in a part where a climber is calmly explaining a process of doing one of the hardest routes in the world.

[@NateLanza]

Ah yes, youtube comment sections. Where even the tiniest flaw in a video will be mercilessly attacked and flamed by at least one salty commenter. Your "feedback" wasn't good, because you presented it in a rude and toxic way, and it's not "helpful," because you didn't suggest a solution. All you wanted to do was find something to complain about. And for the record, I thought that the music was quite quiet, and the climber was perfectly understandable for those of us that have ears.

[@doppelcorn1]

kriszteblade I found it neither too loud nor terrible. Great video

[@plutoplatters]

strange ? I didn't even notice the "music" the person and the climbing got in the way I guess ?