Steve McClure: Le Voyage

In 2017, British climber James Pearson did the first ascent of Le Voyage at Annott crag, near his adopted home in France.
With runout 8b+ climbing above tricky gear, it weighed in at E10 on the British trad scale. Top British climber, Steve McClure, thought it sounded right up his street and went to have a look.
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[@teamBMCTV]

Heading off on your own rock trip abroad? Take BMC Travel Insurance with you. GET A QUOTE: thebmc.co.uk/insurance All profits from our travel insurance policies go straight back to the BMC to continue our great work on behalf of climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers.

[@gillesparez9119]

I'm tired today, so I'll just send a hard trad route on my first lead go, without even tying my shoes. Legend

[@mosheshtilman856]

Steve: "Im not a bold traditional climber".... lol man youre so humble. Love this one

[@kockarthur7976]

He has one of the boldest trad onsights in history, Nightmayer.

[@johannessporer]

and then he casually takes the biggest whipper you can imagine in Lexicon ;)

[@robiniapseudoacacia]

Great film. 13.50 my hands a sweatier than Steve's. I can't believe he managed to hang on there. What a beast of climber.

[@mikaelwerner1]

What an artist he is, Steve. Absolutely brilliant!

[@richedwards4590]

Beautifully filmed and super impressive

[@LoveAndClimbing]

2:20 "Patch Hammond -- Professional Belayer". Me too, Patch, me too

[@outdoorvertical]

Yeah, whats he ever done in Yosemite?😅

[@samhartfieldlewis5247]

He is amazing, great film also captured a lot of the feeling with it ✊

[@paulseabrook9338]

“Do routes that inspire you” “it’s not about the number” “trad brings another dimension” not exact quotes from Steve, but all things I have believed for decades that are echoed in this film! Good to have these sentiments supported by the great man. Also impressive survival instincts kicking in on the runout crux section, would have been a whipper!

[@connoregan2900]

The man the myth the legend!

[@greigseavill629]

I went and re watched the video of his fall on lexicon for a laugh after he said "he's not a bold climber"

[@daniellambden1842]

They should've edited a smash cut of that in

[@martinontherox]

Legend! Love the open shoes 😅

[@theruffiankj4164]

Yeah, what's all that about?

[@M0dElite]

@@theruffiankj4164 That's his trademark... He said in some interview that he would tie them if he tried to climb something hard :D

[@verticalglobe]

They fit so well it makes no difference... other than saving me a minute of tying.. imagine how much time I must have saved in a lifetime! Pity the Blanc not available anymore! Down to last few pairs now!

[@martinontherox]

@@verticalglobe 😂

[@GreenAlien2023]

What a gem our Steve is

[@danobable]

brilliant film, it's always a pleaseure to watch steve climb :-)

[@dougiebicker6458]

quality footage and climbing nice work guys

[@fredscratchet1355]

Bloody hell Steve you literally ran up that hard section at the top. I honestly thought you would fall there. Well done that was brilliant.

[@verticalglobe]

Not normal for me to answer to posts... but just thought I'd add, I totally didn't run up the top bit, and had a right wobble on the final crack. I'd not worked it much and went up and down a few times before committing but felt I really could have fallen at the final hurdle!

[@jimbailey9915]

Nicely done!

[@PD281161]

What a cool climber!

[@muttiplay]

One of my faves

[@justinmeighan9683]

Incredible

[@timiexperience]

“Wouldn’t say I’m an expert traditional climber”, has sent E11 😂

[@lukeglaister81]

Legend. 🔥

[@DrCrimp-sg5pb]

what a legend

[@BranwellHaworth]

Love the fact that Patch Hammond is described as a professional belayer. Good job he's never done anything in Yosemite or anywhere similar.

[@verticalglobe]

Ah that was totally tongue in cheek! He was absolutely cranking on the trip and did probably more hard routes than I did!

[@BranwellHaworth]

@@verticalglobe I know, but thought I would point it out to those less cognisant of the actualite.🤣

[@benpearsephotography]

Hard to fathom Sebastian Berthe recently flashing this climb...

[@adammacaluso2623]

Where is Steve McClure still getting blancos?

[@glynwilliams13266231]

Amazing stamina and ability

[@_bearbell]

What was that noise when he fell at @4:17

[@chance6952]

Nice send 👌

[@aranna_]

Can someone help me understand what the british grade means in relation to sport route grades. Is an e10 7a basically an 8b/8b+ normal route? Is that what the grade conversion chart is trying to say? Excellent video of an amazing climb. I hope to climb half as hard at 52...

[@itDTube]

This is a little bit oversimplified, but basically: The E grade refers to the 'severity' of the route, while the '7a' refers to the difficulty of the climbing. So a route could be really severe if there is very little protection, or protection is likely to rip, or there's a big runout (no protection) at the top. This can be the case even on technically easier routes, which is why you can get E4 6bs or something, scary route but easy climbing. Hope that helps (it's oversimplified but hopefully clear).

[@aranna_]

@@itDTube gotcha! This was incredibly helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to explain

[@highlyvenomoustoad]

Don't mean to muddy the waters here but the E grade does also take into account the difficulty of the route to some extent, no matter how good the gear is you couldn't have a E1 with french 8a climbing, and the inverse is also true, if the climbing us french 6b+ with no gear at all it shouldn't be given an E grade higher than E4. There are E4's with death falls and easy movement and E4's with good pro and harder movement. The E grade is an amalgamation of the difficulty and the hardness of the route, and the british technical grade (7A in this case) is the difficulty of the hardest individual move. Meaning an E6 6C might get a higher french grade than a E7 7A, as the british tech grade doesn't account for how many 6C moves in a row there are. Hope this helps :)

[@caedmonswanson2378]

​@E H So while this route is E10 7a, the French grade (difficulty of climbing) may not be 7a? Like if the route was all easy moves and one 7a move it might be french 6c, while if every move was 7a it could be french7c?

[@jordankatz4268]

So after reading all these thoughtful and carefully crafted replies, the short answer is "no, nobody can help you because it is fundamentally incomprehensible!"

[@Frodoswaggns]

Did he just rip a fart at 4:18?

[@goGOgetITnow]

He tried to stop the body rotating

[@brentnathan8069]

i was looking for this comment lol...and yes, yes he did

[@davidpaulcl]

You know you’re trying hard when you fart during a move

[@patrizioburicchi5037]

STEMEC...Number one

[@codygoldberg7463]

Lol I think I'll give it a lead go today. I needn't lace up my boots even.

[@fastoez]

With boots undone !!!

[@dannygrout92]

The Mac the myth the legend

[@BrunoAxhausen]

I have to say, seeing a technical monster like Sir Steve scuffle around for purchase like this (13:50 mark) scares the living daylights out of me 😵‍💫 those must be some shitty footholds 🥶

[@verticalglobe]

the problem was there were no footholds! I thought I'd just pull up and grab the jug... but when it came to it, what I thought was not quite so easy!

[@pauljepson1249]

Classic Steve; "I'm definitely not going to do it...", promptly does it. As soon as he realises he's lying to himself, he's going to be in big trouble!

[@theterrorwheel]

E10 with your shoe untied! 😳

[@chillpurr275]

wow.

[@MrMrEsquire]

@13:50 he didn't tie his shoes?!

[@DREAPADOIR]

What’s up with the rope to the side visible from 14:12 onwards? Is Steve clipped into it as a side runner or is there something else going on?

[@volodigital8875]

Hi David here the filmmaker. The rope you can see was for someone else who was trying the route on the same day. It was on the break after the first crux attached the the thread. We tied it off and moved it so it would impact Steve on the route. The lower camera position was compromised somewhat but because that footage was the send go i felt like leaving it in.

[@DREAPADOIR]

@@volodigital8875 thanks for taking the time to reply! It seems there is a draw connecting that rope to his lead rope? Or is he just clipped into the same piece/thread that’s on that in situ rope? (Great little film by the way!!!!)

[@volodigital8875]

​@@DREAPADOIR totally separate my man. Was just hanging around in space. Glad you enjoyed the film and thank you for the kind words.

[@glyndavies8195]

Hiya David @@volodigital8875 Great film of a superb climber on a wonderful climb. I also thought the same as Domhnall however. I have studied it several times now and Steve's lead rope is deffo in that draw, and as Steve climbs you can see it tugging the draw and moving the other rope. I assume that it would be one of Steve's pieces of pro anyway, it just happened to have the other climbers ropes running through it. It is clear as day though, that Steve's rope IS running through that draw.

[@perrydoig2872]

All I can see is that wide crack on the back wall. So tasty!

[@SpitalaGaming]

4:18 fart incoming

[@weedaviec]

shame they tried to drown it out with the background music.

[@nicolasjeannet1063]

Similar technique to Ondra's screaming, just let the wind carry you up I guess

[@volodigital8875]

Apologies but it's not actually a fart. More a gurgling grunt. I was there and have heard it many times in the edit haha

[@DhaneKay]

@@volodigital8875 idk. until we get smell verification, its a fart

[@masterpropper2485]

Speak about sh*tting your pants ...

[@paulmitchell5349]

Steve is strong.......................................... but time is stronger.

[@SilBol]

Steve “triky” mcclure

[@sobyeski]

Hold up! Patch Hammond, professional belayer! What is this? 😂

[@LoveAndClimbing]

0:40 "I wouldn't say I'm a real expert traditional climber. I'm certainly not a bold traditional climber". Bro what. I saw the Nightmayer and Lexicon videos, you're not fooling anyone

[@lennartvandenbossche5867]

did he fart at 4:18?

[@justinmeighan9683]

Professional Belayer? He is not a professional climber also?

[@outdoorvertical]

It's British sarcasm 😅

[@alexanderbonnet3494]

It seams, that in England it is more easy to stay slim… because of the „tasty“ Food…