Steve McClure - The Full Interview

Who's a climber you have respect for? Why?
Johnny Dawes. He’s in tune with the rock and can move so fluidly. Johnny is like an artist; he sees the rock in a different way to most people. Talking with him he changes the way you look at things and puts into words the feelings we get when climbing. The volume of new routes he did and the mark he left on British climbing is immense.

Jerry Moffat was always my climbing hero, though; he did everything and was the best at them all. He was driven to be the best and did whatever it took: training, travel, complete dedication. 

Why do you climb?
Not only to get to the top. If that’s the only reason you climb you should question your motives. Climbing is about the journey up the face. It can take seconds, minutes, days or years. If you ask ‘why climb rocks?’, it’s all about the movement and the flow, calculating the most efficient way to use only what the rock offers to move upwards.  ‘Why go climbing’ is a bigger question; sometimes the actual climbing is only a fraction of the experience. Friendships, travel, scenery — so many ingredients are all bound together by climbing itself. 

Why get up in the morning?
Now – to see my daughter, she’s 20 months and the most amazing person in the world. I didn’t want kids and stood my ground for ages. My girlfriend was keen and eventually it happened. I was so gripped, but she was right all along. I used to get up because I loved life, but now it’s so much more complete.

Who's the strongest climber in the United Kingdom?
Physically strongest or strongest overall? Strongest at getting up a climb? Tenacity, talent, and mental control are all essential for operating at a high level. Physical strength seems to have become very important recently. The public is impressed by feats of strengths because they can relate to them: 10 one-finger pull-ups are utterly out of their league, but they can imagine how hard that would be. Climbing hard routes is just somewhere out of reach, but it’s hard to grasp how far. Down the local wall, tales of strength impress much more than someone climbing an E9 or a 9a. There is no doubt many climbers are a lot stronger now than years ago, but I’m not sure they are actually better climbers.

Rich Simpson was physically the strongest climber in the UK recently, also a great all-rounder, but it was his legendary feats of strength that blew me away. Campusing 1-4-7 up and down on one finger and 17 one-arm pull-ups. His level of power made me feel completely feeble, but inspired me to get stronger, showing how strong a person could be and what could be done with it. I’ll never be anywhere near that level — half of it would do nicely!