Steve McClure

Steve McClure, born 25 July 1970, is a British rock climber and climbing author, who is widely regarded as Britain's leading and most important sport climber for a period that extends for over two decades, starting from the late 1990s. In 2017, he created Rainman, Britain's first-ever 9b (5.15b) sport route, and by that stage was responsible for developing the majority of routes graded 9a (5.14d) and above in Britain. Although mainly known for sport climbing, McClure has also been one of the most successful British traditional climbers, and British onsight climbers (in both sport climbing and traditional climbing formats). McClure started climbing early as both parents were keen climbers, and by age 16 was onsighting E6. McClure did not take up British sport climbing until he was 24. He went from onsighting E6 to onsighting 7b (5.12b); within one year was doing 8b (5.13d) redpoints in a day; within 2 years he was doing 8c (5.14b); within 4 years, at age 28, he was doing 9a (5.14d). As a late-comer to sport climbing, McClure had mixed form in competitions, retiring in 2004. For the next two decades, McClure dominated British sport climbing, repeating the hardest routes of his predecessors such as Ben Moon's Hubble (8c+/9a), and Jerry Moffatt's Evolution (8c+), and developing Britain's first 9a routes. In 1998, he created Mutation, at the time Britain's second 9a (5.14d); but on its first repeat 23 years later was regraded to 9a+ (5.15a), Britain's first 9a+. In 2000, he free…