Pete Whittaker has done it again! Yet another gruelling challenge has crumbled beneath the grim, relentless determination of the UK's most masochistic mountaineer. Pete was back in Yosemite on another solo mission, but this time just one granite wall was not enough – he had his eyes on both El Capitan and Half Dome. Sarah Stirling reports. Read more »
Find out what it takes to become the first person to make an all-free (i.e. not using aid techniques) rope solo ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite in a day. Pete Whittaker tells us how he did it, despite only just learning the necessary techniques, and Andy Kirkpatrick explains why it's so amazing. Read more »
To celebrate Mother's Day, Sarah Stirling caught up with four climbing mothers to ask: how do you juggle climbing and motherhood? And to ask their kids: what are the pros and cons of climbing with your mum? Read more »
This epic 15-pitch, 5.13c (8a+) route, which graces the front cover of the Supertopo Big Walls guide, has lain unrepeated since Nico Favresse and Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll made the first ascent seven years ago. Impressively, Pete Whittaker and Dan McManus have both just freed every pitch while claiming the second ascent. Pete talks battling a snowstorm, waterfalls, the wet crux hold, surviving 'Guillotine Flake' and offers top tips on how to survive a week on a big wall. Read more »
Over 130 pitches of climbing up to E6 6c, 23.6 miles of off-road running between 17 crags and 22hrs 36mins of sweating. Who on Earth would want to climb all the Brown and Whillans routes in East and Western Grit in a day? Sarah Stirling talks to Tom Randall about his monster day out with Pete Whittaker on Tuesday. Read more »
Has this been the best gritstone season ever? Quite possibly. The last couple of months of 2013 has seen the boys and girls applying themselves more than ever before to Peak gritstone to produce endless cutting edge headpoints and flashes of the big routes of the last two decades. Read more »
'Offwidth crack': a phrase to strike fear into the heart of most climbers. Often painful and hard work, their murky delights have been left behind by modern climbing. But Tom Randall thinks it's time you investigated this almost-forgotten art. Read more »
Stanage, the gritstone crag that is the jewel in the Peak's crown, is 5 kilometeres long and bursting with fantastic climbs. The whole crag, from one end to the other, was once traversed by Ron Fawcett. It has never been repeated - until now! 16 year old Pete Whittaker describes the second ascent of Ron's legendary traverse of Stanage. Read more »
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