Steve McClure onsighting Nightmayer at Dinas Cromlech in Wales

If you want to get a feel for what it’s like to onsight a difficult trad route, this is just the right video. It documents Steve McClure as he tentatively tiptoes his way up Nightmayer, an E8 6c located on one of the UK's most famous cliffs, Dinas Cromlech above the Llanberis Pass in Wales.

McClure is one of the very few to have climbed 9b and his impressive onsight dates back to last summer. Were the route to be bolted, it would be somewhere in the region of 8a, but it isn't, hence the E8 6c grade. Many will remember this route freed by Steve Mayer for the massive lob Nico Favresse took back in 2008, embedded below. For the record, E8 has been onsighted a few times in the past. E9 never.

Link: Petzl, Marmot