Video: Steve McClure climbs The Final Round (E8 6c)

• Friday 4th February 2022

During a warm, dry spell in late April 2021 Steve McClure made the fourth ascent of The Final Round (E8 6c) on Ilam Rock in Dovedale.

Ilam Rock caught Steve’s attention previously; back in 2006 he made the first ever on-sight of Eye of the Tiger, Ron Fawcett’s stunning line from 1982 on which The Final Round is heavily based.

After his ascent of The Final Round Steve said: “I’ve been meaning to try it for a while but things didn’t fall into place. But this year the weather has been amazing with conditions really good and I’ve been just gagging to try it.”

Steve abbed down the week before his ascent to inspect the whole line: “I could see it was my kind of climbing – lots of little edges, loads of features. I checked out the gear and then just had to get a belay. Steve returned with Hadyn Jones and warmed up top roping sections of the route.

After his first go send Steve said; “It was a lot more pumpy than I thought it was going to be.  I hadn’t really worked it [very well] so I was improvising as I went along. “

A short film, made for the BMC - with support from Petzl_official - has just been released.