The past few weeks in the UK have seen a veritable glut of hard ascents with some long-neglected routes finally getting their first repeats. Young gun Ellis Butler-Barker kicked off the action by making the second ascent of Ken Palmer's 'Brian' (8c+/5.14c) at Anstey's Cove, Devon. A short time later, James Mchaffie made the third ascent of 'Megalopa,' also 8c+, at Lower Pen Trwyn in North Wales. However, he wasn't done yet and shortly after he teamed up with Pete Robins to make the long-awaited first repeat of the Johnny Dawes slate route 'Coeur de Lion' (E8 7a). Johnny has been back in the news recently after a video from Wayne Sharrocks (www.waynesharrocks.com) showing him climbing no-handed at Stanage Plantation got a lot of attention on social media. From short trad to big alpine and our interview Piolets D'Or Award winner Aleš Česen.
Thanks very much to Tom Wright for the use of the footage of Ellis on 'Brian.' To see more from him, you can check out his Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Climbinginpajamas