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Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||
Born | [2] Leicester, England [3] [4] | 18 May 1963 ||||||||||||||
Education | St David's College [5] | ||||||||||||||
Occupation | Professional rock climber | ||||||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) [6] | ||||||||||||||
Weight | 10 st (140 lb; 64 kg) [6] | ||||||||||||||
Spouse | Sharon Wallace (m.2003) [2] | ||||||||||||||
Climbing career | |||||||||||||||
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First ascents |
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Major ascents |
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Retired | 1990 (competition); 2002 (general) [5] | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Updated on 16 January 2022 |
Jerry Moffatt (born 18 March 1963), is a British rock climber and climbing author who is widely considered as being the best British rock climber from the early-1980s to the early-1990s, and was arguably the best rock climber in the world in the mid-1980s, and an important climber in the history of the sport.
As a sport climber, Moffatt was one of the first climbers in history to onsight routes of grade 7b+ (5.12c), 7c (5.12d), and 7c+ (5.13a), and also the first in history to climb routes of grade 8a+ (5.13c), and probably 8c+ (5.14c). [lower-alpha 3] As a competition climber, Moffatt won several of the nascent tour events, and retired ranked first in the world. As a boulder climber, Moffatt was one of the first-ever to solve problems of boulder grade 8A+ (V12), and 8B (V13). As a traditional climber, Moffatt established some of the most intimidating routes at the time in Britain, which are still rarely repeated, and in particular, the Master's Wall (E7 6b) in 1983. [lower-alpha 1]
Moffatt was noted for the intensity of his training, and the co-development of training techniques now considered mainstream in professional climbing. In 1991, Moffatt opened Britain's first indoor climbing centre, "The Foundry" in Sheffield. He has written books on mental preparation for competition climbing.
On leaving school in 1980, aged 17, Moffatt began to immediately attract attention in the British rock climbing media with repeat ascents of some of the hardest British traditional climbing routes, most notably Ron Fawcett's Strawberries (E7 6b). [5] [7] Moffatt described Fawcett as a "massive legend", but that "by 1983, I was pretty sure I was climbing better than him in terms of difficulty. I looked up to him though and we never had any problems". [5] Aged 18, and living in an abandoned shed at Stoney Middleton crag, Moffatt started to establish his own test-pieces such as Little Plum (E6 6c, in 1981–82), [5] one of the hardest British sport climbing routes that had repelled all attempts to free it, and one of the first British 7c+/8a sport routes. [7] [8]
In 1982, aged 19, Moffatt travelled to the United States, where he repeated America's hardest routes, and did the world's first-ever flash of a 7b+ (5.12c) with Super Crack in Shawangunks, and Equinox in Joshua Tree. [5] In 1983, on returning home, Moffatt established his most dangerous traditional climbing route, Master's Wall [lower-alpha 4] (E7 6b) [lower-alpha 1] at Clogwyn Du'r Arddu. [5] In a later interview, Moffatt said, "At that time to be respected, you really had to be putting up really scary new routes. That was where it was at, in Britain at least. Master's Wall is probably where I risked most". [5] Later that summer, Moffatt focused on sport climbing, establishing Masterclass at Pen Trwyn, the first British 8a (5.13b) route. [lower-alpha 5] In September 1983, Moffatt travelled to Germany where he did the world's second-ever onsight of a 7c (5.12d) with Heisse Finger, and then went on to climb the world's first-ever sport climb at 8a+ (5.13c), The Face, in Altmühl. [11]
In 1984, on his 21st birthday, Moffatt flashed Chimpanzodrome at Saussois, and then did the world's first onsight of a 7c+ (5.13a) with Pol Pot at Verdon. [11] Later in 1984, Moffatt freed Revelations at Ravens Tor in the Peak District, Britain's first 8a+ (5.13c) route. [lower-alpha 2] [5] In June 1985, Moffatt did the first free ascent of the Yosemite's Lost Arrow Spire with Ron Kauk, as a live television event with an audience of over 30 million for ABC's Wide World of Sports . [12] During 1985 to late 1986, Moffatt was largely out with a compressed nerve injury (initially mis-diagnosed as tendonitis), that required surgery and rehabilitation. [5]
On returning in 1987, Moffatt spent the next two years repeating the three hardest 8b+ (5.14a) routes in France (Le Rage de Vivre, Le Minumum, La Spectre des Surmutant in Buoux), and in the United States (Scarface, White Wedding, To Bolt Or Not To Be in Smith Rocks), while also creating his own 8b+ route, Stone Love in the Frankenjura in Germany. [5] In May 1990, he returned to Pen Trwyn in Wales to create Liquid Ambar, Britain's first 8c (5.14b) route, and which has been regraded to 8c+ (5.14c), which would make it the world's first 8c+. [lower-alpha 3] [8] [14] Moffatt continued to travel widely, repeating Punks In The Gym 8b+ (5.14a) in 1992 in Australia, establishing Canada's first 8b (5.13d), The Big Kahuua, in 1993 in Ontario, and freeing routes such as Evolution 8c+ (5.14c) in 1995 at Ravens Tor. [5]
In 1989 and 1990, Moffatt concentrated on the emerging sport of competition climbing, winning ten international events over two years, and never finishing worse than fifth in any competition he entered. [5] He won the first-ever UIAA Climbing World Cup Grand Prix event that was held in 1989 in Leeds, [7] [15] and finished third overall, [lower-alpha 6] in the inaugural 1989 IFSC Climbing World Cup that concluded in Lyon. [16] In a 2009 interview, Moffatt noted that his initial competition form was poor until he began to study the mental side of competing, saying, "I found out how your mind works under pressure and immediately after reading that book I competed in Leeds and won my first competition". [5] The book that Moffatt was referring to was With Winning in Mind (1988), by American Olympian, Lanny Bassham. [4] [7]
In September 1990, aged 27, Moffatt retired from competition climbing and at that time was rated first on the Association of Sport Climbers International (ASCI) rankings. [7] [17] [18] On retiring, he was voted most prolific competition climber 1980s in the French climbing magazine Vertical. [2] [7] In his 2009 autobiography he said of his retirement, "I no longer had energy the energy to keep it all up. I wanted to get myself back again. I wanted to see my friends. I wanted to climb for myself. I wanted to do first ascents. Most of all I wanted to have fun". [7] [18]
Moffatt had been an early adopter of bouldering from the outset of his career, saying in a 2009 interview, "My early boulder problems weren't publicized, no one seemed to be interested in them at all". [5] In 1988, he solved Superman at Cressbrook, one of the first-ever 8A+ (V12) boulder problems in the world. [11] In 1991, Moffatt traveled to Yosemite and at Camp 4 solved Sick It at 8A+ (V12), and The Force at 8A (V11), two of the hardest in America at that time. [5] He returned to Yosemite in 1993, and added The Dominator at 8B (V13), considered one of the first-ever 8B (V13) boulders ever climbed. [11] In 1997, he climbed the 12-metre high Samson (E8 7b) at Burbage South, while technically the hardest gritstone route at that time, with boulder pads is now a highball bouldering problem at 8a (5.13b). [5] In 2002, on Stanage Edge in the Peak District Moffatt solved the long-term boulder problem The Ace at 8B (V13), the hardest boulder problem in Britain at the time, and effectively Moffat's last major new route. [5]
In 1996, Moffatt and climbing partner Ben Moon, featured in a film by Simon Tucker called The Real Thing, which is considered an important early film in the bouldering film genre, and featured the novel training techniques they were using (i.e. campus board-type installations) that are now mainstream. [19] The pair would feature in other bouldering films, including Stick It (2001), and Stone Love (2001). [20]
Moffatt is also known for his free soloing of challenging British traditional climbing routes, telling The Guardian in 2011, "You have to have an insane confidence in your own ability to go soloing". [21] In 1983, Moffatt was particularly active in pushing his limits, soloing Scarab (E6 6b) at Stoney Middleton, Right Wall (E5 6a) at Dinas Cromlech, and days before he climbed Master's Wall at Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, free soloing the neighboring Great Wall (E4 6a), The Boldest (E4 5c), and Curving Arete (E4 5c). [2] However, the death of his friend Neil Molnar, who died soloing that year, saw Moffatt scale back his soloing. [2]
Moffatt's 2009 autobiography, Revelations, written with co-author Niall Grimes, [22] won the Grand Prize at the 2009 Banff Mountain Book Festival, and was shortlisted for the 2009 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature. [23] In 2015, it was listed in Climbing magazine's "33 Must Read Climbing Books", saying, "If you ever want to be inspired to train, just read any chapter. What a hardman!". [24]
In 2017, Moffatt completed his second book, Mastermind: Mental training for climbers, focused on sports psychology for sport climbers, and built on the methods Lanny Bassham outlined (earlier). [7] [25]
In 1991, Moffatt and Paul Reeve opened The Foundry Climbing Centre ("the Foundry"), in Sheffield, and was the first of its type in the UK with leading, top-roping, bouldering, and interchangeable holds. [26] They were originally financially supported by Wild Country, who owned 51%, but Moffatt and Reeve later bought out Wild Country's share, and now own it equally. [4] [26]
Moffatt is widely considered to be the best British rock climber from the early-1980s to the early-1990s and was arguably the best rock climber in the world during the mid to late 1980s. In 2006, the BBC said: "Jerry is one of, if not the greatest climbers of all time, and his name is known and highly respected in the global world of rock climbing". [6] In 2009, PlanetMountain called him "one of the most successful climbers in the world during the 1980s and 1990s", and "Jerry Moffatt is, in short, a climber who like few others left his lasting mark, worldwide, on the early development of this vertical game". [5] In 2009, Jens Larssen of climbing website 8a.nu said "Jerry Moffat was probably the best climber in the world during the 1980s", [18] while Climbing magazine called him a "world rock climbing legend". [22] In 2011, The Guardian said of him, "That's Jerry Moffatt, once the best rock climber in the world". [21] In 2018, Gripped said, "Moffatt was the best climber of the 1980s and early 1990s". [27]
In a British context, Moffatt (and contemporaries such as Moon and Dawes) carried on the legacy of Peter Livesey and Ron Fawcett. [6] However, Moffatt (and Moon) soon reached the limits of what they could safely achieve with traditional climbing, and instead followed the continental European trend into bolted sport climbing, [5] and competition climbing. [6] Moffatt, and Moon, were also part of a new group of climbers, that included Germans Wolfgang Gullich, Kurt Albert, and Stefan Glowacz, [5] [27] who were using new training techniques (e.g. campus board, plyometrics), and embracing bouldering, to materially improve their technique and the standard of routes they could climb. [27] [28] In 2006, Moffatt told the BBC, "When I started climbing I wanted to do dangerous climbs, in my mid-20's I wanted to do really hard climbs with ropes, and then when I got to my late-30's it got shorter and I got more obsessed with trying to do the hardest move I could possibly do... It might be just one or two moves". [6]
Moffatt is married to his wife Sharon with whom he has two children. [2] [4] Outside of climbing, he is an avid surfer, a sport he took up while injured on a 1993 climbing trip to Yosemite [2] [4]
Moffatt was diagnosed with dyslexia at school, [8] [4] which led to his parents sending him to St David's College, Llandudno, a boarding school with a special programme for dyslexic children. [2]
In April 1987, his younger brother Toby died aged 21 in the United States (in his autobiography, Moffatt says that he named his climb Liquid Ambar after the tree Liquidambar – although Moffatt spells it as two words [1] – in memory of Toby, who was a keen gardener and wished to plant such a tree on his return to England). [2] [4]
Traditional climbing is a type of free climbing in rock climbing where the lead climber places the protection equipment while ascending the route; when the lead climber has completed the route, the second climber then removes the protection equipment as they climb the route. Traditional climbing differs from sport climbing where the protection equipment is pre-drilled into the rock in the form of bolts.
Sport climbing is a type of free climbing in rock climbing where the lead climber clips into pre-drilled permanent bolts for their protection while ascending a route. Sport climbing differs from the riskier traditional climbing where the lead climber has to insert temporary protection equipment while ascending.
Ben Moon is a rock climber from England. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Moon, along with climbing partner Jerry Moffatt, were the two strongest British rock climbers and were key pioneers in the development of standards in international sport climbing. In 1991, Moon made the first-ever redpoint in history of a consensus grade 8c+ (5.14c) climbing route with his ascent of Hubble.
Fair Head or Benmore is a 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) long, 200-metre (660 ft) high, mountain cliff, close to the sea, at the north-eastern corner of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The cliff's sheer and vertical 100-metre (330 ft) high dolerite rock face is shaped into distinctive vertical columns like organ pipes, which formed 60 million years ago when a sill of igneous rock was injected between horizontal Carboniferous sediments.
Fred Rouhling is a French rock climber and boulderer, noted for creating and repeating some of the earliest grade 9a (5.14d) sport climbing routes in the world, including Hugh in 1993, the first-ever French 9a (5.14d) sport route. Rouhling is also known for the controversy from his proposed grading of 9b (5.15b) for his 1995 route Akira, which would have made it the world's first-ever 9b-graded sport route; 25 years later, it was graded at 9a (5.14d).
Johnny Dawes is a British rock climber and author, known for his dynamic climbing style and bold traditional climbing routes. This included the first ascent of Indian Face, the first-ever route at the E9-grade. His influence on British climbing was at its peak in the mid to late-1980s.
Steve McClure 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.
Wolfgang Güllich was a German rock climber, who is considered one of the greatest and most influential climbers in the history of the sport. Güllich dominated sport climbing after his 1984 ascent of Kanal im Rücken, the world's first-ever redpoint of an 8b (5.13d) route. He continued to set more "new hardest grade" breakthroughs than any other climber in sport climbing history, with Punks in the Gym in 1985, the world's first-ever 8b+ (5.14a), Wallstreet in 1987, the world's first-ever 8c (5.14b), and with Action Directe in 1991, the world's first-ever 9a (5.14d).
Pete Livesey, was an English rock climber who raised the standard of technical difficulty in traditional climbing in Britain during the early to mid-1970s. Livesey was renowned for the intensity and competitiveness he brought to the development of his sport as well as a mischievous sense of humour, and during the mid-1970s, Livesey was regarded as Britain's leading rock climber.
Master's Edge is an 18-metre (59 ft) traditional climbing route on a gritstone arête in the "Corners Area" of Millstone Edge quarry, in the Peak District, England. When English climber Ron Fawcett completed the first free ascent of the route on 29 December 1983, it was graded E7 6c, and one of the hardest traditional climbing routes in the world; it remains one of the hardest gritstone climbs.
In the history of rock climbing, the three main sub-disciplines—bouldering, single-pitch climbing, and big wall climbing—can trace their origins to late 19th-century Europe. Bouldering started in Fontainebleau, and was advanced by Pierre Allain in the 1930s, and John Gill in the 1950s. Big wall climbing started in the Dolomites, and was spread across the Alps in the 1930s by climbers such as Emilio Comici and Riccardo Cassin, and in the 1950s by Walter Bonatti, before reaching Yosemite where it was led in the 1950s to 1970s by climbers such as Royal Robbins. Single-pitch climbing started pre-1900 in both the Lake District and in Saxony, and by the late-1970s had spread widely with climbers such as Ron Fawcett (Britain), Bernd Arnold (Germany), Patrick Berhault (France), Ron Kauk and John Bachar (USA).
Hard Grit is a 1998 British rock climbing film directed by Richard Heap and produced by Slackjaw Film, featuring traditional climbing, free soloing, and bouldering on gritstone routes in the Peak District in Northern England. It is considered an important film in the genre and regarded as a historic and iconic film. The film starts with a dramatic fall by French climber Jean–Minh Trinh-Thieu on Gaia at Black Rocks. Hard Grit won ten international film festival awards.
Adam Ondra is a Czech professional rock climber, specializing in lead climbing, bouldering, and competition climbing. In 2013, Rock & Ice described Ondra as a prodigy and the leading climber of his generation. Ondra is the only male athlete to have won World Championship titles in both disciplines in the same year (2014) and is one of the two male athletes to have won the World Cup series in both disciplines.
Malcolm Smith is a Scottish rock climber and competition climber who won the bouldering IFSC Climbing World Cup in 2002.
Ron Fawcett is a British rock climber and rock climbing author who is credited with pushing the technical standards of British rock climbing in traditional, sport, bouldering and free soloing disciplines, in the decade from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, and of pioneering the career of being a full-time professional rock climber. At the end of the 1970s to the early 1980s, Fawcett was widely considered the best and most notable rock climber in Britain.
Hubble is a short 10-metre (33 ft) bolted sport climb at the limestone crag of Raven Tor in Millers Dale, in the Peak District in Derbyshire, England. When Hubble was first redpointed by English climber Ben Moon on 14 June 1990, it became the first-ever climb in the world to have a consensus climbing grade of 8c+ (5.14c); and the highest grade in the English system at E9 7b.
Pete Whittaker is a British professional rock climber. He is one half of the duo known as the Wide Boyz, along with his climbing partner Tom Randall. Whittaker came to notability from crack climbing, including the first ascent of the world's hardest off-width climb, the Century Crack.
Barbara Zangerl is an Austrian rock climber who is widely considered as one of the best all-round female climbers in the world. At various stages in her career, she has climbed at, or just below, the highest climbing grades achieved by a female in every major rock climbing discipline, including bouldering, traditional climbing, sport climbing, multi-pitch climbing and big wall climbing.
Rhapsody is a 35-metre (115 ft) long traditional climbing route up a thin crack on a slightly overhanging vertical basalt rock face on Dumbarton Rock, in Scotland. When Scottish climber Dave MacLeod made the first free ascent in 2006, it became Britain's first-ever E11-graded route, and at the grade of 5.14c (8c+), Rhapsody was the world's hardest traditional route. It set a grade milestone in traditional climbing that stood for over a decade until the ascent of Tribe at grade E11-12 5.14d (9a) in 2019 and of Bon Voyage at grade E12 5.14d (9a) in 2024.
Jerry is one of, if not the greatest climbers of all time, and his name is known and highly respected in the global world of rock climbing