Steve MccClure

From One Extreme to another.

Not an extreme route, not one E1 and on to the next. No, just a few days in my life that were funny. I was at the Castle climbing wall’s party at the weekend. It was pretty awesome. The wall turned into a nightclub with beer flowing freely and tunes of the trance variety, just as I like it. We made some sketchy shapes till after two then bailed to Audrey Seguy’s pad for a doss on the floor. Earlier in the night I’d given a talk which seemed to go well, I gave away a bunch of posters afterwards, and dumping them on the desk was pretty amazed to see a queue of about 70 people all wanting the poster ruined by me writing my name on it. I’m not the signature type really but did my best and wondered what it must be like to be a proper star.

Anyway I had to be asleep by three really, as I had to be up to continue route setting back at The Reeboc Gym where I’d been the day before. I had to be there early as there was lots to do. Today’s main job was hold cleaning, scrubbing each of the 400 holds individually under a cold tap. My hangover helped, I was glad of it for once, something to think about other than the boredom of being a scrubber. I worked till 10pm then slept in a cupboard so I could be up at 5am to start again. The staff there thought I was mad. One extreme to another maybe? Hardly, it’s just what we do, as climbers, its just stuff, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! 36 hours of work in 3 days meant I was out sledging in the snow this morning while everbody else was at work!

December 18, 2009 12:24 PM

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