Dave MacLeod is clinging on for his life. He is in a hold position, one which lends him two minutes to catch his breath and prepare for the final section of the hardest climb of his career.

One mistake, a minute’s lapse of concentration, and the game is over. “If you fell there, you would hit the ground before the rope actually came tight on the protection,” he says.

MacLeod is recounting the intricate details of what has been considered as the hardest traditional climb in the world. Situated high on Ben Nevis, Echo Wall is a 180 ft sheer cliff face. In June of last year, MacLeod had what he describes as a “perfect day’s climbing”. In an extremely tense 45 minutes, MacLeod conquered the wall, and with it, became the best traditional climber in the world.

Back in 1993, the MacLeod family moved from the hustle and bustle of the city to the outskirts of Glasgow. High-rise buildings and metropolitan life was substituted for wide-open spaces and this country’s extraordinary mountains. That’s where it all started.

“I just liked going out on my bike and really enjoyed exploring that area but then seeing the mountains and wanting to explore them, that’s what really took me into climbing,” MacLeod recalls.

At first, he began by meandering through the hills on his mountain bike. He then progressed to walking up the Luss Hills during the summer months. When winter came about, MacLeod, armed with a “wee roofers hammer” he found in his loft, took to the ice gullies.

“That sort of started me off in climbing rather than just hill walking,” he says. “The next step was that I discovered Dumbarton Rock which was somewhere else that I could get the train to easily. As soon as I found that I immediately became a climber and from then on I absolutely loved it.”

For his 15th birthday, MacLeod received a pair of rock climbing shoes and a chalk bag. He was free to explore. Going climbing most nights after school, the youngster became almost infatuated with the sport. In fact, it nearly lead to his expulsion from secondary school. “I wanted to learn the stuff at school but I really wanted to spend the daylight hours climbing then learn at night,” he says.

As he became more adventurous, MacLeod would spend his weekends testing himself on Dumbarton rock. At first, he found that his strength wasn’t sufficient for him to safely scale the rock. The teenager got to work. For hours every day, he would concentrate on his physical strength doing pull-ups and weights training, while running kept him physically fit.

Through this training, MacLeod formed an interest in the science of sport, a subject he achieved both an undergraduate and masters degree in at The University of Glasgow. Working on his climbing during the day and studying techniques of bettering himself scientifically, MacLeod was living for the sport.

“The science in improving climbing was just starting to get going when I started climbing, people were training but they were very much experimenting with different things and there wasn’t really an established wisdom on how to train. I felt as though I was learning along with that progression in the sport so that gave me a massive advantage.”

Along with the scientific side of his sport, MacLeod admits that mental training has become almost second nature to him. “It happens sort of subconsciously, it happens in the background but it happens constantly,” he says.

The Scot admits that the significant dangers he faces while climbing require him to be in peak condition, mentally as well as physically. When he started climbing, the routes he was completing were undoubtedly highly dangerous, however he admits that the climbs he has added over the years require ultimate fitness and concentration.

“You’re much more committed and that makes it a harder mental task, all the preparation comes before you start climbing. There’s no going back, you either do it or it’s over,” he says.

Speaking about the toughest climb of his life, the 31-year-old compares his preparation to that of an Olympic athlete. “You have to do a lot of waiting to compete at the highest level,” he says. “With Echo Wall it’s only in condition a few days a year so it’s even harder because you don’t know when those days are going to be, they could be any time between June and August.”

The confirmed hardest traditional climbing grade in the world is E11. On completing Echo Wall, MacLeod described it as being tougher than an E11 climb.  “I didn’t even give it a grade so no one really knows how hard it is,” he says.
 
The intriguing thing about the climb is the fact that, although the full ascent takes 45 minutes, the first third of the climb is completed in 120 seconds. “You can’t stop at all,” he says. “You can’t even think about it you just have to focus on the next move, the next move, so it’s quite committing in that way, if you fall off you won’t get away with it.”

Although he used a rope, MacLeod admits that the areas of protection are few and far between. It’s a slim margin between life and death, but that’s the risk MacLeod is willing to take in an attempt to better himself. The danger is always there, but MacLeod is somewhat philosophical about the risks attached to his sport.

“I have a lot of respect for the mountains; I think I had a really good progression. Going out myself and doing the ice and snow gullies, feeling like the winter mountains are quite intimidating, having wee slips and slides, you start to understand quickly the dangers involved.”

He describes his sport as a calculated risk: “At the moment that I climbed Echo Wall I felt that it wasn’t a huge risk n the grand scheme of things it was really quite a small risk but only because there’s so, so much preparation for that moment.

“If I’d tried to do it on any other day it would have been a massive risk and I probably would have fallen off. It takes a lot of respect for it to wait because you so want to do it.”

Most recently, the Lochaber man has been flirting with the biggest vertical sea cliff in the UK. St John’s Head in Orkney is a 1200 ft smooth cliff face. “It’s never been free-climbed,” says MacLeod. Although he admits that it is too late to attempt to climb it again this year, he will undoubtedly complete the seemingly impossible task 2010.

The 31-year-old is obsessed by the challenge of bettering himself. MacLeod talks, writes, eats and sleeps climbing. Not content with being considered the best in the world, he will continue to find more challenging routes, from which he can cling on for his life.

IC
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Photographs courtesy of Claire MacLeod