3 July 2017

Mutation is probably also 9a+

Steve McClure put up the still unrepeated Mutation in Raven Tor in 1998. It is like an 8A extension to Evolution which 8c+ grade, at the time, was questioned. Mutation took another 21 days after having done Evolution in six days. © Keith Sharples - I just thought Mutation was more than a grade harder than Evolution but as it had also been called 8c, I thought 9a seemed appropriate. Today, I guess Evolution is considered as an 8c+ and has only gotten five repeats since Jerry Moffatt put it up in 1995. Having trad climbed for 20 years, Steve started sport climbing when he was 24. At 26 he made his first 8a redpoint and within a year he did Evolution and two years later the FA of Mutation. In total, without counting variations and link-ups, he has done nine 9a to 9b FAs out of which five are still unrepeated. Adam Ondra did the first repeat of four confirming or even saying that they are at the upper end of the grade. Several climbers over the years have tried Mutation, including brief attempts by Sharma, Ondra, Megos and Brit Pasquill but nobody has come even close. It is possibly time to call for an upgrade to 9a+. This would make Steve the second person in the world doing a 9a+ after Alex Huber but before Chris Sharma's Biographie.
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