Doug McConnell, 41, sends Coma Sant Pere (8c+)

Doug McConnell, who did his first 8c+ last year, has done Coma Sant Pere (8c+) in Margalef. The picture by Kerrin Gale is from La Rubia (8c+)

Can you tell us about your latest 8c+?
I’m always drawn to big routes so my mate, Amos, recommended I try Coma Sant Pere. He wanted to try Tierra Negra (next to it) so it worked well to session them together. My partner Kerrin, and I drove to Margalef in early February and I climbed straight on CSP. It was pretty daunting at first because its so big. Something like 50m and steep (45 deg+/-). After a few sessions of refining beta, I started working on linking each of the individual sections. The route breaks down into 3 sections, each about the same difficulty (8a+/8b), with good rests between. On day 8, I climbed from the ground to a few moves above the last (17th) bolt. It felt like it would go down in the next day or two but I didn’t make any more progress on my next 11 days! In the end I fell above the last bolt 10 times from the ground. Mentally this was hard. It felt like I was “punting” off the top because the climbing is quite easy up there, but actually my endurance needed a bit of a top up to get it done.

Finally on my 20th session I didn’t fall off. It was bizarre. I could shake out in all the moves where I had previously fallen off pumped out of my mind. It's that kind of route. It probably has to feel easy when you do it. About the grade, I consider this to be pretty close to a perfect style for me and I’m climbing better than ever so I think low end 8c+ is fair. CSP is one of the most beautiful routes I have ever done. I can highly recommend it!

What is your climbing background and how are you managing to climb your best at 41?
I started climbing in about 2000. Mostly Trad climbing and bumbling around Tasmania. I did bits and pieces of route development. I never did comps or anything and I still feel uncomfortable calling climbing a "sport"...but I started to get psyched on climbing harder on a year long trip to Europe in 2010. Since then I've always wanted to come back to Spain. I love the big steep routes that euro limestone offers. Australia has some amazing rock and routes but there is lacking quality steep rock. There are some great crags but the nature of the rock type and architecture makes the hard climbing quite specific and not that easy to "train" on.

I'm climbing better than ever now but there's no rocket science to that. I've never climbed super hard before so its easy to improve on that! Also, fingers crossed, I've slowed my injury rate by being a bit smarter but the main thing is that, surprise surprise, living in a van and climbing all the time is really good for your climbing.