You don’t just find Ken Wilson’s classic UK semi-guidebook, Extreme Rock. It finds you. This rare collector’s item eventually fell into the hands of a perfect candidate to take on all 180 of Britain’s most challenging rock climbs.
James McHaffie, a.k.a. Caff, has just become the first person to complete this crazy list. The British trad climber finished this great tick list on Revelations (8b) at Raven’s Tor on May 26.
What started out as a book gift in 2012 became a completely bonkers idea. Caff realized that he had done all the climbs listed in the Lake District section and decided to proceed with the rest.
The challenges in Extreme Rock range from E1 to E9 and were right up his alley. Even so, some of those on the list, such as Indian Face, are so highly dangerous they’re dubbed death climbs. As a 19-year-old, Caff almost died on Master’s Wall (the easier next-door neighbor to Indian Face) when he ran out of holds. Revelations is one of the hardest of the 180 routes.
James McHaffie. Photo: Ray Wood
As a climber, Caff doesn’t do the popular or conventional thing. But he does have a knack for collecting technically difficult climbs. In the past, he has covered more than 100 climbs rated E7, including the Big Bang, the hardest sport climb in Wales, the Longhope, the hardest sea cliff in the UK, and the Meltdown, reportedly the UK’s hardest slab.
