Steve McClure’s summer mission continues, at a pace, with a rare repeat of Ben Moon’s Raven Tor test-piece, Hubble (F8c+). Steve sent Hubble on one of the hottest days last week when humidity was well high and most people were reduced to thrashing around and complaining about the shocking conditions!

Steve’s success on Hubble is the first repeat of Hubble for some time; this despite the insane numbers of uber strong boulderers-cum-sport climbers knocking about these days. Climbed by Ben Moon in 1990, Hubble was reckoned to be the first Font 8b problem ever climbed. Despite being done nearly 20 years ago, the list of Hubble repeats is very short and entirely restricted to UK climbers.

Hubble has always been on Steve’s to-do list and he’s tried Hubble on and off ever since he started climbing super hard routes at the Tor in the late Nineties. Paradoxically, the poor summer weather (again!) this year has seen Steve spend more time than usual at the Tor and this as undoubtedly been a contributory factor to his success.

And the sixty four million dollar question – is it F8c+ or F9a? Well buy him a pint and perhaps he’ll tell you. Word on the street from those that have been on both Hubble and Action Direct, Wolfgang Gullich’s infamous Frankenjura test-piece of the same era, is that they are of comparable difficulty. Curiously however, Action Direct has been elevated to F9a whilst Hubble has retained Moon’s original F8c+ grade. Dave Graham, who has been on a hard route or two including Action Direct, thought Hubble to be worth F9a when he tried it last autumn. (Here's a link to my blog entry of Dave's visit to Raven Tor back in the autumn of last year - http://blog.keithsharplesphotography.co.uk/blog/Climbing/_archives/2008/10/16/3932489.html) Only time and more repeats, especially from our overseas cousins, will perhaps tell. Until then, who knows...

Steve on the crucial final difficult moves of Hubble...