I remember vividly looking down at the overhanging top pitches of the Long Hope Route thinking to myself ‘Shit!’ and being genuinely scared and excited at the same time… I usually have no problems with exposure, but here the 1200ft of air really hits your senses hard. Looking from the mainland the St John’s Head appears banana shaped, an overhanging headwall curves over the grassy bottom half of the cliff which slopes down towards the boulders and the sea.

Before heading out to St John’s Head for the first time I had a lengthy email exchange with both Dave Macleod and Paul Diffley trying to get to know about the location as much as possible. I thought I knew a lot and later it all became irrelevant… Back in 1970 it took Olivier Hill and Ed Drummond 7 days to climb the route, 40 years later I was hanging on a rope only meters away from one of the World’s best rock climbers who set out to climb it free in a day!

My plan was to document Dave’s successful ascent and if possible (weather permitting) re-shoot the final headwall crux pitch. It may sound simple, but in fact all I could do is prepare myself for the unknown. How soon Dave could succeed on the route was a big unknown and the Scottish weather was not improving the odds. Right from the beginning everything about this trip was special, being on an assignment from Mountain Equipment, shooting a Climb Magazine cover and at the same time working alongside Paul Diffley and the HotAches crew.