The Hard Rock Challenge

© Hard Rock Challenge
Ken Wilson's 'Hard Rock' series of books are the UK's ultimate tick list of British classic climbs. 'Hard Rock' contains 60 classic climbs from "Mild Very Severe to Extreme". Whilst many have completed all the routes in its companion volume " Classic Rock", only two climbers - Stephen Reid and Peter Hardman - have completed all the routes in Hard Rock, each taking 10 years to do so (read Stephen's account here).

This summer, two climbers - Rich Mayfield and Mark Stevenson - supported by Rich's wife Sam Mayfield (of Orange House fame) will attempt to climb every 'Hard Rock' route in 5 weeks as the ultimate Hard Rock Challenge. That's 22,000ft of climbing, 180 miles of walk ins, 4 ferry crossings, over 3,000 miles of driving and all at the mercy of the British weather. Perhaps it is good to be reminded that even during July, the driest month of the year, Snowdonia, The Lake District and the Scottish Highlands average 11-16 days of wet weather during the month.

This a charity event, as well as darn good fun for Mark, Sam and Rich. They aim to raise £30,000 for Mountain Rescue: split between Mountain Rescue England and Wales, and Scottish Mountain Rescue. You can make a donation by going to hardrockchallenge.org.uk and here to read The Hard Rock Challenge blog -hardrockchallenge.blogspot.com.

The Hard Rock Challenge is part of the Army Mountaineering Association's 50th Anniversary celebrations as Mark is a serving Captain in the Army and Rich served with 3 Commando. UKClimbing.com will be publishing detailed profiles of Rich and Mark in the future, as well as regular news updates, photos and despatches from the trio.

DMM have been confirmed as the main equipment sponsor of The Hard Rock Challenge and UKClimbing.com are on board as the exclusive online news reporters.

The start date has been confirmed as Friday 13th July.


This post has been read 4,569 times

Return to Latest News


22 Mar, 2007
How they going to do Deer Bield Buttress?
22 Mar, 2007
Are you offering Odds? Instead off asking for donations, why don't you take bets?
22 Mar, 2007
Mick, there is a broken link in the news section to the website. Guys, good luck, I was chatting to Sam and Rich about this last month, it sounds like a massive undertaking. Rich, you tried to tell us you were unfit when we talked to you last, you should be pretty fit by the time you've done all this! Phil
22 Mar, 2007
PPS If anyone is looking for more info there still seems to be more on the blogspot currently as the other site is under construction. http://www.hardrockchallenge.blogspot.com/
22 Mar, 2007
fixed. Thanks.
More Comments
Loading Notifications...
Facebook Twitter Copy Email