Steve McClure, born on July 25, 1970, is a renowned British rock climber and author, widely regarded as the country's leading and most important sport climber for over two decades, starting from the late 1990s.
McClure began climbing at a young age, with both parents being keen climbers. By 16, he was already onsighting E6 routes. He didn't take up British sport climbing until he was 24, but quickly progressed, going from onsighting E6 to onsighting 7b within a year, and to 8c within two years. By the age of 28, he was doing 9a redpoints in a day.
Throughout his career, McClure dominated British sport climbing, repeating the hardest routes of his predecessors, and developing Britain's first 9a routes. He created Mutation, Britain's second 9a, in 1998, and Northern Lights, Britain's third 9a, in 2000. In 2007, he created Overshadow, Britain's second 9a+ route.
In 2017, at the age of 46, McClure completed his long-term project Rainman, Britain's first-ever 9b route. PlanetMountain described him as the climber who "almost single-handedly has dictated the pace of cutting-edge sport climbing in the UK."
While McClure is best known for sport climbing, he is also one of the few who have repeated the hardest traditional climbing routes in Britain. He has repeated routes such as Rhapsody, E11 7a, 5.14c R/X, and Lexicon, E11 7a, 5.14a R.
