Climbonline.co.uk

Malcolm's Main Sponsors:

Current UIAA Indoor Ranking and results provided by Digital Rock.

Malcolm's Pilgrimage. 

Malcolm Smith has completed the big link at Parasella's Cave. After 10 trips, over 3000 miles of driving, and a tussle with a feisty Jamie Cassidy, Malcolm has finally enjoyed success on this longstanding challenge. In total contrast to Monk Life (Font 8b) Malc thought that the Vermin grade for Pilgrimage would be around V14 but that a route grade of F9a represented the overall effort better than a bouldering grade. See the pictures here. Watch the video at www.benmoon.co.uk. 

Malcolm Smith should sleep well tonight!   After all the talk about his trip to Cresciano with Andy Earl and Gaz Parry,  Malc has climbed Dreamtime (Font 8b+)  today. Malcolm got really close early on their trip but  then the weather turned too warm. Today it was just right. Cresciano Bouldering Guide here. Reported 7th February 2004

Malcolm Smith on Dreamtime, Photos by Andrew Earl

Its been a Monk Life!

After 10 years of effort Malcolm Smith has finally climbed his project at Kyloe in the Woods. A day after his 30th birthday the young broccoli eating tear away (who is now older, wiser and just a little stronger) has finally succeeded on his lifetime project. The Monk Life is no soft touch at Font 8b+.  Reported  October 2003

Malcolm Smith Interview

It was, with a degree of hesitation, that I plucked up the courage to call Malcolm. Knowing what he was like, I thought that he might not take to the idea of being interviewed. If Malcolm didn't want to do something, he wouldn't - it was that simple. I called him on his mobile "Hi Malc, it's Jo here, can you speak right now".

"Yeah, sure." A good start, he sounded chirpy, "I'm in Norway, bouldering on these amazing granite boulders."

"He told me he'd be out there for another week, then back for a few days, then jet setting off to America again. And after that he was moving back to Sheffield so I could catch up with him then." Jo 

Read more on scotlandonline.com

What Happened to the Young Ones? Malcolm Smith
by Adrian Berry on planetfear.com

"Do you think that the Young Ones Article altered the perception that others had of you? " Adrian

"I think it did give me a reputation for training hard, and eating broccoli! But that’s good, eh! It’s what I do, so I don’t mind that image at all." Malcolm Smith

"And tell me more about the boulder traverse Leviathan?" Adrian

"That was hard, it took me quite a while, but because it wasn’t a route there’s no height involved, no fear of falling off, and I could just go there on my own, not relying on belayers and stuff like that, it took me quite a while, but when I did that I was really fit, it was probably the fittest I’ve ever been. There’s two, there’s Leviathan and Lothlorian which has a slightly different finish, but they’re both font 8b’s or f9a." Malcolm Smith

Read more on planetfear.com

Freakclimbing.com   

At the beginning of 2004 you declared  "I see Monk life as a bottom end 8b+, only just scraping into the grade. It's a bit harder than some things I've done like The Ace which get 8b. I think in Britain we have a harsher scale than in Europe and there's loads of room in 8b+ for absolutely sick things which are harder than Monk Life. I can't see any reason to give anything 8c. That grade is unbelievable and I struggle to believe anyone around can climb it. We've got to be sensible about these things.") What did motivate your words?
 

"I just think that in Britain there is a slightly different scale, and a lot of climbers are really reluctant to grade really hard staff anything higher than 8B. They tend to be quite conservative in grading. I think that it is a totally different scale in grading perhaps. It seems than in Europe people are more ready to grade hard staff 8B+ or 8C. Just two different scales basically." Malcolm Smith
 

Read more on freakclimbong.com