Ben Moon has many accomplishments in his 40+ years of climbing experience, and one of the most significant is undoubtedly developing sport climbing as a discipline worldwide. Starting at the age of 7, at 18 he is now part of the elite of British and world sport climbing having climbed 8a routes Statement of Youth (video of his second ascent - 30 years later in the form of training).
In 1990 he became the first athlete to successfully complete an 8C+ route, climbing Hubble in Raven Tor, UK, which was later categorised as a 9A route. In those years, Hubble was considered one of the most difficult routes in the world, on par with 9A as Action Directe (the first officially declared 9A route), Germany.
Ben Moon in Hubble route in 1990.
In the early years of his career, he was totally dedicated to climbing and as he mentioned in many interviews - neither making money, building a career, girls or other distractions were his focus. The first thought was - where is the next place he should go climbing.
Alongside him on the crags is the other pioneer of sport climbing in the UK - Jerry Moffattwith whom they follow the example and draw inspiration from people like Ron Fawcett, Pete Livesy and Wolfgang Gullich. The two of them have many achievements together and have partnered for many years.
In the 1980s sport climbing was not as popular as traditional climbing. Ben chose the competitive spirit and bouldering because he was attracted to the challenge of tackling different problems and difficulties on the crags. When the risk of losing his life was less, it motivated him to test his strength and abilities to the limit.
“The challenge is how many difficult movements I can do or how many complex movements I can combine at once.” - in an interview with Freakclimbing, 2004
Since the end of his sporting career in 2003 Ben has continued to climb, but as he shares in company blog for his sportswear - less often than he'd like, but he's never lost the form and spirit for new feats.In June this year, at the age of 49 (no less), Ben climbed his second 9A route, Rainshadow, in Malham Cove, England. 25 years after climbing the world's first 9A, Ben has done it again brilliantly.
He is the fourth climber in the world to climb Rainshadow, following Steve McClure (who started in 2003), Adam Ondra and Jordan Buys. Judging by Twitter his, this fall continues with the discovery of new routes, but has also focused on repeating some of his favorite locations as Ceusе, one of the most interesting climbing spots in France, where there are routes of varying difficulty and bouldering problems.
2015 is an interesting year for the climber and there are certainly many and varied stories to tell us at the festival in December (Challenge Days 2015). We continue to follow what interesting things are happening around our guest weeks before his arrival in Sofia.
Write to us in Facebook or info@predizvikatelstva.comif you have specific questions you want to ask Ben and we will do our best to get the answers at his lecture in Hall 3 of the National Palace of Culture.
There will also be prizes for the winning questions. =)