Ben Moon

ll and for all with an old used rope, jammers that they had tinkered with themselves and a single carabiner. At seventeen, he left for Wales hitchhiking and found himself by chance in the cliffs of Pen Trwyn where he finally met those he had taken as models: Andy Pollit, Jerry Moffatt and Martin Atkinson. “I was fascinated by the atmosphere. Everyone absolutely wanted to climb the most extreme routes in a new style (they made sure by planting expansion pitons) – it was a kind of permanent competition between friends! On weekends, Ben lodges with the others at the Parcelese cave, a filthy, goat-smelling lair, feeding on sandwiches, grilled potatoes and beans. His performance leaps forward, he goes from level E3 to E5 7. Although Ben enjoys climbing traditional routes such as the Right Wall, he is more and more passionate about extreme difficulties.

He was the first person to climb an 8c+ with the Hubble route at Raven Tor. At that time, Hubble was the hardest route in the world, including a crux equivalent to an 8B block. Ben Moon is particularly known for his openings of short routes and requiring a lot of power.

He also opened the first 8c, in France, succeeding routes that local climbers had failed to solve. He gave them names of French military defeats, such as Maginot Line ("Maginot Line") and Azincourt (Battle of Azincourt).

In 2015, at the age of 49, Ben Moon made the fourth ascent of Rainshadow (9a) at Malham Cove.