Pete Whittaker Faces Huge Gritstone Runout

He recently made the second ascent of Tom Randall's very dangerous Pure Now E9 6c

Aaron Pardy February 9, 2024

On January 19, Pete Whittaker made the second ascent of Pure Now E9 6c on Millstone Edge in the Peak District, U.K. Established by Tom Randall in 2014, the route follows the arete of Master’s Edge E7 6c before deking right onto a steep face of tiny holds. You can watch Whittaker’s ascent in a newly released Wide Boyz video below.

While still on the arete, the climber builds a nest of gear before continuing up the arete and then questing out onto the blank face. No more gear is available for the remainder of the route. For the first while – although it’s wildly runout – a fall wouldn’t necessarily result in hitting the deck as long as the belayer sprints backward with no slack in the system. In the upper portion of the route, however, the climb essentially turns into a free solo, as there is simply nothing the belayer can do to keep the climber from hitting the ground in the event of a fall.

Whittaker made a name for himself as a young climber establishing and repeating hard, dangerous routes on the Grit. “It’s a long time since I’ve done any runout headpoints on the grit, so it’s good to get the mind back in gear,” said Whittaker about his ascent on Instagram. “Wasn’t sure how I’d feel [to be honest], but after 3 headpoints last week, I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe that’s it for another 7 years, or maybe I’ll get psyched again.”

The past few months have been some of the best in Whittaker’s trad climbing career. In August and September he made first ascents of Eigerdosis 5.14b and Crown Royale 5.14d at the Profile Wall in Jøssingfjord, Norway. In October, he repeated Tom Randall’s Pura Pura 5.14b in Orco, Italy. In November, he repeated one of the hardest cracks in the United States, Stranger Than Fiction 5.14. Over the past couple of weeks on the Gritstone, he’s climbed Clippity Clop E7 6c, Pure Now E9 6c, The Zone E9 6c, and Zone Out E8.