A fun bit of Drone pilot work and camera operator near Glasgow at Dumbarton Rock. I hadn’t filmed this face since 1998 with the Nick Tarmey film Cutting Loose with a bunch of us including Dave Macleod, who’s route we were here to film that he did way back in 2006 and is still ranked as one of the most physically hard routes in the UK all these years later, a little break down and history of it below:)

Rhapsody (E11) – Dumbarton Rock, Scotland

Rhapsody is one of the most iconic and demanding traditional rock climbs in the world. Located on Dumbarton Rock near Glasgow, it was first climbed by Dave MacLeod on 9 April 2006 and became the first-ever E11-graded trad route in the UK. It follows the upper half of the famous E8 route Requiem, then pushes through a brutal crux with minimal protection and huge fall potential.

MacLeod spent over two years working on the line, taking multiple 20–25 metre falls in the process. The climb was filmed in the award-winning documentary E11 by Hot Aches Productions, capturing the intense physical and psychological challenge.

The route is 35 metres long and breaks down into three parts:

An easier lower slab leading to a small rest ledge
A sustained diagonal crack (shared with Requiem) with small wire protection
A desperate and bold crux sequence (around French 8c+ / 5.14c), with almost no gear and massive fall potential

What makes Rhapsody so infamous isn’t just the technical difficulty, but the seriousness. Falling off the crux results in huge falls, often past the resting ledge and dangerously close to the ground. It’s considered one of the most dangerous trad climbs in the world.

Since MacLeod’s first ascent, it has seen very few repeats:

Dave MacLeod (2006 – first ascent)
Sonnie Trotter (2008)
Steve McClure (2008)
James Pearson (2014)
Jacopo Larcher (2016)
Gérôme Pouvreau (2018)
Mathew Wright (2024)

Each climber has confirmed the exceptional difficulty and commitment required. Even years after the first ascent, Rhapsody remains a benchmark for elite-level traditional climbing.

In the words of Magnus Midtbø, who visited the route in 2024:

"Possibly the most dangerous route in the world."

We were here to possibly catch the newest ascent if all went well. Billy Ridal called Al Lee to say he felt he was getting close to being able to do it. So off we went to film it for Al’s Brotrock Films. Really interesting seeing someone do this route. I had seen Dave’s film and read his book where it features quite a bit. Billy comes from a competition background and by the sounds of the guys chatting hasn’t done masses of trad climbing. He said the route was definitely his style and he set about it in a very positive and keen way.

There were certainly a few huge whippers which I imagine pleased Al a lot as if he had just gone straight up it the story would not be quite the same lol. The thing that astonished me was hearing about people taking years to try and break those top moves on it after the very bumpy coverhanging crack below and trying to do such hard moves when tired and having to build towards it. Billy seems to be extremely strong for sure and I don’t know enough about it but I’d imagine the time he took is probably the fastest. So amazing effort and also amazing this route had stood the test of time since Dave first climbed it in 2006 the year Billy began climbing at 9 years old:)