21 Facts About Jerry Moffatt

Jerry Moffatt was noted for the intensity of his training, and the co-development of training techniques now considered mainstream in professional climbing.

In 1991, Jerry Moffatt opened Britain's first indoor climbing centre, "The Foundry" in Sheffield.

Jerry Moffatt has written books on mental preparation for competition climbing.

On leaving school in 1980, aged 17, Jerry Moffatt began to immediately attract attention in the British rock climbing media with repeat ascents of some of the hardest British traditional climbing routes, most notably Ron Fawcett's Strawberries.

In 1983, on returning home, Jerry Moffatt established his most dangerous traditional climbing route, Master's Wall at Clogwyn Du'r Arddu.

In June 1985, Jerry Moffatt did the first free ascent of the Yosemite's Lost Arrow Spire with Ron Kauk, as a live television event with an audience of over 30 million for ABC's Wide World of Sports.

In 1989 and 1990, Jerry Moffatt concentrated on the emerging sport of competition climbing, winning ten international events over two years, and never finishing worse than fifth in any competition he entered.

Jerry Moffatt won the first-ever UIAA Climbing World Cup Grand Prix event that was held in 1989 in Leeds, and finished third overall, in the inaugural 1989 IFSC Climbing World Cup that concluded in Lyon.

The book that Jerry Moffatt was referring to was With Winning in Mind, by American Olympian, Lanny Bassham.

In September 1990, aged 27, Jerry Moffatt retired from competition climbing and at that time was rated first on the Association of Sport Climbers International rankings.

Jerry Moffatt had been an early adopter of bouldering from the outset of his career, saying in a 2009 interview, "My early boulder problems weren't publicized, no one seemed to be interested in them at all".

Jerry Moffatt is known for his free soloing of challenging British traditional climbing routes, telling The Guardian in 2011, "You have to have an insane confidence in your own ability to go soloing".

In 1983, Jerry Moffatt was particularly active in pushing his limits, soloing Scarab at Stoney Middleton, Right Wall at Dinas Cromlech, and days before he climbed Master's Wall at Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, free soloing the neighboring Great Wall, The Boldest, and Curving Arete.

In 2017, Jerry Moffatt completed his second book, Mastermind: Mental training for climbers, focused on sports psychology for sport climbers, and built on the methods Lanny Bassham outlined.

Jerry Moffatt is widely considered to be the best British rock climber from the early-1980s to the early-1990s and was arguably the best rock climber in the world during the mid to late 1980s.

In 2006, the BBC said: "Jerry Moffatt is one of, if not the greatest climbers of all time, and his name is known and highly respected in the global world of rock climbing".

In 2009, PlanetMountain called him "one of the most successful climbers in the world during the 1980s and 1990s", and "Jerry Moffatt is, in short, a climber who like few others left his lasting mark, worldwide, on the early development of this vertical game".

In 2018, Gripped said, "Jerry Moffatt was the best climber of the 1980s and early 1990s".

However, Jerry Moffatt soon reached the limits of what they could safely achieve with traditional climbing, and instead followed the continental European trend into bolted sport climbing, and competition climbing.

Jerry Moffatt is married to his wife Sharon with whom he has two children.

Jerry Moffatt was diagnosed with dyslexia at school, which led to his parents sending him to St David's College, Llandudno, a boarding school with a special programme for dyslexic children.