Johnny Dawes is a British rock climber

Rock climbing

Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...

. He is famous for his dynamic style and often very bold ascents. His influence on British climbing was at its peak in the mid to late-1980s. Among his contributions is the introduction of two new grades to the British grading system

Grade (climbing)

In rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...

 for rock climbing (E8 and E9), and several new routes that are today still well respected.
In 1986 he introduced the grade E9 to the British grading system with a first ascent of the route "Indian Face" on the Welsh crag Clogwyn Du'r Arddu

Clogwyn Du'r Arddu

Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, on the north flank of Snowdon, is considered by many to be one of the best climbing cliffs in Britain. It is north-facing and comparatively remote . The name is Welsh and probably means "black cliff of the plough"...

, about which he wrote:

I went for the crux, the motion startling me like a car unexpectedly in gear in a crowded parking lot. I swarm through the roundness of the bulge to a crank on a brittle spike for a cluster of three crystals on the right; each finger crucial and separate like the keys for a piano chord. I change feet three times to rest my lower legs, each time having to jump my foot out to put the other in. The finger-holds are too poor to hang on should the toes catch on each other. All those foot-changing mistakes on easy moves by runners come to mind. There is no resting. I must go and climb for the top. I swarm up towards the sunlight, gasping for air. A brittle hold stays under mistreatment and then I really blow it. Fearful of a smear on now-non-sticky boots I use an edge and move up, a fall fatal, but the automaton stabs back through, wobbling, but giving its all and I grasp a large sidepull and tube upward. The ropes dangle uselessly from my waist. Arthur Birtwhistle on Diagonal, I grasp in cuts and the tight movement swerves to a glide as gravity swings skyward.

Other notable ascents include:

• 1986 Gaia, Black Rocks E8 6c (first ascent
  First ascent
  In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...
  
  )
• 1986 End of the Affair, Curbar Edge E8 6c (first ascent)
• Smoked Salmon, Bamford Edge
  Bamford Edge
  Bamford Edge is an overhang of gritstone rock that sticks out north of the village of Bamford, Hope Valley, in the English county of Derbyshire....
  
   E8 7b (first ascent)
• Face Mecca, Clogwyn Du'r Arddu
  Clogwyn Du'r Arddu
  Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, on the north flank of Snowdon, is considered by many to be one of the best climbing cliffs in Britain. It is north-facing and comparatively remote . The name is Welsh and probably means "black cliff of the plough"...
  
   E9 6c (second ascent)
• Angel's share, Black Rocks E8 7a (first ascent)
• 1990 The Very Big & the Very Small 8b+/8c slab (first ascent)

He is featured in the films Stone Monkey (1986), Best Forgotten Art (1994) and Hard Grit

Hard Grit

Hard Grit is a climbing film produced by Slackjaw Film, featuring climbing on gritstone in the North of England. It has won ten international film festival awards.-Featured Climbers:* Neil Bentley* John Dunne * Johnny Dawes...

(1998).

External links

• Official site
• About Johnny (old website)