John started climbing at the age of 10 on the local cliffs close to his home in Bradford West Yorkshire. He then went on to establish a series of World class new routes including the first route to be graded 8b in Britain, Magnetic Fields at Malham Cove and the hardest route on gritstone at the time, New Statesman E8, 7a at Ilkley Yorkshire in 1987.
In 1987 John competed internationally placing 2nd at the Troubat World cup in France.
In 1989 he climbed the now legendary prow at Burbage South, Derbyshire to produce Parthian Shot the first true E9 on gritstone, which remained unrepeated alongside New Statesman for almost a decade.
During the nineties John climbed many new routes in the UK and Europe and continued to push standards in both the athletic realm of sport climbing and the more serious discipline of traditional climbing.
In a career spanning over 30 years John has establish many new routes, climbed extensively in the Alps and visited many countries around the world on rock climbing and mountaineering trips.
John continues to climb on a regular basis and still has many projects and climbing trips planned for the future.
