[citation needed] He learned to climb at Helsby Crag in Cheshire and at age 21 made the first free ascent of Scafell's Central Buttress.
[6] The climbs he pioneered on the cliffs of North Wales in particular created a new dimension in the repertoire of the sport, tackling steepness, looseness and difficulty that had previously been dismissed as beyond the pale.
His exploits on water were similarly fearless, and included swimming down the Linn of Dee, near Braemar,[5] when it was in spate, and rowing alone in a heavy wooden boat across the Minch in midwinter.
He is regarded by many as "the finest of all writers about the sport [of climbing]",[citation needed] and his witty, stylish essays were acutely insightful about motivation and character.
[5] Edwards' climbing style was described by Geoffrey Winthrop Young as "serpentine and as powerful as an anaconda coiling up loose or wet overhangs, I had the conviction that human adhesiveness in movement could go no further".