[kingholmesy]

What about the leap across the zawn to the start of Dream Liberator in Great Zawn?  A terrifying jump to a small sloping shelf above the sea, known to have claimed at least one broken ankle.

Great to have done it - but not sure I’ll be rushing back to repeat it.

[cheque]

Cool thread Mark. 

no talk of lowering off please

Fine by me.

The way off the left hand side of gingerbread slab in Lawrencefield. Down the ledges that are now sadly very overgrown.  I used to be able to flow down it almost with my eyes shut.

One of the things I miss most about soloing is doing loads of routes at the same bit of a grit crag and scrambling down routes and descents with increasing fluency. There’s nothing like a big impressive cliff but I just love how a grit crag can become a scrambly adventure playground.

The chimney/flake descent on the right/east side of the Robin Hood's cave bit of Stanage.

This was the first that came to mind for me. Such cool moves and a Stanage rite of passage. A bonus of spending any time in that bit of the crag is watching/ encouraging beginners and old timers for whom it’s possibly the sketchiest thing they’ll do all day. I’ve never seen any myself but I imagine there have been some accidents on it!

I have seen a little kid break his arm on the Flying Buttress descent (not the bum-slide bit but higher up) and had to help him down the rest of the way and find his Dad. Tying in with a post higher up this thread I made the poor lad a sling from a dyneema, erm, sling and the little fucker immediately took it off and gave it back to me! His Dad was clearly so mortified at the imminent loss of his childcare/ climbing privileges that he barely thanked me either  .

Brimham must be the epicentre of cool descent routes, at least for grit (Font must surely have thousands but my memory of my only visit is very hazy) some have that all-important “this is going to be nails” factor before you commit to them too.

[TobyD]

The descent from the top of the main south face of chudleigh is a favourite of mine, well polished and interesting down climbing tree roots. Doing it a couple of times last year bought back good memories!

I was going to post some bullshit about my favourite being hobbling off the summit of El Capitan with a haul bag or something but how could I have considered it? 
The tree root descent route at Chudleigh is the only choice.  Good call.

[Duncan campbell]

What about the leap across the zawn to the start of Dream Liberator in Great Zawn?  A terrifying jump to a small sloping shelf above the sea, known to have claimed at least one broken ankle.

Great to have done it - but not sure I’ll be rushing back to repeat it.

I broke the heel of my foot on that jump... so thats at least 2 injuries.

[Johnny Brown]

Three Chockstones Chimney. Not seen BFA but the footage is on the DVD that you get with Memories of Dolphin.

It’s the same footage. 00:58 onwards:

Love this footage. When I was an Almscliffe local I discovered this descent myself and got it completely wired. I reckon I was quite a bit faster than Dolphin as I can remember the sequence, which was both more refined and dynamic, and had I sticky rubber trainers. Basically a very controlled fall, I could do it in under 2 seconds and regret never filming it. Had some amazing looks from people checking I'd topped out so they could start the roof, only to turn round to chalk up and find I was already stood there.

I must have seen the footage before but not knowing the crag it had meant nothing. Years later saw it again and was delighted, a real bond to a legend of the past.

Coming down the cables on Half Dome after doing Snake Dike was about as scary as the climbing! Bet you get 10x as many questions if you’ve just popped up off the Regular Route.

Was in Yosemite not long after the above and was really getting quite competent in tennies. Towards the end of the trip a group of us soloed Snake dike on a beautiful October day, just tennies, a chalkbag and a tiny rucksac with snacks and water. There was a slightly thought-provoking move on the second pitch but the rest was just a delight, especially the descent. I jogged in complete confidence down the outside of the cables with my left hand lightly resting on the handrail, to the appalled stares of exhausted yanks dragging themselves up the steps inside the cables.

Similarly, though not technical in any way, jogging down the steep path back of The Chief after the Grand Wall. I may well have been barefoot, but just perfectly tuned in, fluid movement, beautiful natural gorge, great route behind us, ears popping with the rapid altitude loss, beers waiting below.

[Paul B]

I can't agree on the Chief; far too many people coming the other way being overly congratulatory.

[mark20]

I was at Smugglers terrace a few years ago, Franco turned up at the top of the crag and ran/fell down a very steep grassy gully. It was later cleaned and climbed at HVS ! Really quite impressive. A similar line just to the left (I think) appears in his new film.

Is it true the old grit climbers used to practise running down Hargreaves Originals route at Stanage from ever increasing heights? 

[Fiend]

I must be a bit of a fanny as I'm not personally a fan of these awkward semi-downclimbing long-winded a bit sketchy descent sort of things including the ones listed. Bollox to the Desperation descent and Main Cliff too for that matter.

If it's not going to involve genuinely fun novelty, i'd generally like scenic ones, maybe with a decent wee trail, and a bit of sense of wonder when you pop out somewhere. I'm struggling to think of my favs tho!!

[jwi]

I must be a bit of a fanny as I'm not personally a fan of these awkward semi-downclimbing long-winded a bit sketchy descent sort of things including the ones listed. Bollox to the Desperation descent and Main Cliff too for that matter.

If it's not going to involve genuinely fun novelty, i'd generally like scenic ones, maybe with a decent wee trail, and a bit of sense of wonder when you pop out somewhere. I'm struggling to think of my favs tho!!

If you ever end up close to Gap you should do a route on Petit Rocher at Devoluy. You top out on a flat plateau and take a winding trail down incredibly scenic alpine meadows, then trough a forest and end up in a beautiful hamlet.

[Wood FT]

I must be a bit of a fanny as I'm not personally a fan of these awkward semi-downclimbing long-winded a bit sketchy descent sort of things including the ones listed. Bollox to the Desperation descent and Main Cliff too for that matter.

If it's not going to involve genuinely fun novelty, i'd generally like scenic ones, maybe with a decent wee trail, and a bit of sense of wonder when you pop out somewhere. I'm struggling to think of my favs tho!!

If you ever end up close to Gap you should do a route on Petit Rocher at Devoluy. You top out on a flat plateau and take a winding trail down incredibly scenic alpine meadows, then trough a forest and end up in a beautiful hamlet.

Wonderful

[andy popp]

Is it true the old grit climbers used to practise running down Hargreaves Originals route at Stanage from ever increasing heights? 

Yes - Alf Bridge and his development of the art of "controlled falling" down Hargreaves and the like (jumping more than running). I love the 30s, absolutely my favourite period in British climbing history.

[dr_botnik]

I wonder if these snow shoes would make the walk down from Cairngorm much much cooler? Just hope on the ski slope and wahey  https://www.snowfeetstore.com/pages/shop

[Fultonius]

I did a multipitch descent in the dolomites (falzerego pass?) down a series of trenches and tunnels from the war. Proper good. Think you might have done it too Will, the crag name escapes me.

Done that! 

Had a very memorable one also in the Dollies where my partner, who was much better as descending in trainers than me flew off at a rate of knots due to impending thunder. A few hundred metres of descent later #, I'm getting soaked through above a steep downclimb. He's standing at the bottom, wondering what's taking me so long as he's shivering madly in the cold. He had the rope, and, well, for me it was one slip and death. Was Not Happy.

One of my favourites is the downlimb off the back of the Home Rule Boulder at Dumby. I would not be the first to have got up home rule, before it slowly dawned on my that the descent is a steep, blind 4c! Now I have it wired it's a delight, but it's a bit harrowing 5m up, not knowing where to go.

Skiing pow back down to the midi mid station after, popping jumps off little bumps and rolls after doing the rebuffat terrey on the pelerins was probably more fun than the route :-)

Bum-slide trenches in La Grave.

I've suffered through many years of hating soling, especially in trainers...so most of my descents were of the less pleasant type, or at least I didn't enjoy them!