[nik at work]

Well it had to be done didn't it?
Favourite routes at each grade. Two lists, one for those you have done (and for this thread you could have dogged, headpointed, seconded, whatevered the route and still count it - NO arguments fiend) and one for those you want to do (realistic or not).

(Apologies for the rocktalk nature of this thread, please humour me, I am sat at home with a broken hand and am very bored)

[Duma]

7c - Mark of the Beast, Lulworth
7b - Empire of the Sun, Ansteys Cove
plus anything else with 'of the' in the title

[dave]

i couldn't even begin to think of narrorwing it down to a single route at each grade. theres just too much good shit around.

[Stu Littlefair]

Done:

7a+ - Yosemite Wall
7b   - Empire of the Sun
7b+ - Obsession
7c   - Mark of the Beast
7c+ - The Ashes
8a   - Cider Soak/ Raindogs
8a+ - Overnight Sensation
8b   - Fishermans Tale
8b+ - Poppy

Not Done:

8a+  - Urgent Action
8b    - Austrian Oak/ Mandela
8b+  -  Cry Freedom/ Mecca
8c     - True North

How surprised am I that almost none of these are on peak limestone  :shock:

[Yossarian]

7b+ bistec de biceps

how did you break your hand nik?

[nik at work]

Stupid DIY really, drilling and the bit got caught so the drill span round and hit the back of my hand. Would have been fine/a bit of bruising but I was using a very heavy demolition drill so was lucky to get away with the one fracture.
4th metacarpal, radiologist thinks it's a spiral fracture but given the nature of the injury I think this is unlikely (although to be fair I haven't seen the X-ray).


We seem to have picked sport routes so I can only offer ummmm..

Well I've done Rubicon (7a?)

Which was, well okay I suppose...

[SA Chris]

I assume this is sport routes and, judging by the parochial responses, they are to be British? In that case I have nothing to report. Yet to do a memorable sport route on this island.

[Yossarian]

bistec de biceps is in spain.

please furnish us with your foreign flava...

[webbo]

I assume this is sport routes and, judging by the parochial responses, they are to be British? In that case I have nothing to report. Yet to do a memorable sport route on this island.

try going to kilnsey or chapel head scar.routes there hold their own with the rest of the world.

[BenF]

Obviously I am unable to possibly think of favourite routes of EACH grade.  That would require some kind of decent level of mental function or memory.  

However, I would like to go on and on about routes that I've done so here are some of my favourites (of various styles and locations) that I can remember in a short space of time...

Face Race (LPT) 7a+
Fidel Fiasco (Chamonix) err, 13 pitches and about 6c ish for the two crux pitches.
The Knife (Pex Hill) dunno, about E4 maybe.
Mr & Mrs American Fork (Wharepapa NZ) 26
Flashdance, Poetry Pink and almost anything on slate.  At each grade!  
Forsinane Motspur (Spelling?).  An underrated slate route at about 7b+.
Nexus (Dinas Mot) E2.  How's about that for changing tack?

Well that was random and nothing like the OP requested.  Oh well, I'll give some though to the "one of each grade" idea...

[Pantontino]

How about some UK trad routes (not that I've got anything against sport routes - unless of course they are in the Peak).

E6: Ludwig - Yellow Wall, Gogarth
E5: Citadel - Main Cliff, Gogarth (or possibly Rebel at Gordale)
E4: Pagan - Left Hand Red Wall, Gogarth (or Atomic Finger Flake/Void connection – Tremadog)
E3: White Wizard - Scafell
E2: Prophecy of Drowning – Pabbay (or possibly The Rasp at Higgar Tor, or Mousetrap at Gogarth)
E1: The Grooves - Cyrn Las, Llanberis Pass
HVS: Spectre - Clogwyn y Grochan, Llanberis Pass
VS: Cracks/Lorraine/Slow Ledge Climb – Dinas Mot, Llanberis Pass or Mur y Niwl/Pinnacle Wall - Craig yr Ysfa, Carneddau
S: Gambit Climb - Clogwyn y Ddysgl, Llanberis Pass
V Diff: Grooved Arete – Tryfan

[SA Chris]

try going to kilnsey or chapel head scar.routes there hold their own with the rest of the world.

Bit of a trek from Aberdeen. plus I would probably get sidetracked by grit on the way. Bit burned out regarding sport climbing by the time I got to the UK anyway, after doing nothing but for 3 years.

[Andy F]

7a - Mangoustine Scatouflange (Chapel Head)
7a+ - Nightglue (LPT)
7b - Wargames (Chapel Head)
7b+ - Space Race (Malham) or The first pitch of Pierrepoint (Goredale)
7c - Phantomzone (Chapel Head) or Serious Young Toads (Malham)
7c+ - Herbie (Malham)
8a - Cold Steal (Kilnsey) or Todal Recall (Malham)

Hmmm, another list with no Peak Limestone.

[Bonjoy]

Not including any foreign muck:
Done:

 7a - Cairn - Harpur Hill (great route at a shit crag)
 7a+ - Axle Attack - UPT
 7b - Twangy Pearl - Portland
 7b+ - Frankie - Kilnsey
 7c - Dominatrix - Kilnsey
 7c+ - Proud Whore - Raven Tor
 8a - The Thumb - Kilnsey
 8a+ - Albatrocity - WCJ Cornice
 8b - Austrian Oak - Malham

To do:

 7c+ - Jug Jockey - Cheed'l Cornice
 8a - Thormen's Moth - Thor's Cave
 8a+ - Supercool - Gordale
 8b - Mandela - Kilnsey
 8b+ Fuckin Mecca - the Tor

[Fiend]

Well okay then (subject to the usual disclaimer that it's impossible to narrow it down to just one). All stuff that's onsight led as it's meaningless to do a grade list of things you cheated up OOOPS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO SAY THAT WAS I...

Trad (unlike most non-panton people I don't forget there are grades and indeed routes below E2...)
D: Bosigran Ridge, Bosigran - mountaineering business but with a great juggy first pitch in it's own right.
VD: Russet Groove, Bowden Doors - just purely lovely climbing
S: West Sphinx Climb, Wainstones - a great little route, bold, exposed, on excellent and unusual rock.
HS: Right Angle, St Gurnards Head - this might have got in just because I soloed it, totally alone, at sunset, above a crashing sea, at the end of a great day....but it's a fine route whenever.
VS: The Edge, Loudon Hill - anyone who's done it will know why, exciting and exposed true knife-edge arete climbing.
HVS: Gallows Pole, Egerton Quarry - wall climbing at it's finest, bold and juggy then steady and technical, and good all the way.
E1: De Bruin Damage, Lion's Head (SA) - 60m of immaculate slab climbing on chunky chicken heads, true mega-classic.
E2: can't choose! - Something like: Half Life, Screda Point; Pressure Drop, Culm Coast; The Riparian, Wales; Suicide Wall, Wales; Grond, Wales; Supercrack, Wilton1; End Of Time, Denham Quarry; Five Finger Exercise, Cratcliffe; Plain Sailing, Leicestershire; Anvil Arete, Tilberthwaite; The Enchanter, Back Bowden; Klondyke Wall, Bowden; Glass Slipper, Black Crag; etc etc see what I mean...
E3: The Moon, Gogarth - "Only the best route in the universe", brilliantly epic feeling, Anni going very quiet and telling me she was so scared on one of the belays she thought she was going to throw up...
E4: Ceud Mille A Failte, Larbrax - perfect greywacke slab climbing at one of the most beautiful locations anywhere, bold and technical and intricate and everything.

Sport:
F4: Rockit To The Moon, Wharepapa - very nice route, good climbing and well exposed for the grade.
F5: Sands Of Time, Paarl - Brilliant line, brilliant climb, easy but top quality
F5+: The Fear, Sydney - Think this just scrapes in, it's got bolts in it anyway. See the name. Makes Gogarth seem tame.
F6a: Safe Playing, Froggatt - As fine an example of delightful ignimbrite pocket pulling as one could find anywhere.
F6a+: don't know - There have been some really good ones but I can't think of just one.
F6b: Ilsa De Encanta, Costa Blanca - Big adventurous two pitch voyage down by the sea. Cool climbing and a cool atmosphere.
F6b+: Any 21 at Castle Hill - Sorry I can't narrow it down, they're all too awesome. Think teethgrindlingly thin, eyewateringly technical, fairly bold and in a beautiful location, for all of them.
F6c: Falcon Steep, Wanaka - Indeed, very pure, gently steep crimping, "just right" really.
F6c+: Cedar Rouge, Cedarberg - Awesome location, awesome atmosphere, awesome rock, awesome route and awesomely steep. The scene of much bellowing and exhiliration.

[Pantontino]

I haven't been properly into sport climbing for years, but from the memory vaults:

7a: La Mangoustine Scatoflange – Chapel Head
7a+: Night Glue - LPT
7b: Frogsmouth Quarry thingy, can't remember name
7b+: Obsession - Malham
7c: Body Machine – Raven Tor (I had to pick one Peak route)
7c+: Mescalito - Malham
8a: Subculture (but only coz I haven't done Zoolook) - Kilnsey

Speculative (i.e. I've been on them/tried them a bit):

8a+: The Groove - Malham
8b: Austrian Oak - Malham

[r-man]

The fact that I've done so few routes makes it easy to make a list. So I'll do so with glee.

Trad:

(I've listed all the memorable ones, which means something went wrong...)

S - Tennis Shoe, Idwal slabs. Great. No incidents apart from a friend on a nieghbouring route dropping another friends rucksack, which avalanched bouncingly down the wall, spewing mobile phone, digital camera and clothes, to shouts of YOU FUCKING TWAT from the people halfway up the route below.The digital had a dent in, but was fine. The mobile was in pieces but worked upon reassembly.
HVS - Croton Oil, Rivelin. I felt sick before climbing this. Dehydration at the end of a hot day. By the top of the route I was happy again. Such a nice route. I think the hollow DONG as I knocked on the flake cheered me up the most. That and German Martin's scared FUCK! as he did the same on the second. On the 4 hour drive to Norwich I relapsed into that needing to puke feeling. For four hours.
E1 - Nonsuch, Rivelin. Got established on the fingercrack, then the one hand in the crack slipped out of the jam. I managed to run backwards slightly and rejam my fingers. Arrived at the top rather pumped.
E2 - Canine Crucifixion, Wilton 3. Managed to stand on my shoelaces during a footswap and untie my shoes, which made it memorable. And the crux was rather good, a boulder problem halfway up.
E3 - Telli, Stanage. Or however the helli it's spellt. Stupidly tried this with shoes that had holes in, thinking that the crux was the mantle. Doh. A perfect boulderers route though.

Sport

I did do a bunch of great sport climbs in Annot, but they all merge into one. So it's all english:

7a - Rubicon. Climbed up to the crux and (perhaps foolishly) decided I'd be better off downclimbing for a rest. Much effort later, I lay (as much as is possible) on the halfway ledge and stayed there for a very long time. Worth it for the onsight!
7a+ - Pyschic E.M.F, Blacknor? First time I got into redpointing, and properly gave it everything. Great fun.
7b - Want Out, Cuttings. Great route, annoyed I didn't manage it. Should have gone back the next day and finished it off. But got carried away playing on..
7c - Hall of Mirrors, Cuttings. I love the crux. For me, it was a dynamic rockover and then some slapping, up to a birlliant pull into a groove. Did it on a toprope, but ran out of time to go for the lead... Another for the wishlist...

[BenF]

7b: Frogsmouth Quarry thingy, can't remember name

Do you mean "The Big Stiff One"?  Straight up the second wall, passing stereo pockets early on then a dyno on the upper wall?  Final moves a little testing if I remember rightly?  More like 7b+ in my opinion, but who's quibbling?

A great route, about the best there (although there are some other very good routes too).  It's shame the gear in that place must be rotten through now.  Used to be a cool venue with some good views west across the industrial area (strangely captivating), the Mersey and to Wales.  Obviously the resident Scally crew chucking stones down at passing climbers was usually a little offputting too!!

[Paz]

Haven't done any truly outstanding E2s for a while, done quite a few where I was mighty pleased to have fought my way up and awarded my self a pat on the back but they either weren't hard, weren't hard all the way up or were only hard in my imagination.  Will nominate Mercury at Carn Gowla for being the red and white est even though Tudor Rose was nice and sandy and white.  Regent's Street was good but it isn't white - I saw a guy on it yell "I hate routes" but you could tell deep down he knew was enjoying it really.  

E3 - Sunlover.  Cunning gear.  A liddle arete.  Sustained climbing.  No rests (until you could do with one).  Sting in the tail.  Beautifully orange and white.   Worth drooling over.

E4 - Featherles Biped.  There are (three) other (better) E4s at Avon but none of them are so obviously enticing, being the stunning immaculate shiny grey and white wall your eye's instantly drawn to above the picnic area.  Crazy ass body pumping weirdly strenuous half mantle things between non rest heel-on-other-leg-squeezing-below positions.  Suddenly you're glad you spent so much time failing on big blobby boulder problems indoors.
Ken Wilson called it a pathetic bolt route.  You've got to respect the man's staunch defence of traditional values, enthusiasm, writing and modest climbing ability but over this one point I have to say Fuck You Ken!  Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking when I was traversed out from the smallest of wires in a position from where even if no deck out (on to a belay ledge 50m off the ground) would result then a big slam would for sure, while I was giving it some on the first crux, that it was a pathetic bolt route.  You then have to remember how to sport climb, but it's a sporting climb not a sport climb.  Don't underestimate the other two pitches.  I'm not sure whether stepping left at the top was cricket but you're trad climbing again by then and stepped in from the right at the bottom anyway so I wasn't bothered.  It might have taken two bolts to make it a reasonable proposition but I'm glad the old guard never whacked their dirty rusty pegs into this one.

[Andy Harris]

Favourite routes done

E1
Kachoong – Arrapiles – Oz
Outrageous for E1, what a photo opportunity.

E2
The Rasp – Higgar Tor – UK
Steep trad gritstone, big & imposing

7a
Buff – Alaro – Majorca
Superb 30m of tufa, bolts gradually getting further apart, crux last move.

8a+
Revelations – RavenTor – UK
Desperate start, undercuts, crimps, arete, slab, scary runout, one of the most famous routes in the world, and a Jerry Moffat tick to boot. Legendary.

8b+
Stonelove – Eldorado – Frankenjura
Short as hard routes should be, 2 clips, tiny holds, all out jump, saw a photo of it in a magazine in 1987 and was blown away with how hard it looked, finally got to do it.

Not Done

8c
Agincourt – Buoux – France
Ben Moon, OTE  18 center spread, the photo that got me into climbing and the urge to live in Sheff. I even wrote to him and he sent me a copy, but don't tell him!

8a
Orange Mechanique – Cimai – France
Nick Sellar's favourite pitch on earth, high praise in deed, it's gotta be good.

7c+
Serpentine – Tai Pan wall – Oz
Amazing crag, amazing line

enjoy

[Doylo]

E4 - Freeborn Man
E5 - Right Wall
E6 - Lord of the Flies, can't go wrong with the Cromlech.

7a - Buf, Mallorca
7a+ - Petite Illusion, Ceuse
7b - Super Mickey, Ceuse
7b+ - Bloccage Violent, Cesue, best 7b+ in France an so probably the world!
7c - I've been a bad bad boy, LPT
7c+ - Tenere, Ceuse
8a - Football Fan, Mallorca, immaculate route
8a+ - Overnight Sensation, Malham, proper good Malham route
8b - Melancholie, LPT - Awesome sustained crimpyness

Best route i've been on that i haven't done is Realization at Ceuse, thats worth a start or two!

[Fiend]

....
Trad (unlike most non-panton people I don't forget there are grades and indeed routes below E2...)
....

[Ru]

So I don't seem gradist, I start my selection at a crowd pleasing 6a:

6a, Pharon, Annot, France. 20 metres of grit-esque smearing up at bolted slab. Would be E7 without bolts. Awesome.

6a+, Reptile Smile. Portland. Not come across flowstone like it elsewhere.

6c, Something le Matin, Mazet Plage, France. Fully good. Looks at least 7b from the floor, with 20 metres of crozzly crimping up a slightly overhanging water worn wall, to finally reach some better holds (but not the hoped for sinker jugs) before getting scared when the holds run out up the slabby top. Feels like 7b when you do it too.

6c+ Grand Panda, Mazet Plage, France. This crag is really good for 6c-7a+ sandbags. I've never been so pumped as when I climbed this 30m wall of small tufa blobs a few years ago. Grimper magazine once rated it in the 100 best routes in the south of France.

7a+ Body Building, Gorges du Jonte, France. 15-20 metres of 45-50 degree overhanging wall covered in football sized scoops. Lots of yarding, egyptians, gay-legs and heel hooks. The ground drops away beneath the crag so you get an ace felling of exposure above the gorge even though you're not that high.

7c Berlin, Ceuse. The best pitch I've ever done. Sustained climbing up a blue Realization – esque water streak. Varied moves that start off as being technical and get more basic the higher you go, to a final sustained crimpy section that pisses you off when you fall off going for the final jug after 27 metres of climbing. It ends by scooting up a lovely water runnel to a belay on a slab above a monster bucket. Perfect.

8a Bivouac Interdit, Actinidas, France. A short route with some perfect moves climbing the lip of a blue/grey waterworn cave, where the river has polished the rock into mirror smooth ripples. The actual climbing is on cream coloured blobs of tufa till you pull onto the head wall where there is a beautiful crux move rocking up onto an undercut rib, getting a drop knee and flicking to a finger jug at full stretch.

8a+ Revelations, Raven Tor. Another vote for the classic. The perfect top section is luckily protected by a font 7c start move that stops it getting polished.

8b+ Mecca, Raven Tor. Good moves, sustained, short, classic, but I can imagine other routes abroad and here that would be my favourite if only I'd done them.

[Fiend]

I start my selection at a crowd pleasing 6a

Not only that, you make them sound damn good too. You should be writing guidebooks or something....

[webbo]

7a clarion call
7a+ englands dreaming portland/hardy annual kilnsey
7b wyiwyg kilnsey/personal services malham
7b+sturgeon in cupboard cheedale/beginners wall that place in between
7c comedy kinsey/myrs hindley kilnsey
ihave done some s/r in france and germany fuck noes what there called tho

trad
e1 encore almscliff/grond wales /fern hill/cratcliffe
e2 quietus/black wall elim almscliff/scoop wall stoney/
e3 wall of horrors/westren front almscliff/twikker millstone/the swine wilton/requiem cratcliffe/jokers wall brimham
e4  moonwalk curbar/big greeny almscliff/wee dorris stoney/death nell roaches
e5 high noon caley/reticent mass murder cratcliffe/genisis eavestones /edge lane millstone
as you can see all short one pitch stuff.i don't like heights.

[squeek]

>hardy annual kilnsey

As a quick side note, we were going to try this the other day and in both our guides it's down as a sports route.  We could see a couple of bolts lower down along with threads and the lower off at the top, but couldn't see any bolts up the groove.  Are there bolts there, or do you use threads? (or secret option 3 I was looking at the wrong route, it starts left of and moves into the large groove, yes?)

[webbo]

bearing in mind i did this 10+ years ago i not sure how accurate my info is.i remember there beig some a bolt low down on the start then some threads and a wanky old aid bolt where it joins super direct.i failed on s/d years before cos i was too wimpy to trust this bolt.when you get higher there are bolts on the left of the groove,placed so you can't clip them from s/d.crux is last couple of moves not too hard as i managed to flash it after watching my mate fail on it.

[Andy F]

>hardy annual kilnsey

As a quick side note, we were going to try this the other day and in both our guides it's down as a sports route.  We could see a couple of bolts lower down along with threads and the lower off at the top, but couldn't see any bolts up the groove.  Are there bolts there, or do you use threads? (or secret option 3 I was looking at the wrong route, it starts left of and moves into the large groove, yes?)

Hardy Annual is a clip-up. The start is the crux, and quite bold to get to the big ledge (Only the one bolt), with nasty lob potential should you fluff clipping the first theads. After thats it's sustained, but quite easy. The gears is bolts (Off to the left of the route IIRC)/threads all the way to the top.

[Bonjoy]

Did HA a few weeks back, nice route, especially the groove bit. The only threads you clip are right at the start of the groove bit, after that its bolts out left all the way.

[Teaboy]

VS - Eliminate A would beat Mur y Niwl hands down if it was in Wales

HVS -Concrete Chimney

E1 - Unicorn, Glen Coe, did it the same day I did Space Walk, I wish I was still that fit. Hold on, that's not in Wales, I'd better say White Slab on Cloggy instead.

E2 - Equus at Gimmer has some pretty funky climbing on it but as it's not in Wales I'll have to go for Jelly Roll on Cloggy instead.

E3 - T-Rex, Gogarth a big day out.

E4 - I traditionally bang on about Hyndsight on Glyder Fawr but after "climbing"   the Skull last week I'll have to go for that.

E5 - Right Wall, predictable nut it realy is the best there is (and soft for the grade, which is really important!)

E6 - Hobson's choice and were it not for Jonboy allowing tainted ascents I wouldn't even have that - Lord

UK Sports:

7a Cairn, who'd have thought!
7a+ Niight Glue
7b - Scared Rabbit, Thrang Quarry
7b+ Hamish Teddies, Craig y Bancar
7c Body Machine

[Fiend]

That you, Tyler?

[a dense loner]

E6 - Hobson's choice and were it not for Jonboy allowing tainted ascents I wouldn't even have that

good to see amongst all the great n the good that hobson moor still turns heads, mostly the other way but even so...

[Fiend]

Tighe's Arete is quite nice. That would be on my list of top E1s.....somewhere around number 485.