....the hardest route in the UK...
Enough puns Dave, this thread is getting a bit rhapshoddy.
Many? No. Some? Yes, certainly recently. None have had half this level of media attention though, which is the context this comment needs taking in. I can believe the headwall is foreshortened in that topo photo but it looks like an indirect finish about 20-25 foot long. Requiem is undeniably a classic line, this isn't.
IF I had the ability I'd rather slam my knob in a fridge door than put effort into something like this route, when compared to, say, Divided Years. Still, each to their own.
I'm just a bit bored of hearing about it all the time... esp UKC which seems to be in some sort of mastabatory article multiple orgasm mode with the route..
So if I'm after physically hard and reasonably well-protected trad-climbing, preferably steep stamina routes harder than French 8b, what other lines are there in the UK?
Quote from: jwi on June 18, 2008, 05:43:20 pmSo if I'm after physically hard and reasonably well-protected trad-climbing, preferably steep stamina routes harder than French 8b, what other lines are there in the UK?Mission Impossible in the Ogwen, a Neil Carson route though I do think it is mostly protected by pegs.That thin crack with a pinkie mono that Birkett did on Scafell East (Welcome to the Hard Times, maybe???)
Aye Welcome To Hard Times is an E2 at Staden. Good route actually but it's not quite 8b.
Quote from: Jaspersharpe on June 20, 2008, 08:25:03 amAye Welcome To Hard Times is an E2 at Staden. Good route actually but it's not quite 8b.Must well protected to get E2 if it was 8b tho! I think it is funny that folk reckon Rhapsody is overgraded. If you think about what Dave M has done over the last few years. First off he repeats two (three?) E10's (DY, Breathless & Slingshot thingy) in a few days and downgrades them all. He tickles his way up a few Birket E9's again spending only a few days on them. Does a megamonster E10 at Hell's Lum (watch the vid, it is proper scary) over a few weekends. All these grades are accepted.
Blind Vision took me three 1 hour sessions of top roping (curtailed by rain) followed by a lead in less than good visibility. It comprises of a highball (but not exceptionally highball) Font 7c+ or 8a, followed by an E8. But the boulder problem is hard enough to prevent a good proportion of E8 or even a few E9 climbers succeeding on it.My opinion is that an E10 climber should dispatch Font 8a no problem (if not Font 8b). And anyone who can climb the boulder problem should find the top wall pretty easy unless they have very little experience in headpointing.Other feelings… Blind Vision is definitely easier than If Six was Nine (which I have done the moves on during a 30 min session on the way home from Breathless). Its also easier than the Scottish E9s and I’d say it felt like 2 grades easier than Rhapsody. However, its harder than Breathless and Divided Years (but then they are E8s!).So these days I am getting more confused about the difference between the grades at E8 and above.
If DY and Breathless end up as E10s then Rhapsody might be the first E13. If I repeat all the E10s in the UK and they are all E8, I'll bring Rhapsody down to E9 or 10. Grades are not fixed they exist only in climbers heads, they can change.
divided years i hav heard from people who hav top roped the route is a 4star e8
Didn't Ricky Bell reckon DY was E9, not E8? Just to confuse things further.