Famous examples of chipped routes/problems

[jwi]

Take it or leave it in Verdon is perhaps not famous anymore, as no one goes there nowadays

 

[Stabbsy]

I was always quite suspicious of Doubting Thomas at Malham, although not sure if it was a known Livesey indiscretion. The key hold on the crux seemed to me to be "a bit unnatural".

 

[Duma]

Cider Soak (created rather than chipped I guess)

There's loads of detail of chipping on slate here:
https://snowdoniamountainguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Slate_Historical_Section.pdf

 

[Teaboy]

The Cad was supposed to have been chipped

 

[TdG]

I guess Buckstone Dyno in a sense

Likewise Angel's Share etc.

La Balance at Cuvier would be one of more famous and egregious examples. Possibly Abattoir too. Funny old place Cuvier, full of chipped holds to make problems easier, and pokey eliminates and link ups to make problems harder.

 

[Johnny Brown]

Body Machine?

Definitely. I was pretty surprised by how blatant it was as it rarely gets mentioned vs stuff like Downhill Racer. The profile of Downhill is likewise hard to fathom once you've been to a few Yorkshire crags.

 

[SamT]

Scrittos? Wasn't Johnny vociferous about that one somewhere.

Out of interest, which is the chipped hold on Downhill. I cant see that they were 'all' chipped, so was it one in particular? The one you reach from the mantle.

Loads of JD's routes got chipped after he'd done them. Perplexity was one. What were the others?

Wasn't Hairless Heart another that was retro chipped.

 

[Stahl]

La Balance at Cuvier would be one of more famous and egregious examples. Possibly Abattoir too. Funny old place Cuvier, full of chipped holds to make problems easier, and pokey eliminates and link ups to make problems harder.

I think even some of the problems that don't look chipped at Cuvier have had a helping hand, putting divots into slopers etc. I think I was told the RH sloper, and possibly the starting rail of Berezina were improved.

 

[jwi]

I wonder if the curious pun La Bérézina/L'abbé Résina is an allusion?

https://www.expressio.fr/expressions/c-est-la-berezina

 

[Johnny Brown]

Out of interest, which is the chipped hold on Downhill. I cant see that they were 'all' chipped, so was it one in particular? The one you reach from the mantle

None of them are obviously chipped like the average yorkshire boulder. I've always thought it was the left hand hold in the break you start the crux off. But I'll give them a closer look next time (might be autumn now mind).

 

[cheque]

Yorkshire grit is full of examples but the Derbyshire and Staffordshire equivalents much less so. Were the latter much less climbed - more vigorously wardened perhaps - during the era when chipping was more accepted?

Black Rocks (developed much earlier than most Peak crags due to proximity to public transport and not being on a grouse moor) has lots of ancient chipped routes- Robin Hood’s Stride was popular during the same era and lots of the old routes and problems there are chipped too.

Staffs grit was developed decades later. Only three routes pre-1920s on the Roaches.

Another Livesey one is Guillotine- in his interview in the current guide Fawcett talks about trying it lots unsuccessfully but when he went back to it after Livesey’s FA he found there was a new pocket that enabled him to make the crux move easily.

 

[Bonjoy]

Scrittos? Wasn't Johnny vociferous about that one somewhere.

Out of interest, which is the chipped hold on Downhill. I cant see that they were 'all' chipped, so was it one in particular? The one you reach from the mantle.

Loads of JD's routes got chipped after he'd done them. Perplexity was one. What were the others?

Wasn't Hairless Heart another that was retro chipped.

Sad Amongst Friends was one of JD's that got chipped.

Yes Hairless Heart got chipped.

Both these lots of chippings got filled in.

My dad (he was a climber) told me that Joe's Slab at Froggatt was originally done by putting an old penny in a thin horizontal slot and rocking over onto it. Eventually this broke the top lip off the slot leaving a foothold that's now used instead. I've no idea if the story is apocryphal.

 

[spidermonkey09]

Is there something of an 'art' to chipping gritstone that means when its done it doesn't just leave a sandy mess? eg. the chip on the keel seems totally solid and not sandy at all, but all the newer chips at Robin Hoods Stride still look awful and exposed really soft rock 10 years since they were done. Is it just the passage of time?

 

[webbo]

Pickpocket and Kelly’s Eye at Stoney.

 

[Bonjoy]

Is there something of an 'art' to chipping gritstone that means when its done it doesn't just leave a sandy mess? eg. the chip on the keel seems totally solid and not sandy at all, but all the newer chips at Robin Hoods Stride still look awful and exposed really soft rock 10 years since they were done. Is it just the passage of time?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weathering_rind ?

 

[Luke Owens]

Drilled three finger pocket on Firestarter at Devil’s Gorge (Pantymwyn).

 

[ali k]

Never heard of half these routes/problems. Remus came up with a few international A listers but some of these are the equivalent of the line up for celebrity bake off :lol:

 

[i_a_coops]

Think it might have been in The Island vol. 1 that Dave Graham says the project on the Biographie wall (which I think became Mr. Hyde?) would be the first completely natural route on that wall.... Which would imply that Biographie has some unnatural holds?

The start boulder of Black Bean/Les Colonettes is unapologetically drilled (unfortunately by someone without much flair for route setting).

I've also heard that Action Direct originally had an easier line breaking out to the right but the pockets got filled in to force the direct - would be curious to know if anyone knows more about that.

Another A-lister would be the Jardine Traverse on the Nose. (Edit - duncan already got that one!)

 

[Wellsy]

Half the famous hard routes in the world are chipped from the sounds of it!

 

[jwi]

Think it might have been in The Island vol. 1 that Dave Graham says the project on the Biographie wall (which I think became Mr. Hyde?) would be the first completely natural route on that wall.... Which would imply that Biographie has some unnatural holds?

Originally Biographie did not have any manufactured holds. As I understand it, Lafaille bolted and "projected" Biographie specifically so that the line would avoid the fate of getting manufactured holds, in the same way as M. Le Menestrel protected Bombé Bleu in Buoux. [Source: J B Tribout, as quoted here https://www.grimper.com/news-un-probleme-taille]

I have never heard anyone directly claim that Biographie has had any manufactured holds added later.

I've also heard that Action Direct originally had an easier line breaking out to the right but the pockets got filled in to force the direct - would be curious to know if anyone knows more about that.

Are you sure you have not mixed that up with Wallstreet?