UKC

Are there many hard bolted slab or vertical routes? Are those routes in the 8+ region mainly overhanging?

In reply to VPJB:

How can a bolted slab be hard? It might be technically difficult, but it can't be hard like a runout slab or a strenuous route, unless it is extremely sparsley bolted.

In reply to Al Evans:


Er... by being hard. You know... thin, sustained, sparse holds, big moves. Hard.

VPJB: Where in the world are you thinking of? In the uk the Welsh slate is going to be the most concentrated collection which isn't saying much.

jk

In reply to VPJB:

There are many on Welsh slate, the Very Big and the Very Small being possibly the most sustained

9a bolted slab on slate

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68261

In reply to VPJB:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=2627

Apparently the hardest slab in south Wales is a 7b+, but as others have said it worth having a look at N Wales slate.

In reply to jkarran:

But they are not properly hard are they? You just go up, try the move, you fall off a few feet, then you try again, how is that hard? Eventually you get up it, but it's not really proper climbing is it?

In reply to Al Evans:

Once you've repeated 'The Very Big and the Very Small' I'll believe that bolted slabs can't be hard.

In reply to VPJB:

There are a few hard slabs but they're relatively rare compared to overhanging stuff. I'd guess mainly because the holds get very small, very painful and very conditions dependent on hard slabs, none of which make them very fun to spend a lot of time working.

In reply to Al Evans:

I have distinct memories of you having difficulties on a slab in Kalymnos - it wasn't that the moves were hard, it was that you didn't fancy falling onto a cheesegrater !

On a later planet fear trip to Val Di Mello I did a very well named route called Self Control - with bolts every 8 to 10 metres falling off wasn't a pleasant prospect.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Chris, it was obviously unmemorable to me But frankly although I was always a wimp at falling off, bolts 8-10 mts apart are rare on most hard bolted slab routes.

In reply to Al Evans:

Yawn

In reply to Al Evans:


Modern routes, yeah, but 1980s designer danger bolted trad - that's a different story - look at most of the stuff on the rainbow slab for example. Raped by Affection has a 22m run out to the first bolt, then only one other bolt before the top of a 40m route! harrowing!

In reply to Al Evans:


Whatever you say Al.
jk

In reply to jkarran:

Thank you.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

I'd support Mello as the home to some hard slab routes (well - hard for me) that were bolted 'sportingly' to say the least.

I think the main man in the 70's was Boscaccio?. Seemed to have a policy of two bolts on the belay, one bolt 5 meters above that and then run it out to the next belay

But that's maybe not the style of thing the OP was asking about.

In reply to VPJB:

There are plenty of hard bolted slabs at La Pedriza (Madrid) up to at least 8a I believe. The ones up to around 7a are blank, the hard ones are blank AND steep!

http://www.pbase.com/chris_craggs/image/57379077


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:


And from what I've heard that's just the ones graded "6b"

In reply to AlanLittle:

On that shot I linked to the further right you go the harder they get - the route in the shot is F5+, and we got as far as some super-sketchy F6bs - and I like slab climbing,


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Several F8b/8b+s (including above the tree in your photo), there was also an unconfirmed F8c but in the recent Jen Randall video on EpicTV Talo Martin doesn't mention a F8c so maybe it went down - the video has Talo climbing a Pedriza 8b in it, there is also a video of him doing an 8b slab in Cavallers, Pyrenees.

Hard off-vertical pitches in Madagascar (Tough Enough?), Art Attack F8c in Italy (not *very* slabby though).

Obviously Al Evans is talking even more pure shite / very poor transparent trolling than usual.

In reply to Al Evans:


One for you to get your teeth into & fall off to your hearts content with definitely no cheese grater to affect your head.

Une sale affaire de sexe et de crime, location Enver lower slabs on the Mer de Glace.
Grade 7a at the time of the first ascent, upgradeable now, would be like climbing a granite kitchen work surface.
Rumour has it that there has been only one really true clean ascent using resin!
Jon may be able to shed some more light on this route??

In reply to walts4:

No, if I knew anything then I've forgotten it! It was equipped from above and the FA team was Bettembourg, Chenaval, Ghilini, Hopfgartner and Piola in 1983. I can't find my up to date Envers guide, but the 8O's one has a sort of cryptic note:

In reply to VPJB:

Another collection of slabs up to 8a in the Pyrénées: http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=19219

In reply to jon:

Fiction pure eh? Sounds as though they never climbed it!

In reply to Al Evans:


You talking about slabs, or sport climbing in general?

In reply to John2:

Oops, well spotted John!