UKC

What/where are the hardest trad limestone slab routes in the UK?

In reply to The Pylon King:

Ha - good question. They're not very hard, anyway - our stuff just isn't compact enough.

jcm

In reply to The Pylon King:

Aldery Cliff. Steepish, compact and fun if a little short. (Apart from the massive walk in!)

In reply to The Pylon King:

I'll kick off with this: http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=20448

In reply to The Pylon King:

Spot the Ball, Cove Quarry, E8 6c, Deverrrn

http://www.javu.co.uk/Climbing/NewRoutes/SouthDevon/Esoterica.shtml

In reply to Ally Smith:

Sadly common theme emerging here!

jcm

In reply to The Pylon King:

Asylum Wall at Trowbarrow? E5 to E7...

In reply to johang:

I always thought it a wall!

In reply to Bulls Crack:

A Wall?

In reply to Ally Smith:

yes that is certainly hard!

In reply to The Pylon King:

Barland quarry on gower.

In reply to johang:

A wall is what a slab often feels like when you're actually on it. Odd, that.

Mick

In reply to Mick Ward:

The difference between mostly on your feet and mostly on your fingers?

In reply to Ally Smith:

A Simon Young route - top man - bound to be desperate. Last thing I knew he'd moved away from the climbing wall at the farm. I wonder what he's up to now?
A real craftsman and artist. His earlier wooden climbing wall constructions at Bude were beautiful. The one in the silo looked straight from an H G Wells novel.

In reply to Graham Hoey:

Some of the slab climbs at sadly out of bound Staden are hard slab climbs really, From Welcome to Hard Times, Bicycle Repairman through to Paraplege and Wipe Out(tough at E3). At Aldery Cliff only Chance in a Marillion is a tough slab climb.

In reply to Al Evans:

To which I would add Terminal Trajectory at Warton Main, Al. Perhaps not the hardest limestone slab but definitely death on a stick I felt and well named.

In reply to Graham Hoey:


Building / running a new wall near St Neot, Liskeard called Magic Wood:

http://www.magicwoodclimbing.co.uk/

In reply to Mick Ward:



Cheers for the explanation. I felt it was more of a slab, when the footholds stayed put, but having fluffed the onsight at the bolt I guess my room to comment is somewhat reduced......

In reply to kingholmesy:

Thanks,
looks typical Simon joinery!

In reply to The Pylon King:
Maybe not the hardest but probably the best are at long quarry point eg Renegade, black ice and if you include sport shadow beast is one of the hardest

In reply to Mark Lloyd:
New route by John Wilson at Long quarry point 'Mustard Custard' some say 7c+ some say 7c, much more sustained and technical than Shadow beast which centres on one hard move.
(By new I mean about four years old....)

In reply to The Pylon King:

Daddy cool, E8 6c, at Carreg Y Barcud, North Pembroke has to be up there I would think. There is a direct finish waiting to be done too according to the guide... maybe that would be an E9 slab?

In reply to henwardian:


...is sandstone, I'm afraid, and therefore out!

In reply to Alun:

It's also a total walk in the park (pure difficulty wise that is, obviously quite dangerous!) I flashed to past the peg on TR and a mate flashed the whole thing on TR, and we're both a pair of punters. One of the great mysteries of the british grading system that it gets the same grade as Purgatory (Adam Watson's newish thing in northumberland.)

In reply to remus:


It doesn't. Neither route is graded E8. One is graded E8 6c, the other E8 7b. Both are (should be) graded for an onsight attempt.

Had you said "one the great mysteries of the british climbing system is that is even experienced and strong young climbers appear to misunderstand it occasionally", then I might have agreed with you

Incidentally, I seem to recall being present at the Barcud when Dave Pickford made the first ascent. He seemed rather relieved to clip the peg when he reached it.

Anyway, it's still sandstone, and so out of bounds for this thread!

FWIW, and despite being a limestone fan, I can't think of any really hard uk limestone slabs. As somebody said further up, Britain doesn't seem to have the right geology.

In reply to Alun:

Technicalities. To quote wikipedia (the source of all truth...)

"The adjectival grade attempts to assess the overall difficulty of the climb - taking into account all factors which lend difficulty to a pitch including technical difficulty, sustaindness,...for a climber leading the route on sight in traditional style."

The idea that, overall, daddy cool is just as hard to onsight as Purgatory is pure fantasy.

In reply to Al Evans: Two of those are crack routes and all are pretty easy really.

If you want the hardest pure smearing route on limestone it's also at Staden: Gary's "96 Smears" at E5 6c. No holds and no gear.

In reply to remus:

>


Who said it was?

In reply to remus:


To my knowledge, neither has been onsighted (I am happy to be corrected). Nobody would doubt that Purgatory is a harder route technically than Daddy Cool - but then nobody should expect that, given that one is E8 6c, the other E8 7b.

Perhaps, once you have led both routes, instead of top-roping them, you could come back and start a new thread about it? As it is, we are distracting others here, for which I apologise.

In reply to 3 Names:

3 names, well they both get E8, a grade which is supposedly meant to summarise how hard each route is to onsight.

Alun, James Pearson has onsighted Daddy Cool. Might be a while before I can start that thread, 8B bouldering is hard! I agree we are off topic, though. Back to the point...

In reply to Alun:


Perhaps because the hardest ones have bolts on them?

In reply to Michael Gordon:

I have found what i think could be an E8/9 slab.

The Indian Face of the SW

In reply to Alun:

Daddy Cool is only middling 6b, the moves (on toprope) are about the same difficulty as those on Beyond the Beyond (E5 6b), except you can't fall off.

The hardest limestone slab in pembroke is Noddy the Nubbin and the sensuous smear E5 6c/Fr 7b+. The bolts could be forgone safely at about E6/7.


Edd

In reply to remus:
Yes but of course the grade doesn't make sense if you only have half of it