UKC

The Top 20 UKC most popular winter climbs

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I was looking at the most climbed winter routes in the UK as measured by entries in the UKC logbooks. So if you ever logged an ascent you "voted" for the climb, or maybe this should be called the Top 20 popular climbs by those who log their routes - or a queue -lovers Top 20....
Anyway, in reverse order, with the number of logged ascents after


20 Comb Gully IV 438
19 Fiacaill Couloir III 443
18 Striding Edge I 458
17 Spiral Gully II 465
16 Point 5 Gully V 535
15 Aladdins Mirror Direct IV 539
14 Invernookie III 552
13 Goat Track Gully II 611
12 Red Gully II 612
11 Hidden Chimney III 620
10 Green Gully IV 646
9 Jacobs Ladder I 667
8 Curved Ridge II 702
7 Aonach Eagach II 763
6 Aladdin Couloir I 798
5 Ledge Route II 870
4 Tower Ridge IV 904
3 The Runnel II 935
2 Dorsal Arete II 1007
1 Fiacaill Ridge I 1134

No surprise that over half the routes are in Sneachda!
In reply to crowberry gully:

Great . Done all those.
 Ron Walker 26 Apr 2015
In reply to crowberry gully:

Thanks for sharing though most I'd expect there's a few I didn't - at least I know now what to avoid!
 veteye 26 Apr 2015
In reply to crowberry gully:

Done most of them.
I'm surprised that Taxus isn't in there,but I suppose that is down to being in condition less than the others.
I also thought that North Buttress might be in there(on the Buchaille)
What about the route up to Tower gap that I cannot remember the name of(beginning with G)?That always seems to have lots of people on it
Also Tower Scoop has lots of people on it whenever I am on the Ben.It may not be seen as a major route as it is not too long.
No doubt others will suggest similar routes that are not in there.
 veteye 26 Apr 2015
In reply to crowberry gully:

Just realised that it is not a list just of Scottish routes so am surprised that some Great End routes are not in there or those in Brown cove or Central trinity on Snowdon etc etc.
 Camm 27 Apr 2015
In reply to crowberry gully:

I think it's more to do with the fact that most of them are almost always in condition.
 summo 27 Apr 2015
In reply to veteye:

> No doubt others will suggest similar routes that are not in there.

Left or right twin sees a huge amount of traffic.
 Michael Gordon 27 Apr 2015
In reply to crowberry gully:

Basicallly apart from Curved Ridge, Dorsal Arete and Aonach Eagach there'll all either in Sneachda or on the Ben! I'm surprised there's nothing from Coire an Lochain but even that gets a fraction of the crowds that Sneachda gets.
In reply to veteye:
Comb Gully is no 20 with 438 logged ascents

Tower Scoop has 301
North Buttress on the Buachaille has 259
Glovers Chimney has 253
Taxus is a long way down at 151. I like Taxus but the list isn't about quality and I agree it is probably down to conditions.

Great Ends most logged route is Custs on 340
Helvellyn's (apart from Striding Edge and Swirral on 335) is Gully 2 at 227
Brown Cove's is Central Gully on 306
and Central Trinity, which seems to be Wales' most logged route is 354


Post edited at 20:45
In reply to summo:

I agree, I have queued in both Twins!
Left Twin has 271 logged ascents (compared to 438 for Comb Gully) and Right Twin on 185 is in 3rd place on Aonach Mor as Golden Oldy has 243 logged ascents
 planetmarshall 27 Apr 2015
In reply to crowberry gully:

> ...but the list isn't about quality and I agree it is probably down to conditions.

Well it is, popularity is about as democratic an indication of quality as you're going to get. People wouldn't queue for them if they weren't worth doing.
 Webster 27 Apr 2015
In reply to planetmarshall:

> Well it is, popularity is about as democratic an indication of quality as you're going to get. People wouldn't queue for them if they weren't worth doing.

yes but i think their point was that the rightly popular and 'great' routes in the likes of wales and the lakes are in so rarely in comparrison to shnechda and the Ben that they will inevitably see less traffic. doesnt make them any less good when they are in though.
 veteye 27 Apr 2015
In reply to crowberry gully:

Thank you for filling in the ones which I mentioned.It is one of those occasions when statistics are pretty interesting.

I suppose that following the rest of the thread, what we all should be looking at is a short list of really quality routes(and how do you decide who judges that-poss a certain prolific winter climbing new router found in Scotland-but then does he know the routes in the south?) which come into condition infrequently.Such would be the low level waterfall route down the road from Cader Idris and the really good Eas Anie.
Then those in the insider clique get an electronic nod that conditions are in and once given the prompt they try and mount a rapid response raid to the trendy ice-zone and bingo they are in the elite few who have climbed all the cherry ice routes.

OK so back to reality...
 Michael Gordon 28 Apr 2015
In reply to veteye:

That happens anyway! You've only got to witness the queues on the likes of Steall fall, Grey Mare's Tail etc when in nick.
 DannyC 29 Apr 2015
In reply to planetmarshall:

Not so sure about that! Granted there are some de(s)cent routes from Sneachda in there, but I think that their popularity might be more closely linked to convenience, accessibility, good SAIS/blog/UKC conditions info, and being regularly in condition - rather than quality.

Danny
 Offwidth 29 Apr 2015
In reply to crowberry gully:

Dont forget UKC is a subset of winter climbers (from people I know maybe around the order of 10%). . I could see quite a few routes moving a bit if you could compare everyone's climbed routes even if should include most of the most popular lines somewhere.
 Michael Gordon 29 Apr 2015
In reply to DannyC:

Agreed. None of these routes are popular because they're better than the majority of other routes.
 Root1 10 May 2015
In reply to Michael Gordon:

Perhaps the thread title should have been the best winter climbs rather than the most popular.
 Michael Gordon 10 May 2015
In reply to Root1:

I was saying the opposite - none of these are better than the majority of other routes.

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