UKC

Like the best pitch thread but getting really into the nitty gritty.

Not quite sure whether the question should be "best" or "most memorable" moves.

The "best" moves on trad routes will probably tend to more "memorable" than notable for sheer quality of movement. Bouldering and sport perhaps the opposite.

One which springs to mind is the dyno/throw move on Forgotten Wall (E5 6c) at Almscliff. One of those brilliant gritstone break moves: no holds above so get both your hands undercutting in the break, stick a high foot in and launch upwards! There's a similar move on Caesarian (E4 6b) at Hen Cloud but this time you're going sideways as well as up. Both moves have excellent protection to top it off.

Sounds similar to the balancy/dynamic stand-up to land on the big sloper of Stretch and Mantel (f6C)? Cool move.

Getting established by some weird palming and smearing on Daydreamer (E2 6b) is good. So is using the single, inconvenient hold on Cream Egg Eliminate (f7A).

The way people go on about gritstone is often unjustified, but when it comes to interesting moves, all the ones I've ever done have been on grit.

Gargling Crack (E2 6b) at  Earl Seat is up there. It's a flared, hanging offwidth. You traverse into from the right via a difficult sequence until you can hold the bottom right of the crack as a poor sloper. You then throw your body to the left, pirouetting as you do so, and catch the left hand side of the crack as a layback, which you follow easily to the top. That pirouette move is unlike anything I've done anywhere else.

The move to get across onto the saddle on Little Cham is very memorable at the grade.

Entering the hanging crack on Saxon (E2 5c).

Pool Traverse (f6B+) at Widdop has a pretty special sequence.

vimeo.com/152824108)

The pop on Who Are We Without Moon (f7A+)

The crux move of Kipling Groove

The crux on Moon Madness (f6B+) at Great Wolfrey

My logbook entry for Forgotten Wall

"Well, I climbed the wall between the two cracks without using them, onsight. And I even matched the guide description of starting on the left and finishing on the right, but what I did was no harder than E2 6a. Got to the very sloping break and traversed right to some crimps (someone on the ground shouted up that they remember seeing the FA pic in the old guide of Dave crimping stuff out right). Crimped up the wall just left of the crack at about 6a which is the totally logical eliminate line. Get home and look at my old hardback copy and see Dave Mus using the hold I used on the right and then going out left for something. How you're meant to know that this is what you're supposed to do without looking at that picture I do not know. Shite route."

Agreed re crux of Kipling Groove (the 'decoy' holds were so 'clever' it made me laugh when I'd done it.) Another stand-out for me was the crux of Vector on the Ochre Slab. I don't know whether I did it the 'right' way, but it was the only way that worked for me, after several attempts: an amazing rockover and pirouette all on one toe on a very small pebble of a foothold ... very little for the hands.

Interesting how many different ways there are to do the same route.

I remember Forgotten Wall being quite hard, but you do go quite a long way right on that slopey break.  There's some little crimps and I'm pretty sure there was no dyno.  The top felt quite scary as I only owned a single cam at the time (size three forged friend) which I'd put in the low break and had to run it out to the top.

The best move on grit is undoubtedly on Broomgrove Wall...

Almost all of my favourite individual moves are on unnamed eliminates at Hobson Moor quarry. I wonder what this says about my climbing?

Best move in the country for me was definitely the one my parents made when I was 10, from Slough to Bakewell

In fact, Slough to anywhere else would have been great!

Going over the overlap on Silly Arete using a foot jam in the crack at the back.

That is a good one.  Although the link led me to the photographs of several taller people than me doing a different one!

'Get a life' comes to mind!

The start of Kinky Boots at Baggy Point

Kinkyboots (VS 4c)

I think this is in the 'memorable' category.

Stepping down off the block on Piggy Bank at Neist is one that sticks in my memory.

Piggy Bank (E3 5c)#overview

How does that compare to Larn Streng? Does bubbles start standing and pull on with hands?

vimeo.com/30442964

Wings of Unreason (E4 6a) is always completely memorable as I’m not particularly tall. Otherwise, it’s a 1 move boulder problem at Curbar which I’ve been trying for more than a year.

The move into the pipe on Banzai Pipeline (E1 5b). Not difficult but very memorable. One of, if not the, best E1s I've ever done

The Jug (S) which is a fair bit easier than everything else mentioned but it has a single move that deserves 3 stars.

Dave Johnson’s ‘Move Of Truth’ at Broughton; probably.  

The shield on Coronation Street?

The Move on Boundary Corner, Great Wanney. The easiest route in this list but a very weird bulgy offwidthy move indeed, involving getting a heel in a bucket by your ear and udging upwards and outwards.

These are all memorable moved which aren't really moves (if that makes sense).

Swinging feet first into the break on BAW's crawl and doing an upside down caterpillar move before climbing out of the break.

Doing some 'extreme walking' along Scoop Connection at Lawrencefield.

Swimming up Desperation Crack at Brimham. 

Tiptoing along the tube of Looning The Tube before it fell down.

Campussing along that horn thing at Stanage Popular which starts and ends on the top of the crag but I can't remember the name

I tried a route called 'the birth of al' which is a stanage popular through route but had no chance of getting my fat arse through it. Very memorable though.

I love unusual routes and always try and seek them out. Admittedly they're probably not deserving of a best move award but are all great in there own way  

The last move on The Cracks, Dinas Mot.

Its a long time ago, but the moves on Via Vita in Ravensdale Via Vita (E1 5c)( a scary swing out right) and the mantelshelf on Sphynx Sphynx (VS 5a)at Wildcat come to mind.

Maybe not the best ever, but at the least, memorable, given my memory

Dave

The first speeding ticket I ever received was for exiting Slough, which I thought was a reasonable defence. 

A bit Peakcentric, but...  I was going to nominate getting on then off the block on Tody's Wall at Froggatt, but then I remembered BAWS Crawl.  Great move!

Not sure, long time since I did it!

Edit, yes think you're right.

Troutdale Pinnacle (S)

The last handhold. 

Agreed: Tody's Wall is quite exceptional. The move onto the block is interesting enough, and then the big move off it [qualifying for this discussion] is so perfectly pure (there is surely only one way of doing it?) And then it's still good! ... completely different again, the final crack also perfect.

How about - at that standard - reaching the last jug (or rather, the second last jug) on Tophet Wall (HS 4b)?

One that will always stay with me is the move across into the hanging groove on Fairy Nuff at Standing Stones. Got to be one of the best VS routes on grit.

Also memorable for me as it was my first time climbing outside so massive respect to Steve for taking me on that the first time he met a novice climber.

Tody's Wall, 2 ways of doing the move off the block.

Normal way straight up with high feet and hands on that flake groove thingy.

Other way swing one move right along break and mantle.

Move onto the block can also be memorable if you choose to grovel. And the final jamming crack, although easy, is superb.

Good shout.

It’s been over 20 years since I’ve climbed that route and I’ve climbed harder since but I can still remember the delight and relief at reaching that hold.

For the grade (E1) and situation (half way up a sea cliff on trad), the cut loose move on Billy Pigg is quite memorable. It'll never make the most beautiful move competition, but it is very memorable.

Deceased unfortunately

Well, I never knew that. I think I've done it about four times, and the only way off the block seemed to be right with that amazing mantleshelf (Harrison's Move, as we would have called it down souff.) I remember lack of holds forced you rightwards. Also, I've never seen anyone else doing it the 'normal' way that you describe.

Glad we're agreed about the final crack.

Attaining a standing position on the massive pudding stone of Stone of Destiny (6c+) is pretty cool.

Second that. That move is firmly planted in my memory.

Oak Tree Walk at Agden has a move where your weight affects your reach as much as your height does.

Are you mocking/trolling? I've personally witnessed around 8 totally different and clean/neat ways of getting off the block and over the lip, and I am not some rock-climbing obsessive so objectively you could probably double that number as I am likely to have missed a few possibilities. I've done it differently the three times I've done this route (twice seconding/top-rope, once leading)

As for getting onto the first block, once upon a time I had no issue with this and could not understand the fuss, to the point where I once got on it, reversed my move, and got on it again. I say this without boast, because the last time I did it I was like the typical salmon/beluga hybrid....

The rock up onto the quartz holds at the crux of  Troach and similar crux on the top pitch of Zeta ( which may be less enjoyable since the pegs rotted away)

Can't believe nobody's mentioned Valkyrie at the Roaches yet. You know the one. Getting off the flake and established with your feet in the horizontal break.

What an odd reply. Far from mocking, I was praising a good classic crux move (the point of this thread). I've just done a quick Google and in the three videos that come up each climber does the move in same way, just as I remember it:

youtube.com/watch?v=h__Mif399og& (at 1:10)

vimeo.com/98018612 (at 0:55)

youtube.com/watch?v=ajNLFnrYPOc& (at around 5:00)

All 3 of those are what I'd call the normal method.

Other method swings right and does a full mantle onto the sticky out bit where your right foot goes on the normal method. I think it was described this way in an old Froggatt guide (60s or 70s) or maybe in the Paul Nunn (but surely that would be too descriptive).

No idea where BS gets at least 8 from. Unless subtle differences in hand and foot position are counted.

Not if you do it the way I did!

The undercut move on Demo Route

Ah, so I misunderstood what you meant; and we are agreed this is the 'normal' way. The other way sounds like an odd means of avoiding the obvious move.

I can think of a few possibilities. For bouldering, I would go no further than Cuckoo Rock and Combeshead Tor on Dartmoor:

• Hanging Flakes (f6B) at Cuckoo Rock - a magificent layback off an arete with a foot smeared round the other side with a huge reach to an undercut -cum-layaway.
• No match for climb id:250817 at Down Tor (next door to Cuckoo Rock). Smear-tastic!

But for a single move on a route it has to be getting on to the belay at the end of pitch 2 of Suicide Wall (E1 5c) at Bosigran. Arrange the gear in the offwidth break, and pick exactly the right point to get a foot up and rock over onto the ledge. Get it wrong, and ... well one time I ended up squatting with both hands and both feet in the break, and the gear between my legs, wondering what I was going to do next (back-flip with pike ??). Thankfully I somehow made it onto the ledge. This move is one of the reasons why Suicide Wall is one of the really great routes.

Steve 

I know. Lives long in the memory though!

This is surely going to massively depend on how hard the person concerned found the move. But for me, 20 years after I emigrated and probably 30+ years since I first did it, Joe's Arête (Brown's Arete) (f6A) at the Roaches sticks in my mind for sheer beauty.

I thought that bit (shared with Gammy's Purse) was just nasty and the only thing putting me off doing the route again and again. A cam placed blind is the only thing stopping you from falling straight onto the gear in the block (when you'd surely slam into things below?). The rest of the route after that is pure joy!  

That's what you do after what he's doing in the photo. Getting the foot jam in allows you to comfortably remove one of the fist jams and move it round left into the break.

But what did Syrett know, eh?

No match for climb id:184080 is the most memorable move I've ever done. Just perfect getting stood up in the groove

Perhaps not the best in the country, but the opening sequence (from the swing until you get onto the nice ledge) of Whillans' Pendulum/Black Magic (HVS 5b) is very memorable if you're a semi confident HVS leader doing it unprotected.

Been thinking about this for a few days, but one move keeps coming back: a magnificent laybacking swing up on the superb flake at the end of P1 on Southern Rib in Dovedale, on a warm summer evening when I wasn't even sure I could lead HVS (as it then was) ... Ah, those golden days of youth!

Southern Rib (E1 5b)

Amongst the most memorable for me is the crux move of Holly Tree Direct (HVS 5a). For the uninitiated this involves traversing rightwards across an almost holdless 85 degree slab (?) to place your right foot around the edge of the slab onto a completely invisible ledge which may or may not exist. The move is so unlikely looking that many suitors set off further upwards into a kind of trap which is about E2 to escape.

Not how to land I would guess given he bust his leg on it on one attempt.

The move with the right hand going into the little triangular crimp on The Overhang (V5), followed by a deep Egyptian using the right heel. It's been 20 years since I first did it but it still sticks in my mind as the best beta and move I ever worked out. A close second is the cut loose from the toe scum on Breakfast (f7A), I fell off one move higher the first time I managed this move, and it took me almost 2 years to manage it again, fortunately managed to finish it off that time around.

Obviously there are loads of better moves than these but climbing is such a personal thing, right?

As far as I can remember, John Syrett did not break a leg falling off Joker's Wall. (I think I was with him on all of the several days he attempted this climb.)  But he did break a leg when a large block came off a climb at Ilkley and took him with it. He was actually very good at landing - rather like a cat. By contrast, I wasn't. On one of my falls from Joker's Wall, treating it as a boulder problem, my knee came up and hit my chin hard and I bit my tongue badly. I never did get my foot up like John in the photo, and (so) I never succeeded on that climb. Alan Rouse, who was also trying it with us, came close.

The jump at the top of Wings of Unreason has got to be up there (although you can spoil all the fun by smearing up).

Is the jump across the crevasse to get to the start of Dream Liberator allowed to count as a move?

Finally, I think the move on Piss at Higgar Tor where you have to flick your left hand from palming down to slapping the top is brilliant.

Having read your post I was beginning to think I’d just imagined the bit about John breaking his leg on Jokers wall. But a bit of googling came up with an article on Footless Crow. A Gristone Visionary in which it says about him just doing it head of Alan Rouse but that he’d broken an ankle on a previous attempt.

Really it was just a feeble attempt to bait Will.

It's OK, Steve. I appreciate that elderly pensioners whiling away their time in the Eastern flatlands need something to do to keep themselves occupied. I'm glad to be of service as a continuing source of distraction for you.

I'm surprised not to see many dynos on the list. The bringing together of legs pushing, arms pulling, getting the moment of release just right, and hitting the top just so is often a really satisfying feeling.

But what really good dynos are there in the UK? They're all squirreled away in Font aren't they? The best I've done there is Le Bond de l'Hippopotame which is about as close as you're likely to get to flying.

youtube.com/watch?v=IjgrlGJLdk0&

Sorry to disappoint you Will but I no longer live in the Eastern flatlands, that’s the advantage of being an elderly pensioner. 

You can move without the worry of how to get to work.

For most memorable, can I put a vote in for the escape from the second alcove on East Face Route (Original Route) (E1 5b), Old Man of Hoy? It's quite a feeling to swing out of the safety of the alcove with the best part of a rope's length of air between you and the crashing waves.

I was just about to, but thought I'd check no-one else had already.

I think the best/most memorable move/sequence I've done is the crux of Magic (E4 6a) on the East Buttress of Sron na Ciche.

How about sliding off the slab on Little Chamonix ?

In that vein, I nominate the bum slide free fall (particularly if you're short in the leg) getting off the top of Cubic Block at Brimham Rocks. 

There's a few dynos about, but jumping isn't climbing, is it?

Ntbta direct, deliverence just at the stanage honeypot within 1 second of thinking, there's others of note about on the grit... slipstones, Ilkley, Kyloe etc all have dynos which are well known. 

Slate and Wales I bet have even more to rival those.

Thing with a dynos is its binary. Yes feels good to make, but often just because you failed so often, or the consequences are great. Is the act of dying beautiful or just the making it memorable?

There’s someone somewhere actually operating the UKC spellchecker, isn’t there?

jcm

The top move on Assassin (HVS 5a)

EXPOSURE!

The elegant upward progress to gain the monolith. In Monolith Crack. A good leveller for grade chasers.

That move when you know it's in the bag. 

Valkyrie (VS 4c)

Or moving around the arête on Tophet Wall (HS 4b)

Great thread!

The rockover on Trackside (f7A) is pretty memorable, if not necessarily the best move in the country.

The top move on Weaver's Wall (E3 5b) is pretty fantastic though, however you choose to do it.

Top of Fan Fare (HVS 4c)

BAW's Crawl (HVS 5a)

Or

Verandah Buttress (HVD 5b)

My best move was the day we moved to Ireland.  Escaped the mortgage, rates, water bills, sewerage charges, got to semi-retire at 48,  and all the..........Oh!  I'm in the wrong section.....  Oh, maybe soloing Arrow route in the lakes and a little detour to knock off Napes Needle. 

What's good about that move is a huge, unexpected jug arrives. Unlike some other suggestions on this thread like Assassin (HVS 5a) on the Gower.

I always forget its name but that HVS (it was then anyhow) route ar Stanage where you climb down a slot and collapse onto the wall opposite and feel the holds that come to hand when done solo. 

Cleft Wall?

jcm

Standing up onto the top arete on White Wand.

No Cleft Wing, I've just remembered it