UKC

I've decided I want to go for 50 HVS and up leads (to fill a page of the logbook when sorting by grade). Any suggestions for top quality HVS's to get done?

I'll start - The Happy Wanderer at Bamford, excellent.

In reply to JimboWizbo: Smashing is being used as an adjective in the thread title, for the record.

In reply to JimboWizbo: ok I'll start - Great North Road, Great Portland Street and Lyons Corner House, all @ Millstone.

In reply to ripper:

One gem that often gets overlooked is Rubberneck.

In reply to JimboWizbo:
Todys Wall because you'll need a rest after all the others

Also there is an interesting one at Stanage, I think it is between an diff and a vs and features a rightwards hand traverse followed by some nice face climbing. I think it has a sort of flowery name and is described as being easier for the tall. Possibly somewhere near Robin Hoods cave?

In reply to JimboWizbo: At the Roaches Valkyrie Direct, The Sloth, Saul's Crack, Wallaby Direct, Pebbledash and the Mincer.

In reply to JimboWizbo: Sunset Slab?

and any bets on how long before someone mentions TPS?

In reply to ripper: I'm vetoing TPS because I've already done it. Some good suggestions so far!

In reply to JimboWizbo: Mortuary Steps, Padme, Pendulum, Gangue Grooves, Nine Lives Wall, Cataclysm, Highlight, Ping, Conclusor

In reply to JimboWizbo: The Nails at Staden.... if we're ever allowed back on it

In reply to JimboWizbo:

The Blurter at Stanage High Neb
Croton Oil at Rivelin

In reply to JimboWizbo:

The Thorn

In reply to JimboWizbo:

Tody's Wall
Chequers Buttress
Chequers Crack (quiet at the back)

Stanage Popular has a host of tip-top HVSs

Rugosity Crack
Eliminator
Rusty Wall
Whillan's Pendulum/Black Magic
Goody Friday
Mississippi Variant
The Scoop
Swings
Greengrocer Wall
Butcher Crack
Pedlar's Slab
BAW's Crawl

In reply to JimboWizbo:
Good day to be had the roaches hen cloud.

Hen Cloud:
Delstree, Bachelor's left had, central climb direct

Roaches:
Matinee, the Mincer, Saul's crack, Valykrie Direct, The Sloth,

After that you have pobably mastered Grit HVS 5b and will eat HVS cracks for breakfast.

Yes, I know.. the sloth. but you have to really.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth: would that be rubberneck on one of the 5 clouds? if so its a good route!

In reply to JimboWizbo: Noting down all the ones I haven't already done, already got 39, should keep me busy.

In reply to Northern Climber:

Yes. Superb rock. Very pure.

In reply to JimboWizbo:

The BMC Moorland Froggatt, Roaches, Stanage and Burb Infinity graded lists are a good place to start. Rockfax is a bit more limited for options but also good.

In reply to JimboWizbo:

Two more superlative less-frequented ones are Legacy and Twisted Smile on Kinder North. (Midsummer routes.)

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Lagacy has a longish season Ive seen it done late spring and autumn. Its one of the few routes that gets a lot of traffic (as its piss easy for HVS on Kinder!)

In reply to Sankey:

Always thought Catastrophe Grooves was one of the "good value" HVSs.

Has anybody mentioned Original Route on High Tor?

In reply to JimboWizbo:

Well then, best organise some more trips to the Peak

Great North Road
Great Portland Street
Lyons Corner House
Rubberneck
Valkyrie Direct
Saul's Crack
Wallaby Direct
Pebbledash
The Mincer
Mortuary Steps
Padme
Pendulum
Gangue Grooves
Nine Lives Wall
Cataclysm
Highlight
Ping
Conclusor
The Blurter
Croton Oil
The Thorn
Chequers Crack
Rugosity Crack
Eliminator
Rusty Wall
Whillan's Pendulum/Black Magic
Goody Friday
Mississippi Variant
The Scoop
Swings
Greengrocer Wall
Butcher Crack
Pedlar's Slab
Legacy
BAW's Crawl
Delstree
Bachelor's Left Hand
Central Climb Direct
Matinee
Twisted Smile
Original Route
Catastrophe Grooves

In reply to ripper: Plexity

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Yes, did this again on Saturday. Harder than it was 10 years ago for some reason, but very good (and not as hard as Elastic Arm, for which I need to schedule a rematch and may not be a kind HVS recommendation!)

In reply to Dave Garnett:

Well, even about 15 years ago, when I did it, the crux seemed 'hard for 5a' Then, delightful, on the most fantastic rock.

In reply to Offwidth:

Sure, you can strike lucky, but I see Kinder North as v much a summer place. Long drive and longish walk-in means you want a good long day up there to get the best out of it. Yes, Legacy will be about the most popular route up there, but it's still a great exaggeration to say 'lots of traffic' Probably one hundredth of what the eastern edges HVSs get.

In reply to JimboWizbo: how about;
peapod, tower crack (just because I want someone else to suffer like I did), bond street, and a load of the silly little routes that get ridiculously high grades on Baslow edge (the average VS leader can quite easily solo them with a mat).

In reply to JimboWizbo:
If you "smash" 50 HVSs onsight before Christmas, I'll give you a fiver

In reply to JimboWizbo:

Queersville (stanage pop.) is fantastic

In reply to Cake: I chose the wrong word, see the first reply to the thread!

In reply to JimboWizbo:

a few extras classics to consider (I can't believe a few of these haven't already been mentioned) but great list so far,

ivory tower - kinder
mantis - roaches
freddie's finale - wimberry
the trident - wimberry
Priscilla Ridge - laddow
pisa super direct - shinning clough
east rib - "
herford's route - kinder
corpse crack - eastwood
zapple - yarncliffe
great crack - dukes quarry
tarrazza crack - stanage
great buttress - dovestone tor
suicide wall - cratcliffe
neb buttress - bamford
surgeon's saunter - stanage
congo corner - stanage
john peel - dovedale
beeston eliminate - beeston tor
green crack - curbar
eye of faith - gardoms (if you do the less good left hand start if not E1)

do agree with Offwidth comment that the bmc guide grade lists are a good place to star. Some great gems like The line, Benk, bramble crack, the helix, surform, david (burbage south) and leo(bell hagg).

In reply to JimboWizbo:
Knights Move - Burbage North
Meringue - Lawrencefield
Charlie's Crack - Burbage South
Deuteronomy - Stanage
Scoop Face - Castle Naze
Estremo - Millstone
Sorrell's Sorrow - Curbar
Maupassant - Curbar

In reply to JimboWizbo:
I suggest you check out Zapple at yarncliff, excellent three star Hvs

In reply to JimboWizbo: East Rib and Pisa Superdirect at Shining Clough will linger in the mind longer than many if the shorter routes out East...

In reply to Removed User:

Just beat me to it! Pisa Super Direct one of the top ten best grit routes for me and East Rib also excellent even though a bit short.

In reply to JimboWizbo:
So many well known hvs's but you might include The Dalesman on High Neb Buttress

In reply to JimboWizbo: my 1st HVS lead was Bamford Rib, so i'm putting that in.

In reply to JimboWizbo: Knight's Move?

In reply to JimboWizbo:
Just work your way across Stanage Popular and then Millstone. More brilliant HVSs than you can shake a stick at.

In reply to JimboWizbo:

Has to be my favourite grade on grit. my favourites, I think:

Great North Road
Great Portland Street
Bond Street
Saul's Crack
Sloth
Matinee
The Mincer
Surform
Zapple
The Happy Wanderer

Old salt
Surgeon's Saunter
Right-hand Tower
The Blurter
The Knutter
Travesties
Croton Oil
Blizzard ridge
Chequers Crack
Valkyrie

Eliminator
Whillan's Pendulum/Black Magic
Congo Corner
The Scoop
Paucity
Cave Arête
Right Unconquerable
Maupassant
Green Crack
The Peapod

Kelly's Overhang
Nowanda
Delstree
Bachelor's Left Hand
Matinee
Suicide Wall
Rubberneck
Pisa Super Direct
East Rib
Parker's Eliminate

In reply to Stig: Oops I'll swap the second Matinee for Terrazza Crack

In reply to JimboWizbo:

This thread has reminded me what a brilliant grade HVS is on grit.

Don't forget about Stanage End with it's quality selection of Surgeon's Saunter, Old Salt and Valediction.

In reply to All

40+ posts and hundreds of routes and no mention yet of the best HVS in the Peak District:

Surplomb in Cheedale!

In reply to kevin stephens:

If you mean Sirplum, that's because it's E1 (and has been for decades, I think)

In reply to JimboWizbo: For smashing any routes I suggest a large industrial drill. But there may be some who object to this as a hobby.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Oops, well it was decades ago that I did it..

In reply to 2PointO: My initial idea for a title was "Cracking HVS routes in the Peak District", but that sounds just as bad.

In reply to JimboWizbo: If you want to be a true HVS officionado, go to left / right hand side of Stanage and then do each and every HVS to its right / left until you are knackered. You would be amazed at how many brilliant routes you encounter that are unstarred.

In reply to JimboWizbo: masochism at ramshaw.not an hvs grit crack climber till thats ticked

In reply to EeeByGum:

That sounds both fun and dangerous.


Undoubtably - but there'd be a few horror-shows too. A few of my favourites would be Blow Out, a dyno above a shocking landing (can't do it); Don's Delight (no gear and hard - about E2); Puss (took me years of trying!); and of course Little Things (yet to have a go at).

Pity we can't have 'So many classics' since the upgrade to E4 6b!

Seems that to be solid at HVS on grit, you need to be bouldering around V4, even when it's high and the landing's bad - so probably nearer to E4 really? How does that work?

In reply to Jon Stewart: Definitely fun, but you miss so much if you cherry pick. Obviously a basic sense of self preservation and enough common sense to know that an overhanging crack with several corpses still hanging from the upper tiers may be a tad undergraded are required.

I did a similar thing the other year but at VS. Bagged 30 in a day. You would be amazed at the number of VS sandbags on Stanage Popular end, but I guess they only ever get climbed once or twice every few years whilst everyone goes for all the 3 star non-classics!

totally gobsmacked hardly any mention of great limestone routes

In reply to JimboWizbo:
Ricochet, Shooters Nab

In reply to EeeByGum:

What VS sandbags on the Popular End? Jon's view on HVS is spot on... you I suspect are exaggerating. Have you ever done any of the routes Jon lists??

In reply to woody5:

It matches the relative traffic. Classic HVS limestone needs ascensionists to keep it clean these days FFS! For grit needing more ascents you are normally talking high north or east facing routes, tree or Rhodedendren encroachment or obscurities.

In reply to JimboWizbo: Suicide Wall is the best HVS in the Peak, end of discussion.

Here are some of my other faves, trying to not repeat too much from above
Old Salt, Stanage
At Bamford the Nemmes Sabe combination is great at HVS
Piglet, Rivelin Quarries
Brown's unmentionable, Bell Hagg

In reply to JimboWizbo:
(to fill a page of the logbook when sorting by grade).

eh? You missed HVS?

In reply to Bulls Crack: I'm saying I'd like to see a page full of HVS and up leads in my UKC logbook, seems like the kind of goal that would motivate me.

In reply to JimboWizbo: Sounds like a great goal. Much better than aiming for say an E3. If you get up to 50 hvs's you know you've really cracked the grade rather than just fluking the odd soft touch.
Good luck.

In reply to JimboWizbo: I can't see any mention so far of Twisted Smile on Kinder - one of the best HVSs around, though for some strange reason not as popular as those on Stanage. Someone did already mention The Trident on Wimberry, a proper HVS, as is Hen Cloud Eliminate.

In reply to Rob Davies:

I mentioned Twisted Smile on 25 Sept. Agreed, it's right up there with about the best 2 or 3 HVSs in the Peak.