UKC

Duncan Campbell picks his top E2 climbs. From the crumbly Mousetrap to the epic Prophecy of Drowning...

But wait... why hasn't he included Left Wall?

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=6382

In reply to UKC Articles:


Never mind that. This is far more worrying:

In reply to jon:
I know, the punctuation. Why don't writers consider the number of kittens that will die?

In reply to UKC Articles:

Must have been written by someone who has never climbed at Fairhead, arguably the home of ALL the best E2s in the UK.

In reply to UKC Articles:

What about Shrike, Jelly Roll or Troach Dunc?

In reply to M0nkey:

What about the E2s on the Eastern Ramparts on Beinn Eighe? Angel Face and the like?

Just remembered - where's Shibboleth? EEEEEK!!!!

In reply to M0nkey:

Hurricane, Mizen Star, Equinox, blah blah blah.

I'd also have to go for:

The Strand, Central Pillar on Esk, Astra on Pavey.

Plus, Fiver Finger Exercise and Fernhill if you must have some gritstone.

Good fun this!

In reply to UKC Articles:

Darius ??

In reply to UKC Articles:

4 of them are good choices but Commander Energy? Darius if you want a Peak one

In reply to Bulls Crack:

Regent St for me in the Peak.

In reply to jon:

At least The Weaver's an awful lot better than Machete Wall.

Mick

In reply to Bob:


You could make a case for four of the best five best E2's in the UK all being on Scottish mountain crags (Shibboleth, Torro, Steeple, Angel Face). The fact that all are omitted means the list is pretty laughable. Though if the idea was to include one token Scottish route, then Prophecy is a good choice. And putting Chimes of Freedom (albeit a fine route) alongside Prophecy is a mockery.

I might have included White Slab despite it being in Wales (it's that good!).

In reply to Mick Ward:

Not to mention the fact that machete wall is E1.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Impossible task to name the best FIVE - so many fantastic E2's - best HUNDRED would be a better and a more useful list.

In reply to UKC Articles:

commander energy? you've got to be joking me. is it even in the top 10 e2s at the roaches?

In reply to Robert Durran:

Hmm, I did Saxon in July 1983 and Steeple in August 1983 either side of a trip to Chamonix and I thought Saxon much the better route.

In general I'd agree with you, Scotland has masses of excellent routes at all grades, little in the Peak comes close to matching them.

In reply to UKC Articles:

That's actually a pretty good list, assuming you don't count Fair Head, of course.

Although RD's Shibboleth, Torro, Steeple, Angel Face and Prophecy does have a certain ring of truth to it, if you should happen to find all of them roughly dry.

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:


I imagine they were all dry yesterday.

In reply to Bob:


In which case it must be phenomenally brilliant. I admit, to my shame, that I've never climbed on Scafell .

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:
I have found all of them dry when I did them and vastly better than a single Gritstone pitch, but hey that's just me!!

In reply to Robert Durran:

Torro loses points for being a soft touch. Definitely a great E1 though!

In reply to Heike:


No it's not just you!

In reply to jon:

Weaver is miles better than Vector.

However I also think Darius is better than Delicatessen in the best of the rest bit.

Commander Energy is a good route, and it's got a picture of me in wonderful orange all over the front page of ukc. But really?

In reply to Robert Durran:


Eh? It is the worst of the good E2s on Cloggy.

Jelly Roll and especially Shrike blow the socks off it! Troach and Silhouette are both superior too.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:


I thought it was magnificent, holding its own with the big mountain crag routes in Scotland. Not done Jelly Roll, but the others you mention really just seemed like quality short routes in a mountain setting and nothing like as memorable.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:


And all superior by miles to Commander Energy. Commander Energy is a good route but amongst the best five E2's in the UK? C'mon!

In reply to jim jones:

The title of the article should be:

"The Five Best E2 Routes in the UK that I have done and which will generate postings on UKC"

In reply to tom84:


That's exactly what I thought too.

In reply to Bob:



Which kind of *is* the point of these articles. Gets us all talking.

In reply to ChrisBrooke:

For the definite list, UK top 200 here
http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=764

In reply to Owen W-G:

Only done a handful of those, but Left Wall, Quietus, Erb and Suspense would be in my top 10. I'm a bit Peak-centric though.

In reply to Bob:



Exactly. What gave it away? The previous two articles (HVS and E1) which were equally as provocative maybe? I'm awaiting the best 5 VSes and best 5 E3s articles any day now.

In reply to Bulls Crack:

My sentiments entirely. I thought Commander Energy was a good route but my immediate reaction was that it was very insignificant when compared with Darius.

In reply to UKC Articles:

oh god what a list...

commander energy, must be a joke

scoop wall
elder crack
vector
wuthering

..are all better than half that list

In reply to mattrm:


The opening paragraphs also give some clues:

In reply to ChrisBrooke:


There's tons of good grit routes, and suspense is probably *my* fave e2 on grit because it's got a bit of everything. These lists will always favour grit routes because of the mass of climbers and routes of a reasonable quality in a small area. I recently had the fortune to climb (albeit only a few) routes on torridon sandstone and thought it was similar to grit, but better, longer and more interesting climbing! If you like grit then head north and check the area out.

In reply to tom84:

Sounds good. Trouble with getting to Torridon from Bury St Edmunds is that I could be in the Alps a fair bit quicker

In reply to UKC Articles:

Hmmmm. Obviously, Commander Energy is the stand-out weird choice, as it's barely 2*. For grit, I'd have either Elegy or Five Finger Exercise.

Why does everyone go on about Darius? It's a long pitch and really hard, but I can't think of anything much to say about it other than it's on horrible loose polished rock by a busy A road.

I think Silver Shadow is way better than Chimes, which is really easy except for a couple of awkward moves through the roof.

And Mousetrap. I don't think that novelty choss routes have a place in a UK's best list. If one of the categories that had to be covered was choss, I'd have Mercury Direct instead.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Elegy would be an excellent choice!

I'm surprised by this. I remember a worrying loose block at the top of the offwidth section, and the roof right at the top being a bit unstable, but very sound apart from that! I definitely wouldn't put it in the choss category.

In reply to Nick Russell:


I wasn't expecting a choss route at all, but the rock on the 2nd pitch is identical to South Stack cheese. On the section climbing the corner, the slab is all snappy, sandy crap - though thankfully the corner itself where the gear is is fine (although permadamp of course). A foothold broke on me on that first section, at which point the thought of traversing across the choss with no gear was terrifying. Thankfully the further you get from the corner the more solid it becomes and it all turns out fine...