UKC

Blimey. That is ...words fail me, chapeau sir.

Wow. Being able to do just one of those list ticks would do me

some earlier comments

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rocktalk/daves_8-681583

Just amazing. A pleasure to have joined for filming, and then to go along the Aonachs & Grey Corries at night. Stob Ban was 1.20am as is in the article, then we went down to the Lairig Leacach for the first water in hours - it was so dry and cold there was not a drop anywhere but for the ice and neve. Walked back to Roybridge, and a river wade through the Spean. Back in the door for 5.20am with the first hints of sun spilling over the horizon as it had done 24 hours earlier at the Cameron Stone.

Nice one Kev, sounds like an incredible day.  

I remember reading about the King of the Pass challenge in Llanberis and wondering what the Scottish equivalent would be. I guess we know now!

Any suggestions for a bumbly equivalent?

And I though that an E5, Grade V, and F8a, (all in the Llanberis Pass) was a hard day!

That is absolutely utterly amazing.  I'm just blown away.  Normally the news about how someone ticked an 8c or 9c or grade 9 or something leaves me completely cold.  But this is incredible.  At risk of sounding just like posters on the other climbing news threads...

Am I right in thinking he's the only person in the world likely to be able to achieve this?

There must be a number of strong continental alpinists who would be capable: David Lama was a competition boulderer, has redpointed 9a, and climbs gnarly ice and mixed. I don’t think E8 would be too much of a challenge for him. 

It’s conjecture though, Dave Macleod had the great idea and got it done. 

I'm thinking of doing "All the 3's". On second thoughts that seems a bit unbalanced; the E3 is going to be far, far harder than f3, F3, III or 3 Munros!  I think the concept really only make much sense at 7 and above. So there is no bumbly equivalent.

How about 5s - but use a little bit of artistic license: F5, f5a, V,5 and errrr... cough... VS.  It could maybe be a VS 5a to keep the theme going.

Given that there aren't any Munros in the rest of the world, nor Scottish-grade winter routes, nor E grades, and given that one needs to wait for the perfect combination of weather conditions, it would be pretty tricky for anyone outside Scotland. 

Consider he did this off of baseline fitness as almost impossible to specifically train due to such rare condition potential! Epic!!!

Ha, yeah that's a bit disappointing.

I have heard of folk doing Centurion as a rock climb and Point Five Gully on the same day, so how about the V/5 challenge - Point Five V, Centurion hVs, Killer Instinct V5, 5 Munros... Just need a F5 to finish it off.

Just saw your reply, Toby. Great minds...

Yes, that's sort of what I meant.  Not saying he's better than every one else in the world, just that it's unlikely to ever be repeated.

C'mon cubby.  Prove me wrong.

Or Face, wasn't Red Wall grade 8 or thereabouts?

But then the V,5 would be far harder than the rest (at least it would be for me but I'm rubbish at winter climbing - V always feels E2/3ish to me!).

I was thinking Iain Small. I bumped into him at the wall this evening and asked if he had been tempted to join Dave, but he pointed out that he's rubbish (relatively) at bouldering!

f3, F3, III, 3 Munros, and a grade 3 scramble? Though finding somewhere with an F3 might be the hardest part!

There’s a F3 on the Dorset coast (Hedbury I think). Might break the day up a bit though...

I'd be delighted with that in a life time.

I imagine it might actually be very hard to achieve something equivalent elsewhere in the world, especially in 24hrs. I get the impression that one of the peculiarities about Scotland is that it is very compact both in terms of the height of the mountains and distances between areas where you can winter climb, trad climb, boulder, etc. Even within Scotland, I'm not sure there are other areas where you can find this combination so close together (happy to be corrected though). I also get the impression that the climate here is a bit 'special'. As Dave mentions, the conditions he needed to do this are rare even in Scotland. Looks like a grand way to spend a grand day!

Technically, I wouldn't have thought so. Off the top of my head, Pete Whittaker, Matt Helliker and Nick Bullock can all climb those grades (thought not sure about the bouldering credentials of the latter two). I imagine Petra Klinger and Ines Papert are probably also in that ballpark.

Finding the conditions to string them all together in a single day and managing the logistics is the main obstacle to those with the technical ability, I'd have thought.

Not sure why you got a dislike for that. I was also thinking that this somewhat puts the King of the Pass thing into perspective. though that's still a great classic challenge of course.

I did consider what a 'King of Torridon' challenge might be, at more classic grades than Llanberis, and came up with Malc's Arete (7A+), The Torridonian (E3) and Salmon Leap (VI). Obviously Malc's is the hardest of those by far, though a wet Torridonian may prove the crux with numb hands!

Something at Diabaig might be a better bet for a day when Salmion Leap is likely to be in condition!

This is just such a great challenge, all the more so since it's fairly logical, with each rock route being on the way to the next, and the VIII of course being on the first of the 8 munro group, the latter being one of the best hill walks in the country.

Hard to see how this could be beaten really. A triple 9s challenge would be scarcely possible, but not impossible! E9, 9a and IX. Trouble is, hardly anyone in the world is good enough to have that high a success rate on a 9a route, and if they did they are unlikely to also be capable of the other two. I guess it could be stretched to 3 consecutive days?

But it's not in the heart of Torridon. Perhaps 'Hunter Killer' would be allowable if the big corner was wet...

If Ondra ever switched his focus off hard sport than clearly he'd be the one. But I remember him in a trad climb in Sweden where he straight up went for the grounder... He is used to the fact that climbing is safe so it would take a while to adjust especially for an IX winter feat! Let's talk again in ten years..

What does straight up went for the grounder mean?

Of course the 'King of the Pass' doesn't have five summits thrown in. The Glyders ridge + Tryfan included, now that would be a pretty tough 24hr challenge!

How safe is the Dawn Wall?

First climb of the day and he hit the deck. Could've worded it better. 

Hard to know. I only found technical grading...

Ondra himself said: "These pitches are not only bold, but freaking hard too! Definitely no easy grades for these ones—Tommy and Kevin are tough guys!"

I don't really think he'd struggle much with an E9 (if he finds a well protectable one) but with winter he'd need quite some time to get the hang of it. But having read how fast Pete Withaker adapted it might be less than we think.

As in: "Ginger's kite went up at sparrow-fart to have a tilt at the Hun but went for a grounder all ends up  and is now pushing up daisies in  Krautland"