Nathaniel Soon asks and attempts to answer the question: what's the hardest move ever done in climbing?
Whether you love them or hate them, climbing would not be what it is without grades. Our alpha-numerical difficulty-rating systems are extremely subjective, at times controversial, and ever-evolving inventions that climbers use for benchmarking and comparison.
Silence 9c is mostly defined by its unusual and powerful 8C feet-first crux. Alphane 9A — a long boulder problem — breaks down into a powerful and crimpy 8B+ straight into an 8C endurance-based second-half, according to the first ascensionist, Shawn Raboutou.
But can climbing be dissected even further, with individual moves being assigned clear-cut grades? Online punditry is rife with discussion over this exact question: what currently stands as the hardest single move ever done in climbing (and how hard is it)?
"Ghisolfi seems to agree. "I know only a bunch of climbers were able to stick the first move…". Besides Hukkataival and Bosi, those select few include the likes of Raboutou and Nakajima, both of whom have climbed multiple 8C+s.'
Just to note, the Ghisolfi post quoted links to the video where he manages to stick the first move of BoD, undercutting the point that only those who have done multiple 8C+s' can do it, as he's apparently 'only' climbed 8B+!
You can dissect it even further: What is the hardest (starting) hold ever held in climbing? On many boulder problems I can’t even get my butt off the ground!
It's weird as. The closest I have come to having a breakdown through utter frustration on a route. Nialls quote in the guide is absolutely spot on in that you have to let go of everything in order to make progress.
> During a livestream on his very first session in Finland, Bosi would go on to stick the first crux move 8B/8B+ within just 25 minutes of work. It was clear that for this first move, the replica is much harder than the actual boulder. It's fair to say, then, that the hardest move ever done in climbing might actually be on an indoor problem – a sign of the times, no less.
What was the point of using a replica? It was to train on it looks like that training paid off.
Without the prior experience and training there is no knowing whether Will would have stuck the first crux on the real thing so quickly. I would put money on it taking longer and the reason it was so quick on first acquaintance with the in vivo version was because he'd had practice on the replica.
For some reason I agreed to go climbing on new years day. After a very late night and my bodyweight in beer, I found myself the next morning at the top of something on Embankment Wall, sat in some snow and ready to do a full Fulmar on my second. Going climbing was both very hard and very wrong.
If your looking at individual moves, 'the hardest move' has to factor in bodyweight. A 90kg guy doing a 1-5-9 on 20mm edge is way more impressive than a 65kg dandelion doing the same.
> Getting onto the block on Tody's wall gracefully
If you're not too short (I used to be 6' with approx 0 ape index and it was nowhere near a max stretch for me) then there is a totally elegant way to get on the block. Doesn't help with getting off it though.
I have to admit though that I'd done the grovel several times before seeing someone do the elegant method - one of those obvious once you've seen it things.