UKC

Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker, not a pair to shy away from a challenge, put in an extraordinary effort earlier this week, climbing all the Brown and Whillans routes in the Peak District in just over 22 hours...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=69152

In reply to UKC News:

Stunning effort guys!

Allen/Bancroft routes the next challenge?

In reply to Jon Read:

Amazing achievement. Can't wait to see the route list and grades.

In reply to UKC News:

Wow! I feel exhausted reading about it. Superb enchainment of routes.

In reply to Jon Read:

Hi Jon, do you mean only routes where Allen and Bancroft were on the FA together, or (like the B and W challenge) any routes where either of them was involved? The latter would be way, way physically harder and a lot more serious than the B and W challenge. There would be more routes than B and W, a much higher standard and spread out all over the entire peak in some very esoteric locations.
cheers
Graham

In reply to UKC News:
'climbing all the Brown and Whillans routes in the Peak District'

Not true. Apart from the fact they were only doing the grit routes of B and W, none of the 14 grit routes done by B and W on north-west grit were in the list (by intention) i.e. those in Chew/Longdendale Valleys. To include these would add maybe 3 1/2 hr walking and climbing plus the driving time from Staffs and between car parks.

I guess it's possible to do the lot within 24 hr if you can knock 3 to 4 hrs of Tom and Pete's time. One hell of a challenge though!

In reply to UKC News:

Sounds like a good day out but I'm curious about how 23 miles of running comes into it. The crags aren't that far apart and they drove between the East and West.

In reply to pec:

Running from car to climbs on the crags and back (something like 15 crags). Running along the edges between climbs e.g. Stanage, Froggatt, Curbar, running between certain crags rather than driving. I guess it all adds up. Knowing Tom it will have been measured accurately - this was organised with military precision!
cheers Graham

In reply to UKC News:

Brown & Whillans did an E6 back in the day??

Wow! I had thought HVS/E1 was more their territory?

In reply to pec:

The miles soon clock up! Even walking round adds a load. I wouldn't be surprised if on average the walk around was ten times longer than the route length. So that's 18km before you've even started clicking up the walk ins and outs.

Morgan, several of the routes on the list were originally aid routes, but producing the list soon got very contrived if you included some aid routes but not others.

Stack the routes on top of each other and you've got a really hard days climbing (2.5 times longer than El Cap?), plus the mileage it's quite an incredible achievement.

Do ten of these routes in a day and you'll get a feel for it!

In reply to andi turner:

Firstly what no one seems to have commented on is that Andi and Pete beat our Staffs Nose time - that's flipping awesome!!! Their time was genuinely rather rapid and if anyone has tried even doing a very small section of this, they will know that what Andi and Pete did is very tidy.

Good work boyz . You're safe with that record for a while.

On a side note - as Andi says - it's curious how hard it is to do these B&W routes when all linked together. Try going and doing 10 and see how you feel. I remember being very shocked when I first tried this stuff 5 years ago with Pete. I went out with a mate a couple of weeks ago and just did the Curbar 20 and I think it took us about 8hrs!

Well done, Tom and Pete! That is a stunning achievement! Very inspiring. It'd take days for me just to do the Ramshaw part...
There is a good article and interview (to Tom) published in the BMC site by Sarah Stirling: https://www.thebmc.co.uk/randall-and-whittaker
Masa

In reply to Graham Hoey:
Yeah, I was thinking where they were both on the FA team, but how many would that yield?

There must be a similar suitable challenge on the Yorkshire crags, perhaps an Allen Austin day? Or the Fawcett Yorkshire grit round?

In reply to UKC News:
Awesome effort these guys are on fire! What about all the Fawett routes on peak limestone in a day!

In reply to andi turner:

Thanks for clarifying.

In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

I can testify to that! IIRC a mere 8 of the Staffordshire routes pretty much did me in when a couple of us tried some and I'd count myself as a fairly experienced climber and no stranger to big routes and link ups. These achievements make my own efforts and even some of my 16hour days seem pedestrian in comparison.


That sounds a nice one to try. I will bear it in mind next time I'm in the Peak and going well.

Reading about stuff like this makes me seriously pysched. Awesome efforts. Keep it up!

In reply to Morgan Woods:

It wasn't quite that hard when they did it, there was a big flake under the roof that broke off some years later. In its original state it was given E1 5b.

In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

cheers tom, yep we may have beat your time, but what u and pete did was epic. Maybe ill get round to trying the same challenge..... maybe

In reply to northy1983:

No, I think you and Andi should try and do the complete BAW (including the Chew/Longdendale ones) in 24 hrs!

I've got the list if you want it!
Cheers
Graham

In reply to UKC News:

Gary Gibson routes next.

In reply to dave mann:

.. or Pat Littlejohn - now that would be an adventure !

In reply to Jon Read:


How about Keith McCallum, or Cesare Maestri?