Climbing History

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References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ70H_vFdai/

Leo Houlding's swansong on El Cap. The route takes in over 1000ft of sustained hard climbing including the notorious 'Devil's Dyno' and the crux 'A1 Beauty' seam.

Leo started trying the route ground-up in 2001. Will Stanhope describes the climbing:

Picture this: You’re halfway up the right side of El Capitan. Below you is a string of maybe-hold-bodyweight pieces plugged into the scaly grey stone. The footholds are crispy and slowly spitting gravel away at the sides, so you’re gently rocking your weight back and forth on each foot to avoid one snapping off altogether. The most feasible line heads left, around a bulge, maybe. It looks hard. There’s no way to tell if it leads to decent gear, or to better holds. All around you the rock is sharp, fractured and overhanging. Alarm bells are going off. This doesn’t feel right.

What would you do? Forge on, running on faith, trusting in your own abilities, or back off? Nobody would blame you at this point for throwing in the towel. They’d likely just call it good judgement. It is the smart thing to do. If you go, you’re deeply committed.

This isn’t a fictional story. Leo Houlding actually went for it around the bulge, yanked the smallest of micro-wires into a bottoming seam, then promptly fell onto it, core-shotting one of his ropes. He eventually completed the pitch, dubbing it “The Screamer.” Having been there, I can’t imagine a bolder effort. Some would use the term “reckless”, and they might be right in that description. [1]

The ground-up attempts ended with Leo's partner Jason Pickles hospitalised.

They eventually completed the route in 2010. Determined to climb it in a single push, the pair were marooned in a severe storm high on El Cap for five days before Leo pulled it out the bag to finish the job.

References

[1] https://gripped.com/news/the-prophet-el-capitan/

One of the hardest slab problems in the world. The impeccably smooth Fukano Slab ("impossible slab") was one of the last great problems in Ogawayama bouldering, initially solved by Toshimichi Kusano's Zutsu (8B), which starts centrally and traverses off left.

After many seasons of effort, climbing ground up and without a pad, Tokio Muroi filled the remaining lines on the slab Bansosha (8B) and Fuminsho (8B), before turning his attention to completing the obvious straight-up finish to Zutsu. He eventually succeeded in the wintery depths of December 2007, creating Kakusei – an achievement that went largely unnoticed outside Japan.

The problem came to wider attention in 2023 when other problems made claims to be the world's hardest slab and Yuki Miyashita's 2021 video of his extraordinary efforts to repeat the climb was discovered.

The line was subject of some controversy in Japan c.2020 after repeats were claimed where the climber drifted onto slightly easier ground to the left. It was later clarified by first ascensionist Tokio Muroi that a sloper on Zutsu was out. It’s not known if all the repeats before the clarification followed the strict line. [1]

References

[1] https://note.com/rockandcode/n/n5510ab78f582

Slab right of Bansosha, moving left to finish up that route. Kakusei is the direct finish.

8B in the guide, 8A+ on Rocktopo.net, some people taking 8A, or even 7C+. Typical slab grades!

One of the most celebrated and oft-tried testpieces in Japan, Mushi is a rite of passage. An obvious line at Tokyo's popular Mitake bouldering area, it was apparently tried by Jerry Moffatt on a flying visit in 1984. It took the extended efforts of Japanese bouldering pioneer Toshimichi Kusano to unlock the problem's secrets, creating the second 3-Dan (7C+/8A) in Japan, after Kani.

Toshimichi Kusano recounts his process:

After 'Kani', I already knew what I wanted to try next. The line started on Ninja Gaeshi, then reached out toward a seductive lip hold that seemed to beckon climbers closer — this would become Mushi (“Bug”). It was a legendary line, said to have been spotted and attempted by the British superstar Jerry Moffatt when he visited Japan in 1984. And yet no one had seriously tried it since.

It wasn’t hard to see why. The first left-hand vertical hold is slick and tiny — enough to make most people give up right there. Still, I kept going. After that hold, I’d try lunging across from a left-hand crimp in a kind of cross move. No good. It didn’t feel possible.

But I couldn’t stop thinking that maybe one day it would be. I started visiting Mitake more often. And really, at that point, that stunning and mysterious line felt like it belonged to me alone. There was no reason not to try.

Then winter — the season when holds stay dry — came to an end. As always, spring brought a mix of urgency and doubt. Around then, I went to Mitake with Takahashi, a tall friend. We were trying to work the upper section, and he pushed me from below so I could stick to the wall. There was this tiny dimple I’d always noticed from the ground — I finally touched it. “This could work.”

He pushed me up again, and this time I grabbed that dimple with my right hand and started the sequence. I launched my left hand for the lip — and stuck it. “It goes!”

I can’t even remember if I went back for one more session or not, but now that I’d found the move, I was so excited to try again.

It was a crisp, sunny day in May 1996. I felt good. I began my usual quiet warm-up. Every move on Mushi was big, but it wasn’t cold, so my body moved well. I matched my right hand to that little dimple. I still had strength. I popped to the lip. My hand stuck. From here, it was unknown territory. But the holds were clear, my body moved naturally — and I climbed it. I stood on top of the boulder.

In Japanese, when someone is obsessed with something, we call them a bug for it — like a “climbing bug.” I wanted climbers to become bugs for climbing, and of course, to move across the rock like insects, freely and playfully. That’s why I named the line Mushi.

In 2001 Dai Koyamada went one further, traversing Kani (7C+) to finish up Mushi, creating the unrelenting power-endurance line Kani Mushi (8A+).

References

[1] Mitake Bouldering Guide

One of the most celebrated and oft-tried testpieces in Japan, Mushi is a rite of passage. An obvious line at Tokyo's popular Mitake bouldering area, it was apparently tried by Jerry Moffatt on a flying visit in 1984. It took the extended efforts of Japanese bouldering pioneer Toshimichi Kusano to unlock the problem's secrets, creating the second 3-Dan (7C+/8A) in Japan, after Kani.

Toshimichi Kusano recounts his process:

After 'Kani', I already knew what I wanted to try next. The line started on Ninja Gaeshi, then reached out toward a seductive lip hold that seemed to beckon climbers closer — this would become Mushi (“Bug”). It was a legendary line, said to have been spotted and attempted by the British superstar Jerry Moffatt when he visited Japan in 1984. And yet no one had seriously tried it since.

It wasn’t hard to see why. The first left-hand vertical hold is slick and tiny — enough to make most people give up right there. Still, I kept going. After that hold, I’d try lunging across from a left-hand crimp in a kind of cross move. No good. It didn’t feel possible.

But I couldn’t stop thinking that maybe one day it would be. I started visiting Mitake more often. And really, at that point, that stunning and mysterious line felt like it belonged to me alone. There was no reason not to try.

Then winter — the season when holds stay dry — came to an end. As always, spring brought a mix of urgency and doubt. Around then, I went to Mitake with Takahashi, a tall friend. We were trying to work the upper section, and he pushed me from below so I could stick to the wall. There was this tiny dimple I’d always noticed from the ground — I finally touched it. “This could work.”

He pushed me up again, and this time I grabbed that dimple with my right hand and started the sequence. I launched my left hand for the lip — and stuck it. “It goes!”

I can’t even remember if I went back for one more session or not, but now that I’d found the move, I was so excited to try again.

It was a crisp, sunny day in May 1996. I felt good. I began my usual quiet warm-up. Every move on Mushi was big, but it wasn’t cold, so my body moved well. I matched my right hand to that little dimple. I still had strength. I popped to the lip. My hand stuck. From here, it was unknown territory. But the holds were clear, my body moved naturally — and I climbed it. I stood on top of the boulder.

In Japanese, when someone is obsessed with something, we call them a bug for it — like a “climbing bug.” I wanted climbers to become bugs for climbing, and of course, to move across the rock like insects, freely and playfully. That’s why I named the line Mushi.

References

[1] Mitake Bouldering Guide

So far under the radar it's almost antipodean, Walk On By was likely one of the hardest problems in the world when it was first climbed in 1980. The climb is located at Curbar Edge in the heart of the Peak District and features old-school crimping on tiny edges up a vertical quarried wall. In an instructive example of British trad grading, it was given E3 6c.

The climb was discovered and named by Steve Foster, who climbed it first with one point of aid: manteling a peg at the start. He was mercilessly ribbed for this behaviour, motivating first ascentionist Rob Gawthorpe to show him how to do it properly. Gawthorpe commented:

Walk On By is suited to my climbing style – thin, very technical steep walls, but not crazily overhanging. I think Leeds Wall was a key – Al Manson and I just used to test each other on brick-edge problems on the Leeds Wall – hence how I got good at using very small edges and rock-overs.

It was obviously hard, but I didn't think it was really any harder than some of the other problems we'd been playing on in Yorkshire, particularly with Al Manson at Caley, Almscliff and Hetchell. At that time I thought there were a couple of really hard projects at Caley that seemed much harder.

It took two decades and the steely fingers of Ben Moon to finally give the climb a second ascent.

Walk On By: as the 1991 guidebook quipped 'Good advice!'

References

[1] On Peak Rock, 2013

So far under the radar it's almost antipodean, Walk On By was likely one of the hardest problems in the world when it was first climbed in 1980. The climb is located at Curbar Edge in the heart of the Peak District and features old-school crimping on tiny edges up a vertical quarried wall. In an instructive example of British trad grading, it was given E3 6c.

The climb was discovered and named by Steve Foster, who climbed it first with one point of aid: manteling a peg at the start. He was mercilessly ribbed for this behaviour, motivating first ascentionist Rob Gawthorpe to show him how to do it properly. Gawthorpe commented:

Walk On By is suited to my climbing style – thin, very technical steep walls, but not crazily overhanging. I think Leeds Wall was a key – Al Manson and I just used to test each other on brick-edge problems on the Leeds Wall – hence how I got good at using very small edges and rock-overs.

It was obviously hard, but I didn't think it was really any harder than some of the other problems we'd been playing on in Yorkshire, particularly with Al Manson at Caley, Almscliff and Hetchell. At that time I thought there were a couple of really hard projects at Caley that seemed much harder.

Walk On By: as the 1991 guidebook quipped 'Good advice!'

References

[1] On Peak Rock, 2013

So far under the radar it's almost antipodean, Walk On By was likely one of the hardest problems in the world when it was first climbed in 1980. The climb located in the heart of the Peak District at Curbar Edge and features ultimate old school crimping on tiny edges up a vertical quarried wall.

It was discovered and named by Steve Foster, who climbed it first with one point of aid: manteling a peg at the start. He was mercilessly ribbed for this behaviour, motivating first ascentionist Rob Gawthorpe to show him how to do it properly. Gawthorpe commented:

Walk On By is suited to my climbing style – thin, very technical steep walls, but not crazily overhanging. I think Leeds Wall was a key – Al Manson and I just used to test each other on brick-edge problems on the Leeds Wall – hence how I got good at using very small edges and rock-overs.

It was obviously hard, but I didn't think it was really any harder than some of the other problems we'd been playing on in Yorkshire, particularly with Al Manson at Caley, Almscliff and Hetchell. At that time I thought there were a couple of really hard projects at Caley that seemed much harder.

Walk On By: as the 1991 guidebook quipped 'Good advice!'

References

[1] On Peak Rock, 2013

The first 7B in Fontainebleau. Climbed in 1977, key holds were manufactured by Jérôme Jean-Charles, who believed that the possibilities for hard climbing on natural rock had been exhausted and the only way to progress would be to add holds to 'unclimbable' rock.

Topo Bleau summarises the paradox:

But Cuvier is also the massif of all the wrong turns, given how much the rock has been altered. Nowhere else are there so many manufactured holds, so many holds patched with cement. In a way, that was the price of progress.

But let’s not throw our hammers at the heads of those who came before. In the spirit of the time, they weren’t violating any ethical principle, because it hadn’t yet been recognised that chipping actually limits the standard. In other words, it unconsciously avoided engaging with the rock itself. It took 17 years to go from 7a to 7b, and only 7 years from 7b to 8a. [1]

In 2001 the problem was vandalised by a disgruntled local climber, who attempted to chip off the starting hold, making the problem harder. (2)

Despite its manufactured nature, the problem is one of the most popular in Fontainebleau and a milestone for any aspiring Bleausard.

References

[1] https://sites.google.com/site/topobleau/escalades-bleau/Foret-domaniale-de-Fontainebleau/Les-Cuviers?authuser=0

[2] On The Edge issue 110, page 10

Dave chose to belay from the half-height ledge in order to carry less rope up with him. This made for a harder catch than subsequent ascents, who have all belayed from the ground, including a fall which snapped the crucial top RP.

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn8SaTntzG8

[2] https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/dave_macleod_the_modern_traditionalist__e11-198

Rhapsody is a trad route at Dumbarton Rock in Scotland first climbed by Dave MacLeod in 2006. It was the hardest trad route in the world at the time and maintains a substantial reputation, featuring 8c+ climbing, and potential for huge falls onto tiny gear from the 8A crux at the top of the route.

The route starts by climbing the majority of Requiem (around 7c+ to here) to a poor rest before an intensely technical sequence up the headwall above. The line is somewhat eliminate at the top, forcing a line of maximum difficulty to the very top of the crag rather than reaching out to an arête. [2]

The route has become a test piece for sport climbers who want to test their mettle, with repeats coming from an international cohort.

Around the time that he made the second ascent, Sonnie Trotter also added a variation called Direquiem which takes the headwall but finishes left, rather than going to the highest point of the crag.

References

[1] E11 2006 film by Paul Diffley

[2] https://davemacleod.blogspot.com/2008/12/home-in-winter-wonderland.html

Slightly different methode than FA due to some funky heel hooks.

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZ2Hv-Msli5/

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZ2Hv-Msli5/

Slightly different methode than FA due to some funky heel hooks

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