| From: | United Kingdom 🇬🇧 |
| Gender: | Male |
| Hardest Boulder (Worked): | 8C |
| Hardest Sport (Worked): | 9a+ |
| Hardest Trad (Worked): | E10 |
| Hardest Trad (Onsight): | HS |
John Gaskins is a controversial figure in British climbing. As well as an early repeat of Hubble he has claimed many ascents of hard routes and boulder problems. However for some of his hardest ascents it is unclear whether they happened. In particular he has been unable to describe the holds or sequences on his problem Shadowplay, and shortly after claiming the first ascent was unable to pull on to the problem to get photographs for his sponsors.
Similar inconsistencies exist on several other routes and problems he has claimed including Violent New Breed (9a+), Tranquilitas (8C) which John originally claimed as Karma of the Trees at 8A and Little Women Right Hand.
Despite the above John was a capable climber and almost certainly climbed several hard problems, such as Anaesthesia (8A+) at Woodwell.
[1] Interview with Simon Lee from UKBouldering.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbZALxPdjZg
[2] From the same interview as [1], footage of John climbing on his board https://vimeo.com/82936059.
[3] A Profile of John Gaskins by Simon Panton, On The Edge 120 page 48.
Several of John's hardest claimed ascents have been disputed, though there are some examples of him climbing hard-ish (for example Anaesthesia is on video).
Dan Varian has tried many of John's harder problems and attempted to clarify where the lines go several times with minimal success. He goes in to detail in [1].