Climbs

A direct start to Route of All Evil bolted in 1991 by Boone Speed, and the first 8c+ in America established by an American, the soon to be famous Chris Sharma.

Jim Thornburg writing in Climbing magazine #168:

Speed worked on the sick-looking direct start and reckoned that an ascent of the entire route would be like climbing two 5.14a's back-to-back. After a finger injury put Speed out of commission, it seemed likely that the route would gather cobwebs until some visiting Euro arrived to snake yet another American testpiece. [1]

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CkRY8NJSro2/

Bolted by Ben Moon in 1993 and then tried extensively. Despite coming close around 1995 was unable to finish the route due to a combination of poor conditions and injury.

Steve McClure's successful ascent in July 2000 represented a passing of the torch, with him taking on the mantle as the UK's pre-eminent sport climber by finishing off Ben's old project.

Eneko Pou:

The first part consists of seven pitches (about 300 m) with difficulties that do not exceed 7b, but many of them either do not have bolts, or only have one or two, meaning that you’re tested physically and psychologically since, in many places, falls are potentially very dangerous.

Iker Pou:

The second part consists of another seven more difficult pitches, very vertical and without rests, past continuous difficulties that peak with an 8c. As in the first section, bolts are runout and the pro needs backing up with trad gear. This was by far the crux. [1]

References

[1] https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/alpinism/new-picos-de-europa-8c-multi-pitch-by-pou-brothers-kico-cerda.html

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxgwD_SnzCY

The name comes from the infamous chipped pockets that make the problem possible.

A very short route or a highball boulder with a bit of a funky landing. When climbed as a route both the bolts on the route are usually pre-clipped.

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fly_(climb)

Originally given 8c/+ repeat ascenionists then suggested 8c+. Around 2018/2019 some holds broke on the crux and it is now considered more 9a.

The first E9 in Scotland.

Akira is a route with a complicated history and a degree of controversy, largely around the fact that first ascenionist Fred Rouhling suggested a grade of 9b at a time when 9a was the cutting edge and no routes had been proposed at 9a+ (though some routes from the era have subsequently been upgraded to 9a+, for example Mutation at Raven Tor). Subsequent ascentionists have suggested 9a is more appropriate. To complicate things even further, the repeat ascentionists chose not use kneebars but did suggest that using them would lower the grade further.

Holds may have come and go on the first part of the route:

Can confirm via a friend that worked Akira pretty hard that the initial section used to be 8B. His breakdown was 8B to a crap rest on a 3 finger pocket into a second 8B to the lip. He never tried the final rope section (8a?) as he thought it was pointless. [1] [2] [3]

Dani Andrada:

I almost did it [Akira]. I fell at the last move of the boulder crux. I find that section hard for 7C as Bouin and Lucien Martinez have now proposed. It's a boulder of about eight moves, which can be 8A or 8A+ in my opinion. I think the proposal of 9a is correct taking into account that they may have made some moves with kneebars as well. I went 7 or 8 days to try it. The place is quite ugly and I had a hard time finding someone to accompany me. The route is in the same style as Ali Hulk in the Cave of Ali Baba, in Rodellar, but the spot is so ugly that it is difficult to motivate oneself to go there. [4]

Jean-Baptiste Tribout, speaking in 2000:

I visited Akira in 1995 it is certainly one of the hardest routes in the world that I have ever seen, and I climbed on it and managed to do a lot of the moves, but I couldn't do the hardest moves. To be able to link up all thes hard moves into one clean ascent is incredibly hard. It's a completely natural route, which is great! The route i also very technical, and scary in a way because it is 3 to 4m off the ground it's difficult to commit to the moves, and with these moves you could fall flat on your back. [9]

References

[1] https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,10607.msg621712.html#msg621712

[2] https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,10607.msg621740.html#msg621740

[3] https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,10607.msg621741.html#msg621741

[4] https://woguclimbing.com/seb-bouin-lucien-martinez-repiten-akira-opinan-9a/

[5] https://www.grimper.com/news-25-ans-apres-akira-enfin-repetee-etions

[6] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2020/11/fred_rouhlings_akira_repeated_-_twice-72635

[7] https://www.instagram.com/p/CH52khijvz7/

[8] https://open.spotify.com/episode/4T8j5taHKyu11HnWMKvxWT?

[9] On The Edge Issue 102, page 43

Originally climbed from a slightly higher start and called 'Ummagumma', Klem Loskot added the lower start a week later.