Three exceptionally hard alpine rock climbs, each established by legends of their time.
View List
In rock climbing chipping is the practice of artificially modifying a climb. In practice this can mean a lot of things, from a wobbly, existing hold being removed and then re-attached with glue to preserve the character of a climb to full-scale manufacture of routes by drilling holds in blank rock for large sections of the climb.
This is a list of some routes that have been chipped. These routes have been chipped in the sense they have had holds created.
View List
The stonemasters were an informal group who climbed extensively together in southern California from 1970 until 1980 or so. They frequented crags such as Tahquitz Rock, Suicide Rock, Joshua Tree and Yosemite.
Together the group defined an era of climbing in the USA with many notable achievements between them, such as:
Towards the end of the 1980s the group became known for their strict ethical stance, particularly with regards to rap bolting and top rope practice.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stonemasters
View List
The 6 great north faces are a series of faces in the Swiss, French and Italian Alps which were a major preoccupation for alpinists in the 1930s, with many parties vying to be the first to climb each face.
View List
The Yorkshire Triple Crown is three classic 8a+ routes in Yorkshire on the three big limestone sport crags: Malham Cove, Kilnsey and Gordale Scar.
View List
Fontainebleau is a bouldering area in France consisting of many crags spread over the Foret de Fontainebleau, west of the town of Fontainebleau.
The area is renowned as one of the premier bouldering destinations in the world and has a long history. Many people will have inevitably scrambled over the sandstone boulders through the ages, but more organised climbing started in the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s when climbers from Paris, often training for larger objectives in the Alps, would get the train to fontainebleau to test themselves on the boulders.
Hard Rock is a coffee table book compiled by Ken Wilson with individual articles from many notable climbers discussing high quality trad routes across Great Britain.
First published in 1974, it has since had several reprints.
[1] https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/h6rxAAAACAAJ
View List
The Big Five are five problems in the Cuvier Rempart area of Fontainebleau. While the problems were not the hardest around when they were established, they represented a high level and together presented a stern challenge in a modern, powerful style.
View List
This is a list of some projects. Typically these are very hard, public lines that have been tried at least a little by climbers.
View List
The Cuvier Academic Club was a group of leading climbers in Fontainebleau in the post-war period.
[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupe_de_Bleau#Cuvier_Academic_Club
View List