We're having a debate over dinner, and wondered if you all can settle it.

What's the longest rock climb in the world? We're curious about rock, not mixed or alpine, although alpine rock certainly counts.

Could be measured either in pitches or in vertical gain.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Jeff

I was just reading about this today and I think this counts. Azeem ridge on the great trango tower.

This might be a contender:
The Calanques near Cassis...Perhaps most challenging is the Castelvieil, with its series of four transversal routes. Its total length of 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) makes it one of the longest rock-face routes in the world.
http://away.com/tripideas/cassis-provence-alpes-cote-d-azur->>>>>

It would be more impressive if the route didn't traverse so much. Straightest line to the top. It should more or less avoid ice and snow, too. And, points if the route is free climbable. Any free routes on Mt. Thor in Baffin Island? ;-)

I would guess it would have to be on a low altitude peak. How many pitches do some of the routes on the right hand side of the Eiger go at?

Here is some pretty amazing info on the Azeem ridge on the great trango towers...

[edit] Recent ascents
Some of the more recent ascents on Great Trango have focused on the longer routes found on the west and south sides. In particular, in 2004 Josh Wharton and Kelly Cordes completed a new, very long (2,256 metre/7,400 ft) route on the Southwest Ridge, or Azeem Ridge, to the Southwest Summit. Though not as extremely technical as the East Face routes, the climb was notable for the extremely lightweight and fast (5 days) style in which it was done.[3]

Over 7 days in August 2005, two Slovak climbers, Gabo Cmarik and Jozef Kopold, climbed a new route, which they termed Assalam Alaikum, to the right of the Wharton/Cordes line on the south face of Great Trango. The climb comprised around 90 pitches, up to 5.11d A2. They used a lightweight style similar to that of Wharton and Cordes.[4]

In the same month, Samuel Johnson, Jonathon Clearwater and Jeremy Frimer made the first ascent of the southwest ridge of Trango II, which they termed Severance Ridge. The route involved 1,600 m of climbing over five days, with rock climbing up to 5.11 A2 and ice and mixed climbing up to AI3 M5.[5]

Also in August 2005, a South African team, composed of Peter Lazarus, Marianne Pretorius, James Pitman and Andreas Kiefer, climbed to the summit via the Slovenian route. Pretorius was the third woman to reach the summit.[6]

If you want to read more go to this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trango_Towers

90 pitches? Yowza. That's quite a long route.

El Gigante in Chihuahua, Mexico is 30 pitches long, all free climbing at 13a. It is @3,000' tall.