I may say Meltdown at least deserves a mention! And maybe what Will S said about G String (although I don't know much about that). It's reasonable to say that the hardest things in the world require very specific body types.
I suggest the crux pitches on the Nose are worthy of consideration. They are on one of the most famous climb in the world in the most famous place in the world (for climbing) and have seen very few ascents.
It's interesting (to me) that Ondra dispatched Dawn Wall relatively quickly, but failed on The Nose and didn't seem to have any interest in going back. (I do not mean to say Ondra couldn't do it if he tried.) And if anything I've written comes across as sexist (I don't think it should), I hope everyone agrees that Lynn's FA of the Nose is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, feats in free climbing, regardless of sex, body type, or anything else.
I don't dispute one bit that Lynn's FFA is one of the top achievements by any climber but at the time was following Ondra's time in the Valley pretty closely and I think his window just closed on The Nose and he spent what time he had on the Dawn Wall. After that Dawn Wall effort pretty sure he could tick The Nose too.
I would disagree. The fact that Meltdown has been tried by many of the best and shut them all down regardless of finger size makes it the hardest on this side of the planet.
Point taken... I think I was answering a question that wasn't asked..., "what's the best publicized/famous super hard trad route?" and consider I came into the Trad scene watching Dider on First Ascent... so I'm bias!!! ;)
Ondra doesn't seem to be that into hard crack climbing, but then he sent the Dawn Wall so I don't think there's anything he CAN'T do. I doubt his fingers would fit if Tommy's don't, as he's fairly taller.
I thought about Cobra crack, but the consensus seems to be on 14b and the number of repeats makes me wonder if it's a tad easier. The Macleod routes are also X, although that hasn't stopped other crazy ass Brits like Steve McClure. I agree that it's really hard to compare different styles...Century Crack (14b) might actually be the toughest; I can't imagine climbing roof Offwidth. Tom and Pete took a stab at Meltdown and said it might even be harder than 14c...
Not sure whether this was mentioned but Carlo said in a recent interview that the crux on Meltdown isn't about finger size
^^Jeez...then what is it? That was TC’s excuse, but maybe he just didn’t want to admit that his wife (at the time) climbed harder than him. :p
eli poss wrote:
Anybody heard any news on the new Wide Boyz route that's supposed to be 15a?
You mean Crucifix? I think they’ve worked most of the sections (which they named a bunch of weird things as variations) but haven’t linked it yet. Sounds pretty nutty...combination of roof fingers and offwidth.
The Recovery Drink, although Nico Favresse didn't give it a grade after his FA, several world's best crack climbers have tried it a lot and failed, and rumor has it that it is around 9a (14d).
Damnit youtube......why didn't this show up in my sub feed yesterday? Getting sick of them deciding what I do and don't want to see in my subscription page. If I subbed I want to see it at least show up so I know it exists ><
I agree. I feel like, intentionally or not, 'smallness' is a way to undermine female accomplishment in climbing. We simply don't apply the same logic to tallness. When a tall male climber has a long reach and sends a long-reach crux we don't use that to undermine his accomplishment. We say bravo, that route is hard as fuck, and we expect others to dyno a little or come up with a new sequence.
Absolutely. So psyched Meltdown got a repeat. Surely all the critics fingers are feeling pretty fat right now.
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