Best route on the 7 continents

That's right, best, not highest.

That's the premise of the new book "Seven Climbs: Finding the finest climb on each continent," which just came out a couple months ago. I haven't read it, but it's an interesting premise for sure. This will be a controversial list without any doubt, but the authors suggest (this is publicly viewable on the table of contents on the preview, and as such seems like fair use to me):

Europe: 1938 Eiger nordwand route
N America: The Nose of El Cap
S America: SW face of Alpamayo (standard route)
Africa: a traverse on the highest summits of Mount Kenya
Oceania: the standard Linda Glacier route on Mount Cook
Antarctica: a traverse of South Georgia Island (is this cheating?)
Asia: SW ridge of Ama Dablam

Hard to argue that any of those aren't ultra classic. Would anyone suggest a swap? I can easily see an argument for something in Patagonia over Alpamayo for those partial to having some rock in their climbs, and Asia just has so much picking a single best route seems utterly impossible.

I do like the idea that you don't have to be a super-pro to be able to do any of these. You have to be a good climber, but there are dedicated weekend warriors who can do this list if they had the financial resources for all of the traveling.

Haven’t climbed it yet but I’d like to think the beckey-chouinard in the bugaboos

This is like picking the best meal from each continent. I mean, sure... it's possible... But I'd at least make a distinction between rock/mixed/ice/mountaineering. Otherwise you're going to have to choose between pizza and pasta.

Dylan Colonwrote: That's right, best, not highest.

That's the premise of the new book "Seven Climbs: Finding the finest climb on each continent," which just came out a couple months ago. I haven't read it, but it's an interesting premise for sure. This will be a controversial list without any doubt, but the authors suggest (this is publicly viewable on the table of contents on the preview, and as such seems like fair use to me):

Europe: 1938 Eiger nordwand route
N America: The Nose of El Cap
S America: SW face of Alpamayo (standard route)
Africa: a traverse on the highest summits of Mount Kenya
Oceania: the standard Linda Glacier route on Mount Cook
Antarctica: a traverse of South Georgia Island (is this cheating?)
Asia: SW ridge of Ama Dablam

Hard to argue that any of those aren't ultra classic. Would anyone suggest a swap? I can easily see an argument for something in Patagonia over Alpamayo for those partial to having some rock in their climbs, and Asia just has so much picking a single best route seems utterly impossible.

I do like the idea that you don't have to be a super-pro to be able to do any of these. You have to be a good climber, but there are dedicated weekend warriors who can do this list if they had the financial resources for all of the traveling.

The 38 route on the Eiger N Face isn't even the best or finest route on the N Face let alone Europe so I'll assume the rest of the book is garbage as well.

Jim Tittwrote:

The 38 route on the Eiger N Face isn't even the best or finest route on the N Face let alone Europe so I'll assume the rest of the book is garbage as well.

Ok, I'll bite.

I haven't set foot on that mountain, though I have spent some time near it. I think it's clear that no one will argue that the quality of individual pitches of climbing anywhere on that route even approaches world class, but the setting is almost unparalleled in the Alps, and the 1938 route has the distinction of being the line of weakness up the face, which while perhaps not as aesthetic as a directissima, gets major points for being logical and uncontrived.

The Alps are full of stuff like this, another example being the Hörnligrat, which is stunning to look at but doesn't climb all that well. It kind of comes down to whether good aesthetics or good climbing is more important in determining whether a route is classic, which is obviously a highly subjective call.

Got a Europe suggestion? 

I'm currently re-reading Terray's Conquistadors of the Useless, and he makes it sound like repeating the 1938 Eiger route was one of the worst mountaineering experiences of his life with poor rock, verglas and tricky conditions, and he didn't want to go near the Eiger again. Rébuffat may have said something similar in Starlight and Storms? (He certainly thinks that the Hörnli ridge is a massive pile of choss, just like Terray - beautiful to look at from a distance but dreadful when you get closer.) (Also, don't get me wrong, the Eiger is still an incredible summit.)

So, keeping in mind that "best route" is obviously very arbitrary, surely the Walker spur is a stronger contendent than the Eigerwand? The line is more logical and as historically significant, the summit is as iconic and from what I've read the rock isn't at all rotten. Also the North face of the Drus for the same reasons? (Or even better the Bonatti pillar when it was still standing...)

(Obviously this is some serious armchairing, I haven't done and won't do any of those routes (well hopefully maybe the Drus someday))

Half Dome routes are just as special as El Capitan. Dawn & evening on the walls is not to missed.

From what I've heard the Dru is really not doing so hot in the climate change rock quality deterioration department. See Colin Haley's recent instagram post. Hard to imagine the north face of that being more classic than the Walker Spur, at any rate. 

The Eiger seems like a weird case in that all of the early ascents found it a horrifying experience, and I think Harrer said in The White Spider he didn't think anyone would ever be dumb enough to do it twice, but at least a few locals use it as a training day lap, and it even gets guided sometimes. Maybe this is due to better equipment and more fixed gear? It's definitely still a chosspile though.

Here's an interesting modern perspective from Steve House ("one of the most brilliant routes I have ever climbed"):
https://www.uphillathlete.com/climb-eiger-north-face/

Dylan Colonwrote:

Ok, I'll bite.

I haven't set foot on that mountain, though I have spent some time near it. I think it's clear that no one will argue that the quality of individual pitches of climbing anywhere on that route even approaches world class, but the setting is almost unparalleled in the Alps, and the 1938 route has the distinction of being the line of weakness up the face, which while perhaps not as aesthetic as a directissima, gets major points for being logical and uncontrived.

The Alps are full of stuff like this, another example being the Hörnligrat, which is stunning to look at but doesn't climb all that well. It kind of comes down to whether good aesthetics or good climbing is more important in determining whether a route is classic, which is obviously a highly subjective call.

Got a Europe suggestion? 

Yeah but you are changing the criteria from "best" or "finest" to classic. I've an acquaintance who's climbed every route on the N Face (he's climbed it 16 times) and he says the best one is Symphonie de Liberte  but maybe UIAA 10- puts it out of reach for most. If you want Alpine then there's an infinite number of better routes and since the criteria doesn't appear to be alpine anyway almost every route in Europe is actually better. Stuff like the Bonatti Pillar or the American are far better climbing.

Disagree.

 N. America - Plumbers Crack, Las Vegas NV.

It's a secret.

I haven't climbed the traverse on Mt. Kenya yet, but from what I can tell, there's very little actual climbing on it. I imagine that it's more about the summit and position.

Meanwhile, Table Mountain in Cape Town is incredibly unique with awesome movement and position. Pulling foods on a steep wall over the ocean is pretty incredible. I don't know all of the routes well enough to nominate a single line, but I think that the best climbing in Africa is found there. 

The 38 route on the Eiger N Face isn't even the best or finest route on the N Face let alone Europe so I'll assume the rest of the book is garbage as well.

Same for the Nose on El Cap - Salathe a better route!

There was a blue route at my gym about a year ago that was awesome

Dylan Colonwrote: Got a Europe suggestion? 

Peuterey Integral ridge on the Mont Blanc?

It was never clear to me whether the "classic climbs" or "finest climbs" lists are using "climb" as a place: a "climbing route" -- or as an act: an "ascent."  A particular ascent can be an outstanding achievement even if the underlying climbing it took to get there is crappy.

Isn't doing the route part of assessing "best?"