Quest For The Most Aesthetic

Stemming corner: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/109561280/the-shadow or https://rockandice.com/climbing-news/5-13-first-free-ascents-in-chile/ 

Crack: https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/111352477/blood-on-the-crack-pitch-tom-egan-memorial-route-snowpatch-spire;

or https://www.mountainproject.com/route/107234305/cobra-crack 

Arete: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106916812/arete-style-dysfunction or Ney-Palm Arete (local biased pick)

Exposure: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105848762/east-ridge or Cosmic Wall.

Slab: Hall Of Mirrors looks sick (but probably isn't the most aesthetic) https://www.mountainproject.com/route/109538712/hall-of-mirrors 

Face: couldn't think of any off the top of my head (give me some!)

Prove me wrong! Post up.

Probably not “most”, but a pretty good pic.

Photo by Josh Elliot

A contender for the arete:   Scirocco, at the Needles

Speaking purely of aesthetics... Edge of Time has to be mentioned.

The wildly splitter cracks of the Lotus Flower Tower...

Perhaps the corner of the Grand Wall in Squamish...

Looking for a face? The Monkey Face at Smith Rock has just a bit of history behind it...

I feel like we could go on for awhile. Whatever the hell that thing Gaston Rébuffat was hanging off of is about as aesthetic a position as this earth possesses. 

Happened to read Leo Houlding's story of climbing the prophet while procrastinating at work this morning... The A1 beauty has got to be up there with Blood on the Crack as most aesthetic crack... and it turns the wildly exposed arete at the top.

New nominee for face: 

Nice contender for the arete mountainproject.com/route/1…

Arete: mountainproject.com/route/1…

Instead of "Exposure" maybe change it to Ridge?. What about adding "Roofs" as a category?

Lexí Rowrote:

Nice contender for the arete mountainproject.com/route/1…

Arete winner so far imo. 

For both the crack and exposure categories: Salathe Headwall

Changing corners for stemming/arete?  I guess it really depends how you go about it.  Works for exposure too.

Nate Awrote:

Probably not “most”, but a pretty good pic.

Photo by Josh Elliot

Never thought I'd see Goose Egg and aesthetic used near each other, except ironically. 

New catagory: Roofs ( planetmountain.com/en/news/…)

Also: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105884551/predator and https://gripped.com/news/mike-doyle-sends-shining-uncut-5-14-mount-louis/ 

I propose dihedrals be a new category, sometimes they are different than stem corners. 

Wunches dihedral is pretty proud, but I guess you might call it a crack.

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105752347/wunschs-dihedral

Face: Bachar-Yerian

Seth Bleazardwrote:

New catagory: Roofs ( planetmountain.com/en/news/…)

Also: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105884551/predator and https://gripped.com/news/mike-doyle-sends-shining-uncut-5-14-mount-louis/ 

The thing about predator that isn’t really captured is that you can see it from so so far away at rumney 

The most esthetic chimney.

Plumbers Crack.  Las Vegas, NV

Kristian Solemwrote:

A contender for the arete:   Scirocco, at the Needles

The Exposure of Scirocco is real. Well-spaced bolts, sustained climbing...bonus points if you get on this one in the afternoon after the winds in the notch pick up quite a bit

Edit to add: if we add a chimney category, i’ll throw in The Spell as one of the most aesthetic chimneys out there mountainproject.com/route/1…

Lone Pinewrote:

The Exposure of Scirocco is real. Well-spaced bolts, sustained climbing...bonus points if you get on this one in the afternoon after the winds in the notch pick up quite a bit

Edit to add: if we add a chimney category, i’ll throw in The Spell as one of the most aesthetic chimneys out there mountainproject.com/route/1…

I was going to mention that one too, as well as the Mystery Dihedrals on Romantic Warrior for the stemming prize, but I didn't want to come off as a total Needles junkie...