Best Sport Route Per Grade

I feel like I have seen on the bouldering thread people who have made lists of what they see as the best boulders at each grade and I was wondering if anyone had done this for single pitch sport climbs? Say 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.1x a-d? Can't wait to see what people think!

5.10a: Lava Haul in Owens River Gorge

I say beer bong (ten sleep) should be in consideration for best 10b.

Additional nugget: this only spans the USA but climbing magazine did a pretty good top 100 sport routes a while back. It's organized by region/grade.

https://www.climbing.com/places/americas-100-best-sport-climbing-routes/

James Huffmanwrote:

I say beer bong (ten sleep) should be in consideration for best 10b.

Damn I thought you were joking until I saw it on that list. Can't believe that, its super short and the 'cool' part, the 5 ft stem box, isnt even needed, plenty of holds on the left wall. Maybe if you've never stemmed before you'd feel a pucker. Anywho, that thing was super overhyped, even within the canyon; compared to Big Bear Memorial which would only be 2 stars in the Red. 

These lists are fated to debate due to varying personal experiences and what makes 'a classic' (choss?) but nevertheless they spit out a lot of good routes to check out! 

Playin hooky (clear creek) 5.9 

Does it have to be in the US? Because if not, Wide Is Love in the Verdon is beyond amazing at 6a/.10b, and I rarely feel that way about 5.10 sport routes.

Anyway, here is my very biased list:

.10a, Boltaneer, El Rito

.10b, Wide is Love, Verdon Gorge (US-Surfing With Rednecks, Lime Park)

.10c, Grape Ape, Diablo Canyon

.10d, Malmstein, Rifle

.11a,  Feline, Rifle

.11b  Frapagalo, Kalymnos (US-Rumor Has It (Rifle)

.11c, Zoaster Toaster, Maple

.11d, Bullet to the Heart, Osp Cave (US- Drive By Shooting, Lime Park)

.12a, Cocaine Rodeo, Ten Sleep

.12b, Pinch Fest aka Pump Action, Rifle

.12c,  Space Lord, Maple

.12d,  Gluttony, The Tunnel

* not enough, if any, volume for opinions above these grades. 

.15d, Silence

.15c, La Dura Dura

.15b, Fight Club or Jumbo Love

.15a, Biographie

.14d, Dreamcatcher or Action Directe

Daniel Chode Riderwrote:

.15d, Silence

.15c, La Dura Dura

.15b, Fight Club or Jumbo Love

.15a, Biographie

.14d, Dreamcatcher or Action Directe

Bibliographie would be a much more classic 15d in the usual sense of something being a classic. You could make similar arguments that La Dura Dura is not as great as Move, Change, or Perfecto Mundo. 

What's the 'usual sense' of something being classic? Being the first and still unrepeated 9c+ seems like a good qualification for Silence. I could see Change, maybe not Perfecto Mundo, but I'd be curious to hear your rationale.

Silence is a climb known for being extremely unique and Ondra even alnowledged that multiple times, even stating that he doubts it will be repeated any time soon if not for difficulty but for the specificity and awkwardness is is known for.  Bibliography is very different, though being very similar to other climbs it climbs in a more straightforward way, I am not saying that makes it a classic route, but if I were strong enough to choose between the two routes I would choose the one that I could do without having to train calf raises and only the left side of my core for a single move for many months (as Ondra did). I think these things make the route harder than bibliographie from what I can tell, but make it weirder too. I get that not many of the hardest climbs in the world are not on limestone (aside from flatenger granite) and that this different style is usually a welcome difference by the worlds best climbers, but bibliographie just seems like a power endurance mega line that is at one of the most prolific climbing areas on the planet. And if biographie makes it onto your list as the most classic 15a in a field of hundreds, a ncluding climbs in flatenger,  bibliographie has to make it in a field of two.

Fair enough. I picked Biographie cause it was the first, also.

I didn’t realize that MP had so many 9a and above crushers!!!

Mucho Pumpito 5.10a Vinales, Cuba

Liam Coughlinwrote:

 Can't wait to see what people think!

You don’t have to wait. You can search the route database for 1 pitch sport routes at 1 grade at 3 or more stars and you get the answer for what MP users think. I did a quick search for 5.6 and the bolted 5.6 on headstone Rock in Joshua Tree comes up pretty high, with hundreds of people rating it very highly. But this analysis shows the issue with your question. People can only rate praise what they have climbed and very few (relatively) have climbed all over the world.

MP consensus up to 13a. Two images:

El Curvo (5.10d) on Mount Lemmon... I loved it.

King Me (5.11b) in RRG

My money is on Gracious Grant in AR as the best 5.10d sport climb I've ever seen or done in the US.  Probably per pound the best sport climb I've done, period.

Don't climb a ton of sport but have to agree with Mountain Project's Monkey Off my Back (8+), Edge of Time (9+), Space Boyz (10d), and Opportunist (11a). Don't know that I agree with Playin Hooky (8) and definitely not Royal Flush (9). I'm tempted to say Screamin Yellow Zonkers at Smith for 10b.

The MP ranking system includes weightings in it that highly prize the following characteristics:

1. Locations geographically distant from other classics. 

2. Number of tic-ers giving the climb 4 stars.

3. Multipitch.

4. Alpine.

5. Trad.

My personal list (extremely subjective, subject to change at any moment, and based on both movement and experience):

5.5  - Egg, Riffelberg, Matterhorn Area, Switzerland

5.6 - Led by Sheep, Zion, UT

5.7 - Can't really think of any...

5.8 - The Mellow Route at Gruner Pfiler, Kallmunz, DEU

5.9 - Prime Rib, Goat Wall, WA (for the sheer fun of all those mellow pitches)

5.10a - Carrots for Everyone, Ozone, OR

5.10b - Wanniger, Hundskopf, Kallmunz, DEU

5.10c - BBQ the Pope or Gumby, Smith, OR (because of the sandbags)

5.10d - The Devil Wears Spurs, Wild Iris, WY

5.11a - Three way tie! Goldilocks, Donner, CA; Heaven's Gate, Index, WA; Akku, Weisenstein, Frankenjura, DEU - all so good with good memories...

5.11b - Maraton, Donaudaubruch, DEU or Fuzzy Undercling, RRG, KY

5.11c - Yaak Crack, Red Rocks, NV (onsighting a jerk's project...)

5.11d - Ring of Fire, Smith, OR or Where the Wild Things Roam, Madrone, OR...different styles, both fun

5.12a - Back in the High Life, Traingleturm, Prunn, DEU and Wind and Rattlesnakes, Wild Iris, WY

5.12b - Super Mickey, Ceuse, FRA

5.12c - Penguin Lust, Donner, CA

5.12d - Dirtbag, Hundskopf, Kallmunz, DEU

5.13a - Ton-Ton, Pig Rock, NV (still unsent after the hold breakage and now harder...)

5.13b - Corpus Delicti, Keilstein, Altmuthal, DEU (unsent...yet?)

Can't speak to anything more after this...