UKH

A lockdown musing whilst thumbing through the latest edition of Hard Rock, I wondered if you were to make a similar book but about bouldering which boulders would you add? Same premise as hard rock a collection of essays and pictures of boulders all around the country. You could split it into grades similar to classic hard and extreme. But for now what boulders would you add any grade and place in the UK?

You could call it Small Rock

Out of interest, what grades would be similar to "classic hard and extreme"? I like the title, but as per the Hard Rock thread where I think this was mentioned, my main concern would be encouraging further traffic (and therefore damage) to a few classic lines.

Cool hypothetical topic. To answer the above, I have always felt like the difficulty 'tiers' in boulder land at:

<=6B+ equivalent to classic

6C-7B equivalent to hard

7B+=< equivalent to extreme

A few boulders off the top of me head (I am Welsh based, so Gog will be well represented):

Classic:

Crescent Arête (f5+) almost perfect, if not for the poor landing

Egg Arête (f6B) this could easily be my unbounded love for this problem, perhaps not quite book worthy!

The Ramp (V1) the only 10 star problem in the UK

Morrell's Wall (f6A+)

Hard:

Malc's Arete (f7B)

Tempest (f7A)

The Incredible Shaking Man sds (f7B)

Extreme:

Wavelength (V8+)

Deliverance (f7B+)

Careless Torque (f8A)

Voyager (f8B)

Blood Sport (f8A+)

And probably a load of mad prows up in the county/yorkshire.

There are so many.

Fancy writing it ? Sounds great !

F5's & 6's are classic, 7-7c are hard and 7c+ and over are extreme.

Sounds like a great book  

Like it! But I think the essays would need to be scaled down equivalently to concise little ditties.

Crescent Arete, V2

Seven meters high it's soaring

A blade of rock that's never boring

Get through that crux that's in the middle

Top out, go home, call in at Lidl

What's up with the Crescent Arete landing? I haven't done it for a while. 

I agree with your concern over increased traffic especially on such short classics. But it would be a nice addition to a bookshelf and most classics are pretty well known anyway. As for the grade split yeah something like Classic up to 6a+ Hard 6b-7b+ Extreme 7c-8c I think would work well.

An ever changing subjective list, off the top of my head, some suggestions of problems that just popped into my brain...

Caseg Groove (V5)

Hueco Crack (ss) (f7A)

Not to be Taken Away (f6C)

Made In Heaven (V4)

Angel Deelite (f7A)

Perrin's Crack (V2)

The Incredible Shaking Man sds (f7B)

Lily Savage (V8)

An interesting idea.

I'm surprised how high people's grade boundaries are. I would put Hard Rock at 6A to 7A based on having some  easyclimbs and a couple just below my limit. The extreme version I'd go from about 6B upwards, but leaving towards mostly 7s with an 8A max. I guess it depends if you're basing it on how the books compared with the standards of the day or with today's standards.

Got to agree with Will. The grade boundaries mentioned above are barmy.  I've done a few hard rock routes, and could probably do some of the easier extreme rock routes if I put the effort in.... But haven't climbers any boulders above 6b

But if you're buying a hypothetical coffee table book about bouldering, you'll probably be a boulderer, which means "it really starts at V8+".

seem to remember you tumble off a step if you fall

This is a great idea!

Classic: <6C

Hard: 6C - 7C

Extreme: >7C

If it's a book about bouldering produced in the 2020s, there's no place for anything less than 7C in the extreme category. And to be honest, you'd really be looking at harder than that, but if you're producing a coffee table book of great looking climbs and essays you're going to need to expand the Extreme grade boundary down so that it's not just full of ratty 8Cs in limestone shitholes!

I'd put Matterhorn Arete into the Classic book over Morrell's Wall any day.

Would it be heavily Peak biased, or are there sufficient 'classic' problems scattered around the country to make it worthwhile?

Probably like the others - mainly Wales and Scotland, but the Peak would get a small section (perhaps about the same as Yorkshire and Dartmoor - and the Bowderstone)

😉

Cool idea. 

North Wales:
The Pinch (V7)

Dorset:
Lightning Strike (f7A+)

Dartmoor:
No match for climb id:36870