What do you think is the hardest e6 in the UK, my mate did stage fright the other day and it looked horrendous for e6
Rays Roof is E7 in current guidebooks (as you well know) but I doubt it would be harder than the sandbag E6s out there.
Stage Fright is steady, well protected by the difficult moves especially since Rob added another peg into the cluster at the top of the groove. Obviously fairly run out but it does get easier.
I guess there is the hardest e6 & then the scariest e6 be really cool to know what they were.
Hell's Wall (E6 6c) at 7c/+ is up there for e6's but it is a sport route....
Gigglin' Crack (E6 6c)? if its even climbing....... Horrendous stuff, I've since deleted Brimham from memory.
At least Pete repeated that. I wonder how many Nadin E6s are still unrepeated (I can't access the grit list for some reason to check... and I'm not sure the terrifying looking creaky roof E6 stuff on Great Gate is even on those lists). There are others in past discussions here... did Caff get round to doing Borderline on Scafell? Rays Roof is almost a trade route in comparison with some of these obscurites.... Also by hard for E6 I assumed we were talking adjectivally.
Borderlines around f7b & given e7 these days, definitely tough on paper.
Along with borderline quite alot of Berzins routes in the lakes have had subtle upgrades I think ataxia was his route & its brutal even at e6, were all getting soft!
Another vote for Hells Wall. Not sure Its ever been onsighted?
Giggling crack isnt that bad really. Just not very regular climbing
A Couple I thought were tough for e6 -
King of Kings - anglezarke
Master of Reality - Hen Cloud (Only if the bottom is climbed straight up the wall without recourse to the left arete)
> At least Pete repeated that. I wonder how many Nadin E6s are still unrepeated (I can't access the grit list for some reason to check... and I'm not sure the terrifying looking creaky roof E6 stuff on Great Gate is even on those lists). There are others in past discussions here... did Caff get round to doing Borderline on Scafell? Rays Roof is almost a trade route in comparison with some of these obscurites.... Also by hard for E6 I assumed we were talking adjectivally.
Heya
I am sure some of the E6s at Iron Crag are as hard as nailz.
There is only one and it seems fair for the grade??
> There is only one and it seems fair for the grade??
You are right - there is only one E6 there!
I wouldn't know as I have never climbed there but I do know two people who have climbed there.
Sav
> Stage Fright is steady, well protected by the difficult moves especially since Rob added another peg into the cluster at the top of the groove. Obviously fairly run out but it does get easier.
Looks interesting
> I guess there is the hardest e6 & then the scariest e6 be really cool to know what they were.
> Hell's Wall (E6 6c) at 7c/+ is up there for e6's but it is a sport route....
Is it a sport route because if the pegs?
In a thread of mine, I asked what is meant what is fingery climbing.
> Gigglin' Crack (E6 6c)? if its even climbing....... Horrendous stuff, I've since deleted Brimham from memory.
MS
Conan the Librarian given E6 in the guidebook, Gogarth North. E7 on UKC: https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/gogarth_north_stack_and_main_cliff...
> Giggling crack isnt that bad really. Just not very regular climbing
On sight soloed in shorts and t shirt by Terry Hirst many moons ago.
Incantations (E6 6b) seems to be lacking ascents in logbooks, and it's quite a well known route
I would also offer Menstrual Gossip (E6 6b) and Boys Will Be Boys (E6 6b).
> On sight soloed in shorts and t shirt by Terry Hirst many moons ago.
Something in Pembroke that was first done with pegs, and offered safe but physical, sustained climbing, and is now bold as hell due to demise of the pegs. Light at the end of the runnel for example.
And also Jerry Peel, no?
In reply to Jon Read; BwbB can’t be hard because it was my first E6, though I wouldn’t have cared to onsight it.
In reply to GedD: It’s funny ‘cos it’s true!
jcm
Wasn't meant to be funny! I bet there's a few old E6 that are worth e8 now. 7b+ climbing with no protection.
Could be two different questions:
What's the most undergraded E6? (i.e. gets E6 in guidebook but should be E8)
What's the hardest route that consensus would maintain is correctly graded at E6?
Either way you won't get a meaningful answer!
> For the record, I sussed out the entry moves to get established in the crack & then put on a rugby shirt for the solo. Bit more sensible attire for arm barring & general thrutching towards the top.
Ya big softie, no wonder you moved down south !
> Ya big softie, no wonder you moved down south !
Yep, I could have understood multiple crashpads (didn’t exist back then) and/or kneepads (didn’t exist back then) but the rugby shirt admission has seriously knocked my immense respect for Terry's climbing prowess.
Pete.
I thought the established grade for that one was E7 7a -- a bit different esp the tech grade!
A good example of why it’s always worth consulting the local definitive guide!
I'd presumed it got re-graded as a result of feedback.
Am I right in thinking you'd done it (or have I completely imagined that)?! If so, what were your thoughts?
> The Cure for a Sick Mind (E6 6b) is 8a, famously reachy, and with only 5 bolts in 45m of climbing, it must be one of the hardest!
Even the best protected trad 8a’s are by definition E7 as the first UK sport routes of that grade were graded E7 before french grades quickly became the norm
Martin Berzins and his partner sieged the much sought after line together but it was the steel fingered Chris Sowden who ultimately solved the crux sequence of Borderline and graded it E6 at the time.
https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/scafell_east_buttress-681/borderli...
Yeah I have Rob (though Caff might disagree!). You do some hard climbing, then the crux of Rainbow and then some substantially harder climbing than anything on the crux of Rainbow. Plus you have the gripper clipper, which I extended, as I believe was done on the first ascent. Way more sustained and harder than Rainbow which gets E6 6b! The original E7 7a is much more representative for an onsight than E6 6b in my opinion.
There are a few ridiculously hard ones on grit. Clock People Clock People (E6 6c) (Fawcett, 1984) has a crux which is at least Font 7b+. Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand Adam Smith's Invisible Hand (E6 6b) would be a very hard on-sight being gymnastic F7b+ above questionable fixed gear.
I’ve done a few of the ones mentioned and agree the Lakes has some of the harder ones.
Peak Lime as well. All Systems Go All Systems Go (E6 6c) is probably worth F7c. If you fell off the last move of the crux sequence you’d be very close to the deck.
White Hotel The White Hotel (E6 6c) felt hard when I failed miserably on it.
It’s also well protected. E for effort.
All the high grade E,s at Iron Crag are hard for the grade and all you need to know is Western Union is a Dougie Hall route, the best on sight leader I ever climbed with and that includes Ron.
I'm not sure who provided the feedback, but if it was someone like Caff or Pete then the downgrade doesn't surprise me - they're too good to provide a reliable opinion on a route's actual difficulty 😂
I'll send a quick email to Mark, just so it can be adjusted as/when the next edition comes out.
Hi re: Cure for a Sick Mind.
so I can’t remember if it was Caff or someone else’s feedback for cure. Or indeed whether I spooned 6 rather than 7 on the keyboard as I was typing the route, followed by an oversight by several document checkers, human error sorry. I remember some of the lines were tweaked as the result of the checkers who had climbed the harder routes on the rainbow so they better represent the line climbed.
I’ll get the grade changed in the master document later today and update UKC logbooks as well. As I am working on a massive update for the app and a 2nd edition of the NWC book at the moment which are not due until the end of the year at the earliest.
I would agreed that at E6 it seems a bit of a sandbag. But I’ll check with Caff face to face to see if he gives a wry smile if he says E6. As he loves a sandbag. He jokingly suggested Meltdown was 8c+ because another local was getting close and he didn’t want two 9a climbers in the area! He was more than happy when the second local 9a climber was a Cumbrian lass though!
Thanks for the feedback. All gratefully received.
https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/deer_bield_crag-352/pretty_in_pink...
This might be a contender?
How about War and Peace at Craig Doris?
https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/craig_doris-8161/war_and_peace-134...