UKH

Just back from a great 2 days in North Wales and it set me thinking about those climbs that have been on our tick lists for years (in this case 25 years) and we have never got around to doing them.

The climb in question in my case is Cemetery Gates. In 1990, a few months before my 30th birthday, I led Cenotaph corner as my first E1 lead and since then have visited the Cromlech on various occasions but for a variety of reasons never got on "the Gates" despite everyone I talk to being slightly incredulous when I say I have not climbed it.

Well yesterday I finally did it and enjoyed it immensely in near prefect conditions, with a great partner; but the biggest satisfaction was actually putting the tick in the book in the pub afterwards.

Yes, as all of us, that ticklist continues to grow the more crags we visit but I was wondering who else has had classic climbs of this nature on that list for so long?

In reply to nuts and bolts:

Feb 2018 I did the Magic Crack having wanted to do it since seeing it on The Edge documentary in 1994 so 24 years.  Saw it on the telly at 19, finally climbed it at 43!

In reply to DaveHK:

Must have given you a "Magic "feeling

In reply to nuts and bolts:

I was climbing with someone a couple days ago who told me he waited 20 years to lead Laugh Not (HVS 5b) in White Ghyll. I was pleased to have the opportunity to lead it myself later that day. A cracking climb.

Fortunately, I'm not yet old enough to have waited decades to have climbed something, but I have been wanting to climb anything on Scafell Crag, since I got the big FRCC coffee table book, Nowt burra fleein thing, for my 30th birthday, almost three years ago. Unfortunately, conditions, partners and opportunity have not yet coincided...

I was also hoping to do the Cullin Ridge traverse this year, with a plan to visit with a couple of friends pencilled in for a few months before the plan fell apart. I fear I may wait a while before that particular plan comes to fruition... Hopefully not 25 years though!

In reply to nuts and bolts:

20 years as a sub VS leader and still not got onto Tophet Wall. As I am still unable to climb for an indefinite period I fear it will slowly morph into Toolate Wall.

In reply to DaveHK:

Did you hammer the handle of your tool in to do the last move? 😀👍

In reply to nuts and bolts:

When living in Scotland in the mid 90s I went twice to Reiff and both times failed on the final moves of Westering Home (E1 5b). I got back there 3 years ago and fell off the final moves again. My mate led it, I seconded it and did it. He made me do the move a few more times, then we went back to the bottom had lunch and coffee, then I sent it. So it probably only took me 21 years to do! 

In reply to nuts and bolts:

I'm about 50% though the ticklist I drew up when I should have been studying for A levels in 1988. This list covered north Wales only (and not even including the slate or the Ormes). Since then there are thousands of routes added to the nominal list but the three most important will never get climbed.

In reply to nuts and bolts: I also did Cenotaph Corner as one of my earliest classic E 1's in about 1984 or 85 and at the time I looked up at Left Wall and though... one day I'll do that. In 2017 I was staying in the Climber Club hut with my son and over breakfast on the Sunday morning I read a magazine article by Ben Moon where he was offering advice to young climbers of today... " don't put things off until tomorrow, seize the moment" or words to that effect. So I said right lets go and do Left Wall, it went smoothly and we both got up cleanly. It was great to do the route at the top of my ticklist after 33 years,with my son who was born 10 years after I first looked at the route.

In reply to Martin Haworth:

The cromlech comes up so often on ticklists/dream routes!

Mine is Right Wall. Wanted to do it since I started climbing, but it was always an 'impossible' route. Until one day I was good enough and was persuaded not to be a chicken.

Ive got memory problems and remember very little about climbs. I can't remember the date, can't remember the moves, can't remember if I cruised it or jibbered up it. Can't even remember who belayed me (think it was Theo) but I can remember topping out and buzzing for a LONG time. If climbing gives me that feeling once a decade it's worth it.  

In reply to nuts and bolts:

There are quite a few super-classic routes that I haven't done even though I've been to the crags loads of times, but they're not a ticklist, they're an anti-ticklist.

Cenotaph Corner is one. I just don't think it looks like I'd get much out of it. A big long corner, with a cruxy bit. Just doesn't sound very good to me.

The Peapod. A slippery HVS chimney. I think I'd rather drink seawater.

Comes the Dervish. Some polished route in a busy quarry - worth doing if it's the only thing that's dry I suppose?

Vector. The faffiest way possible up a roadside outcrop - for those who really like belaying, but don't like getting too far from the nearest egg and chips. Whatever.

In reply to nuts and bolts:

Bonatti Pillar. Unfortunately, during the time I never got round to doing it, the f*cking thing fell down.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

To be fair you are not far off with that. I reckon vector is probably the worst route on that buttress, ditto cenotaph corner. Peapod is good tho. Not done come the dervish as no way I'm driving that far to climb in a quarry. 

In reply to Jon Stewart:

I'd put a tenner on you liking 'comes the dervish'

It's well cool. 

In reply to Rob Parsons:

Fortunately the Cassin Route on the Badile didn’t fall down in the 37 years it took me to get round to it a few weeks ago (although its neighbour, Cengalo, is doing its best)

In reply to deacondeacon:

Peapod’s not shit either... if you climb it well.

In reply to nuts and bolts:

The Cuillin Ridge has been on my ticklist since before I started climbing.  I've not even managed to climb on the Cioch, every time I go near the place the clouds start to lower. So avoid the place next May as I'll be having another go...

In reply to TobyA:

I did it as it's generally done these days by continuing up the crack. I'd go back for the 'full video tick'.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

You go too far- and you're arguing from a position of ignorance! 

How can you say that it isn't the line of the crag, or even the country?  And it's not as if the climbing is crap either.

Again, a strong inescapable line, it isn't really a chimney and the crux certainly isn't. 

It is a bit polished at the start but it's certainly no busier than Stanage - I've never seen a queue (despite the name of the quarry).  The climbing is brilliant after the nervy start.

I have some sympathy with you here.  Loads of history but a bit wandering and polished.  Much better routes on the crag and, indeed, on the buttress.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Let's be honest they're all brilliant. But Jon does have some very strong opinions life would be pretty shit if we all had the same opinions.  

In reply to Dave Garnett:

It's an obvious line alright. But I'd much rather climb on one of the walls rather than up a corner. Is that allowed? Walls are nice and open an airy and exciting, whereas corners are generally quite trudgy and dull. They only way that they can be challenging is by having no footholds, which isn't a style of climbing I enjoy.

Every horrible gully is a strong inescapable line, but it doesn't mean I'm going to start climbing them. I did that route at Wimberry that looks exactly the same as Peapod and I hated it. Squirming around getting tired legs. It was a total ballache.

No I don't think it is, but it is a route in a busy quarry. I'm not saying it's a shit route - I'd go and do it after work if it was down the road, or if I'd never climbed slate it would be worth a look for the novelty, but these don't apply. I've got no reason to go and do it other than it being famous. Maybe one day I will, but I'll be extremely surprised if it's particularly memorable, it doesn't look it.

As Cenotaph Corner, history doesn't really make a route a better experience. It often means that it's an obvious line, but not here!

The routes that have been on my ticklist for decades are those which are now just a bit too hard for me, and I didn't manage to do them at the time when I was capable. Since I could get better again and do them, they haven't dropped off the list, but they could very well end up being ones that got away:

Pan, Splendour, White Wizard, Prozac Link, Strangler, Wonderwall

And there are some that are just damn hard to get to, i.e. Scottish mountain routes like Angel Face. I reckon that will be a cathartic experience if and when I finally manage to do it!

In reply to Jon Stewart:

The climbing is not particularly special, but the situation is absolutely extraordinary. There's a really weird and spectacular sense of perspective as you bridge out between those huge walls. Strange that no one ever mentions this, the most extraordinary feature of the whole route. I guess Carnmore Corner in the far north-west might have the same quality.

Again, you are wildly off-beam with your assessment here. It is NOT a 'HVS chimney'. It is one of the most fascinating/interesting rock features I've ever climbed. It uses chimneying and bridging, and jamming techniques, very subtle, awkward and thin in a way no chimney ever is. Then at the top, it's not a chimney at all, but an abandonment of the groove by a completely different style of climbing, that's hard, thin and precarious ... and then, as if that's not enough, there's a very pumpy final jamming crack. One of the very best routes I've ever done on gritstone, probably worth 5* because it's just so pure and unique. In mho, just E1, sustained 5B. I'm trying to think of a gritstone route that's as good that I've done: perhaps Old Friends. Later edit: Oh, of course, Five Finger Exercise and Fern Hill - absolutely brilliant ("nearly as good as Peapod" )

Haven't done.

This is a mind-bogglingly good route. Not an ounce of crap from beginning to end. So varied technically. Arguably not quite as good as The Weaver, but they are just so surprisingly different, and complement each other perfectly. All the rest on that buttress look superb, particularly Cream.

What a weird post. Next you'll be telling us that Yosemite or Joshua Tree are crap, or nearer to home, things like Centurion, Dream-Liberator or the Axe on Cloggy aren't worth doing.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

I've done the Weaver and it didn't leave that much of an impression. I think being on a wooded outcrop by a busy A-road makes it forgettable.

The only one of those I know is Dream-Liberator, which is extremely memorable, and amazing adventure. I don't think I'd like Yosemite routes very much but I'd like to go hiking there for the scenery.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

You don't mention that the dolerite at Tremadoc is one of the greatest climbing rock types in the world for quality and technical interest. If only there were big crags up in the mountains made of the same stuff. The wings of the Mot are inferior, and face the wrong way.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Faces the wrong way?

One of my favourite routes ever was '10 degrees north'. Like climbing grit in the mountains. Lovely 

In reply to deacondeacon:

Well, they face north, and get too much drainage and not enough sun. But where you say is brilliant, and for some reason, cleaner: I've done Plexus (twice) and Nexus (but not 10 deg north). Superb, agreed. Wish there was more of it.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Hi Jon

i did the Cromlech the wrong way round, so did the Corner after I’d done some of the routes on the side walls. I thought it was a product of its time, and a bit disappointing. However, it’s subjective, if you’re working your way up from HVS, it’s a big tick. FYI, Dream Liberator is head and shoulders the best route I’ve ever done.

Back to the OP, my long term ticklist is pure and beautifully formed. I’ve ticked a fair few, and have been bought to a complete impasse by a couple of routes at Rivelin. John Allen gritstone routes. Finger boarding can help, but I’m not getting any braver. I fear I may not complete the list, because I’m not getting any younger. 

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

So that's why Auchinstarry is so famous worldwide! 🤣

In reply to nuts and bolts:

Elder Crack had been on my list for over 40 years until I did it a few weeks ago and just after failing to lead Peapod, which I had climbed 40 years ago after being inspired by a black and white picture of it in Rock Sport magazine. Glad it's now off the list!

In reply to nuts and bolts:

Most of my 'global tick list' seems to be winter-oriented.  The vague possibility of a certain route in Canada is looming, although that might not last beyond setting eyes on it, assuming we ever get there.   The level of interest in a particular tick can be gauged at password reset time.....

In reply to DaveHK:

Damn Dave. We'll never climb this together then. I have the video clip tick and need to go back for the upward finish.

TobyA: I never hammered my tools in! 

In reply to C Witter:

If you're looking for more inspiration, ask for a copy of this for your next birthday - a lovely historical read:

https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/categories/millrace-outdoor/the-centra...

In reply to Rob Parsons:

Better than the alternative...

In reply to jonny taylor:

Ta for the link! Looks interesting!

In reply to Dave Garnett:

I did the Cassin Route on the Badile, the NW Ridge of the Cengalo, and the Bonatti Pillar on the Dru in a ten day period in 1971 with Brian Hall. All were superb routes on fantastically solid rock. It's hard to believe that two of them have fallen down or are in the process of falling down. 

I suppose it's a bit of a object lesson for life. Grab your opportunities while you can, because they may not (indeed probably won't) come round again!