UKH

Thanks to our meticulously designed logbooks, photo galleries and forums, we are privy to plenty of numerical data on people's, climbing, photography and forum habits. You can keep track of your own peaks and troughs, but what were the annual trends in 2016? Paul Phillips delved deep into the UKC and UKH data mines to see what he could find and produced these interactive graphs...

Read more

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

The graph for ascents and time of year is interesting. An amazingly high peak for trad in May (surprising considering the weather wasn't markedly better than the other months) and slight drop across all disciplines in June (again surprising considering how good it was early June).

In reply to Michael Gordon:

May has the best window for lower grade trad (long days, fewer midges) and two bank holidays. What surprised me is that Limestone beat Grit.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Looks like I missed 30th place in number of routes done by 4 - must try harder!


Chris

In reply to Offwidth:


Could be a good sign...UKC expanding it's horizons beyond the borders of sheffield and yorkshire.

In reply to Offwidth:

There is a lot more Limestone in the world to play on I guess.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

This doesn't answer the most important question. What are the % grade breakdowns!

In reply to Chris Craggs:
I reckon Robin Nicholls deserves a trophy. That is an amazing number of routes to climb in one year.
More than most will climb in a lifetime.

In reply to deacondeacon:

Is he climbing trad/sport or bouldering I wonder? Maybe all 3, great effort

In reply to Steve Perry:

A quick scan suggests bouldering. An 8A climber keeping track of all the font 3s and 4s he's done is dedicated to his logbook to say the least. Looks like a strong fella.

In reply to deacondeacon:



Not a patch on Mr. Nichols' 2015, where he ticked 3001 routes/problems! That's like 8 routes/problems every single day over the entire year. When you take in to account bad weather, poor skin, lack of psyche, ...!

Perhaps even more impressive is that he's somehow managed to fit some hard climbing in with all that volume!

His logbook is public, so you can have a look here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/showgraph.html?id=143542

In reply to Michael Gordon:


Revision (cough) in May, exams in June?

In reply to UKC/UKH News:
I wonder if there is an inversely proportional relationship between number of routes climbed and amount of drivel posted in the forum.

In reply to Escher:

A pretty strong correlation I imagine lol

In reply to Chris Craggs:



Happy New Year, Chris

In reply to jon:


.....and the same to you,


C

In reply to remus:
It's the hard climbing and longer routes that impress in such volume. I've only ever been a solid VS leader and when mainly ticking easier grit for the guidebooks and our "Offwidth" website I climbed well over 1500 routes (for my first time) in a year, several times, and I think approaching a thousand repeats in addition annually. This is just from the totals I recorded and the average time in years it took (and conservative estimates of things I rechecked and many old favorites I soloed numerous times and of my holiday routes: mainly the US, other parts of the UK and Font) and after this, well over a thousand first time boulder problems and a thousand routes annually for a few years in a row (again most for the first time). It was normal for me on full check mode to do 30+ route days or 50+ problem days several times a week in pretty average weather from the start of spring to the end of autumn. I was lucky at the time that my job was comforable and enjoyable for me and of course very flexible and my very tolerant and enthusiastic climbing partners. I was also writing notes on the climbs, typing these up, using it to edit scripts and updating "Offwidth", so I could have climbed a good bit more. I shudder to think what a talented full time climber could do with a voracious appetite for climbs below their limit. Some of these old prolific grit locals must have easily beaten 5000 as thats only a hundred days of 50 solos. Pete Bridgwood of course famously did 600 in a day http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item/70537/interview_pete_bridgwood_solos_60...

In reply to remus:


Or a bad sign - I wonder how much of that limestone was of the bolted yorkshire variety

In reply to Offwidth:


Ive done 1000 in a year, in the past but I don't log repeats or when I'm seconding. I'm fairly sure my actual number would triple that as I used to solo lots and lots especially at Stanage.
About ten years ago it was pretty common to bump into 'big Ron' at Stanage and he had a voracious appetite for doing multiple routes and Boulder problems in a day. I'm sure his logbook would have a rediculous amount of routes logged.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Love the article, thanks a lot, all good stuff. The "Busiest Months" graph is great. But sorry to tell you that Heather Wall appears twice in the "Which were the most popular routes?" graph.

In reply to abseil:
That's because there's more than one route called Heather Wall

In reply to deacondeacon:


You got me there! (I knew it was too good to be true). Thanks...... and Happy New Year

In reply to flaneur:

Ha! Perhaps, though if the graph was that influenced by students I'd expect to see more stuff logged in July/Aug

In reply to Michael Gordon:
Surely the May bump is because it contained two bank holiday weekends.

If you look at the popular crags, it's obvious that limestone has scored higher than grit only because there are lots of limestone sport crags that people get lots of ticks at on holiday. The uk crags all have very low numbers. Having said that, limestone routes are mostly longer than grit routes too, and if you are sporr climbing in your local area you are more likely to be working a project soconly ticking 1 route a month or whatever.

In reply to Si dH:

50% of limestone routes are proabably at Saddle Head on a bank holiday.

In reply to GrahamD:


You obviously haven't been to Horseshoe Quarry or The Cuttings on any dry weekend then.

Alan

In reply to Offwidth:

That figure must be due to the sport climbing all being on lime right?
Suppose then add a bit of bouldering and trad and its top.

Would be good to see lime split by trad and sport.
I had both high tor and sections of stoney to myself on weekends this year, never find myself on my own at Rubicon tho...

In reply to BloodyJam:
I do a fair bit of limestone trad through the summer and you're right, there's very few people at the crags tradding. Surprising really as Stoney and High Tor are fantastic although I suppose you have to be getting into the E numbers to get the best of them.
If any lower grade climbers are reading this and have always been put off by limestone because it's a Choss filled, polished mess get down to Staden Quarry. Absolutely brilliant!

I always hated limestone. I'd go once a year when the midgies were to bad on grit, end up on some polished abomination like Froth (a VS at Stoney) then run away with my tale between my legs. But a little perseverance, and getting used to it shows that there's hundreds more 2&3 star routes on my doorstop.


Tl;dr: climb limestone trad, it's better than you think

In reply to BloodyJam:


Good suggestion. I'm away on holiday at the mo but I'll turn that into a segmented bar chart when I'm back.

In reply to Paul Phillips - UKC and UKH:

Have a good holiday, back to work for me tomorrow

Thanks.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Has the percentage of trade versus sport changed over the years? If so,how much?

In reply to Michael Gordon:


Nah, students nowadays all have to work in the summer! (Except the gap year travellers).

In reply to BloodyJam:

I've added that extra graph. It was a bit too cumbersome to show discipline split for all the rock types in the original chart so just did the top ones.