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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan has a good point - difficult always includes a subjective element. Conditions, the climber's ability and limitations, etc. Someone's bumbling first lead, a 5.6 with sketchy protection and terrible insecurity, may be harder relative to ability and experience than a hone-master's on sight solo of a 5.11.
I believe my most difficult on-sight would have been some 'easy' 5.11 slab at Squamish, perhaps Dancing in the Light.
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Matt
Trad climber
primordial soup
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randy-
it ain't hair, but the pink part, well...
edit-
since i left out my story, it was my 1st ever trip to IC, i had never placed much gear in sandstone before, at least not on routes where i might actually fall, so i was a bit skeptical.
the only reason i made it up cleanly was because i guessed right on the gear from the ground and i'd racked it up in the order i needed it it. i wasn't as smooth or as technically sound as i'd like to remember myself being, and i laid it back more than i would now.
it gets small at the top, going to green aliens for a body length or more, so i had 2 of those and got one in early in the thin section, then i climbed above it by punching a bit. pumping out, i shook and i matched back and forth on a couple of tips only finger locks with my feet pretty high, then i tried to place the other green alien i had on my harness, or to be more precise, i tried desperately to get to the other green alien, but i'd racked it on the right and i was leaning hard on the right side, so i just couldn't get to it!
my feet were up above my gear, i'd never fallen on gear in sandstone, and i had a tiny little alien about an inch in the crack down below me. as i struggled to get the other green alien off my right side, the alien below grew smaller and smaller, and i was sure it was moving further below me too. i was really uncomfortable with the idea of falling right there (allthough some dean potter vids have proven that i was just being a pussy).
i seriously must have gone back and forth between shaking and reaching for the gear for well over a minute, and i was hanging out right in the middle of the crux section. my belayer promised to catch me and everyone at the crag below fell silent as i tried to push all the air i could. finally, grabbing at the piece at my side became pointless, and i was clearly not getting anything back by shaking out. certain i was going for a ride, i hiked my feet and made a desperate throw for the sloping triangular ledge and the little pocket that seemed available in the back of it. i hit it, but it felt awful. i slapped my other hand up too, so now i was getting pretty far above that little green alien.
i tried to press my palms into the slopey (maybe 45 degree) "ledge" for friction as i crimped the cruel shallow pockets behind the ledge (at least that's how they feel when you are just spent). everyone congratulated me from below, unaware that i was even more desperate than i'd been before. i pictured my belayer relaxing and paying out some rope, thinking i was secure (NOT!) and i desperately scanned for any opportunity i might not have noticed-
thankfully, there is a bomber hand jamb a couple feet or so above the ledge. on that day i had to basically make a dyno into it. i am sure it gets done w/ more gracefullness and style that i did it, but i popped up and stuck it (which was not at all a given), and just then i became aware of how afraid i had really been. you know how you block that out while you keep it together if you are insecure, but then when you feel secure you can sense the adrenaline surging?
boy did that hand jamb ever feel good!
i might have actually laughed out loud while i stood on the ledge. when i was back on the ground, you could still play a mean game of quarters on my forearms.
i wasn't that run out, and it wasn't that scary a place to be, but my lack of faith in the gear and the time i wasted trying to make myself feel safe made it one of those efforts that is right at the threshold of what i was capable of that day, and that's what i remember about it the most.
when i saw that the new guide down-graded it, to be honest i was at first a bit disappointed, but i knew that it wasn't all that bad and that i could climb harder if i could just climb a bit better/smarter/calmer, and i knew that i'd made a sport climb of it by guessing right on all the gear from the ground (some people would even void the "onsight" label, but hell you have to look up to know what gear to bring, dontchya?).
what matters about successes or failures is what you take away from them. on that climb i learned, again, but in a way that i had not exactly experienced, that sometimes you are just better off punching it and trusting yourself, rather than trusting the gear, or the idea of gear.
(edit- i guess i also learned to rack gear on the open side if you are going to resort to a layback of a crack climb! haha)
as far as grades and "hard" climbs, you always have to remember that a grade is just what someone else thought it was, and it's more of a guideline than any sort of threshold or measure of accomplishment. in my experience on that climb, it wasn't the grade of the climb, or even that i managed an onsight of it, but my little personal adventure on the climb that made it valuable and memorable, just as it should be IMO.
perhaps the TRUE hardest climb i ever onsighted was the 10a chimney pitch on new dimensions. it was really wet in there for me, and i guess that distracted me enough that i Z clipped (doh!) and didn't ever realize it. getting out of the chimney is easy, but where you change corners a bit above there i was really struggling. there was a fixed nut or hex or something and as i clipped it i imagined grabbing it- but i didn't, i fought w/ myself a bit over that too. then, clipping the anchor i built was sooooo hard! SLACK! SLACK! i yelled thinking my belayer was being stingy w/ the rope. never knew it was z clipped until mp follower told me as he cleaned it- ha ha ha... that was 5.12 on gear for sure!
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Broken
climber
Texas
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Just thinking about big, hard on-sight ascents. One that comes to mind that I've always admired is John & Anne Arran's ascent of a Tepui in Venezuela. Over 20 pitches, 5.12+ climbing, on-sight, not a single piece of fixed gear. Oh yeah, and it was an FA. Whew. (don't get much better than that!)
They have a great website: www.thefreeclimber.com
As far as hardest onsights... I've been looking around... In addition to Yuji, Leo Houlding onsighted two 5.13c pitches on El Nino. Lee Cossey (from Australia) also onsighted 13c on El Nino.
I couldn't find any evidence of anything harder than 5.13c.
(Personally, my hardest trad onsight is 5.11, so I don't think I'm in the running)
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno, CA
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hahaha... Yeah, I get you, Matt. Sad that he's already so locked down though. The pink isn't worth the rest of your life and pleasures, IMO. Cooperative/sympathetic pink is the key! hah!
It's ironic that we're talking about him here though - were he given a chance to devote himself to climbing, we'd be talking about him as being in the running for the hardest onsight trad lead. He's a very talented climber. Super strong and leads at the top-end of his ability, which is something you don't see a lot of anymore.
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KP Ariza
climber
SCC
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Fall of '87
Crimson Cringe onsight 12.a and Fish Crack 12.a/b flash in the same afternoon with a few of my mentors kickin' it at the base (Pete Takeda, Werner, Dimitri, Shultz). I had a bitch of a time getting gear I liked at the top of Fish Crack. The Cringe felt cruiser. Rostrum(swapping leads), Kaukulator, Blind Faith pitch #1, all with the Snyd and Shannon
Winter of '86
Big Bob's Big Wedge onsight 12.a/b at Joshua Tree w/D Griff & Dave Tucker, One of the best roof cracks I've ever done.
Kurt, I remember Goldfinger, don't remember you looking maxed, just determined and confident. Howevwer, I'll never forget the day in '85 when you did the Lightning again after returning from a long winter in Colorado. It was your your first day back in camp and you said you had been thinking of it all winter long. After barely climbing at all that year you walked up without warming up and did it first try. That was a bit of a slug fest for you if I remember correctly. You ended up with a tweaked finger and few weeks of lounging before you got rolling again. Yep, those were the good old days
DK
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JP
Trad climber
Quebec
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Chuck Pratt for his onsight solo of Twilight Zone
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BigNick
Trad climber
Los Angeles
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Hey BOB...I have heard that about Chameleon before...I wonder if holds broke off. Its JT right?!
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bob
climber
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Nick, its JT. I don't think that holds broke. I just fug up a sequence near the top of the bolts. Always been smooth going after weighting the rope. Funny how that works.
Bob J.
Oops, I just noticed "trad onsight" Chameleon is 1/2 and 1/2
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nutjob
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Dec 2007 : Three Fingered Jack @ Table Mtn 5.10b
Apr 2007 : Serenity/Sons 5.10a (swung leads, avoided 5.10d lead)
2005: right side of EB Middle Cathedral 5.10a pitch, no falls
My hardest/scariest was the 2nd or 3rd "5.9" pitch on Piece de Resistance on Moro Rock (SEKI) in 2005. I stressed out a few years of life on that one. Failure was not an option. We bailed after that pitch (before the ones labeled "scary" up higher).
Close second was Crest Jewel. It was my first real slab climb, and I biffed 3 times on the first 5.9 pitch, 25 foot sliders each time. I led every pitch, and got the remaining ones including the "5.10a" no falls. I spent most of the day in fear, but not nearly the same intensity as in SEKI.
In general, I lead very close to my highest climbing ability... or maybe just haven't done enough outside toproping enough in last few years to know the difference. I like to think I'm still on my way up for on-site no falls.
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aldude
climber
Monument Manor
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BITD :
Angel Eyes 12a , Low Profile Dome, Tuolumne.....w/Kelly Rich
Ghost in the Machine 12a, Sugarloaf..... w/Curt Rassmussen
Gemini 12a, City of Rocks......w/Denise Brown
Return to Forever 12a, Owens River Gorge.......w/Sean Greer
(seems 12a is my onsight limit)
* as per Mick Ryans' interpretation of American Trad heh heh....
Hardest I know of in Cali ; Peter Croft on VanBelladrome 13c - he skipped the rap bolts!!
Technically El Nino is knott a free climb (AO) and even if it was every pitch would have to be onsighted in order for the "route" to be ticked.
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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numerous routes is the 12a to 12c range.
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rincon
Trad climber
SoCal
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The crux pitch of Atlantis was it for me. I've done other leads about that hard since then, but that one was most memorable, even though I got pumped out on the 10a fist crack higher up ..cough..cough.
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Inner City
Trad climber
East Bay
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In the interest of keeping something on this thread for the everyman hack weekender that was formerly me (now fat dad)I submit: Braille Book (5.8)on Higher Rock...or Black Dagger in Red Rocks...full value for your 5.7 there. Cry in Time Again on Lembert (5.9) or West Crack on Daff (5.9)ooph..still wondering where some of those features were ('5.8 buckets')...my hands are starting to sweat......
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jsb
Trad climber
Bay area
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this last sunday, p3 of serenity crack. sweet!
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snyd
Sport climber
Lexington, KY
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Butterballs with Dirty Kenny. The Rostrum with the same, including fat joints on the halfway ledge. Astroman with Fos.
I held the cord on your onsight of Crimson Cringe, Ken. You made it look like 10a.
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Redwreck
Social climber
Los Angeles, CA
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After Seven in Yosemite, 5.8, because I am a hard man.
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TYeary
Mountain climber
Calif.
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BITD as they say, I onsighted Gates of Delirium, 5.11c, at Suicide. It was the first really hard face pitch I had lead cleanly.I remember Yaniro saying he cranked so hard his fingers bled on the FA. Others followed, but that stands out as my favorite.
Tony
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KP Ariza
climber
SCC
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Shultz belayed and followed me the day I on sighted the Cringe Snyd. I did it again with you and Jordy later that season when Jordy went to try and on sight it in the direct sun. He almost puked I remember. He went and did it later that year-
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Double D
climber
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the kid: Tales of Power onsight? Man, you're my hero! Do you have small hands?
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