The World's Hardest Slab Climb? The Dewin Stone 9a+

[@alimcmellon7130]

"It's like really hard walking"

[@ukclimbingofficial]

What’s always struck me is just how hard “hard walking” can be at times 😂

[@TesterAnimal1]

That’s what climbing is!

[@ukclimbingofficial]

@@TesterAnimal1 exactly, at the end of the day it's all ledge shuffling - it's just that some ledges are larger than others

[@thegritiots5858]

Doing the slab god's work right here. Thanks for saving the Slab Justice Warrior a trip to Cryptography. #notrealslab

[@ukclimbingofficial]

#keepslabsslabby

[@randydewees7338]

Interesting. I do think a slab is a route you can most places stand on your feet without holding yourself in with your hands. What angle is that? depends on the size of the ledges but I'd say the angle limits are well before vertical, say 80-85 degrees. Obviously, the angle of the "worlds hardest slab" could be far lower if that slab had no holds at all. Then it would be rock texture that determines the ultimate angle. What if the rock is perfectly glassy smooth? Kind of the coefficient of friction of rubber dependent, and whatever body english one can come up with. I remember doing the first pitch of Misty Beethoven on the Glacier Apron 40 years ago. What, 45 degrees? 10+, 3 or 4 bolts in a long pitch, absolutely terrifying - I was wondering if I slipped if I should just turn around and run down the slab. Thanks for discussing shoes. It's pretty important in this kind of climbing, and Franco nailed it - stiff shoes allow more resting on small holds.

[@barneyadams9869]

I'm probably overreaching, but I REALLY want to try this route!

[@ukclimbingofficial]

I’d love to abseil down it and see exactly how small the holds are 😅

[@barneyadams9869]

May as well take an ascender and try out some moves whilst you're there 😉 You never know.

[@ukclimbingofficial]

I think I know 😂

[@trucsympa]

Is there a video coming out of Franco climbing it?

[@ukclimbingofficial]

I very much doubt it 😅

[@noiseforthealgorithm4668]

why? :(@@ukclimbingofficial

[@ukclimbingofficial]

I’m not entirely sure it’s Franco’s style. Granted, he has been involved with filming before, but on the whole I think he tends to favour getting on with it and going climbing, which is something I respect.

[@alejand5]

There's still that 9b in Canada

[@ukclimbingofficial]

If you look at the quickdraws on the route, they hang out from the rock. Gravitationally speaking that isn’t possible, or at least it wouldn’t be if it was actually a slab…which it isn’t…

[@alejand5]

Fair enough@@ukclimbingofficial

[@aidanjohnson7571]

​@ukclimbingofficial the draw at the crux of that route is most definitely sitting flat against the rock in his footage. Does seem to be undulating with some sections that are a few degrees overhanging but I'm not sure how well you can dismiss it as not a slab

[@andrewhunter6536]

Which route?

[@aidanjohnson7571]

@@andrewhunter6536 Disbelief

[@massimilianopellegrin8522]

What about Eternit? Just different? ;) Nice work here

[@ukclimbingofficial]

Eternit, at least in our eyes, looks more like a vertical wall climb than an actual slab. If you watch the video of it there's certain points where it looks gently overhanging. This isn't an attempt to take anything away from the route, as it looks amazing - it's just that it's far from slabby (at least from what we can tell from the videos we've watched and pictures we've seen). Here's a link to the point where it looks particularly steep: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jparaoJtlrpgobM

[@1981stonemonkey]

11:30 - 11:50 Falling on a 15m runout slab... "(...) would be like having a really bad bike crash." Well... kzbin.infoFLFuOIBPAoI

[@fab4299]

Cryptography, 9b in Switzerland

[@ukclimbingofficial]

We don’t reckon this is actually a slab! It looks overhanging: instagram.com/stories/francocookson/3225608478973656208?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[@titod8392]

​​@@ukclimbingofficialstill, if you don't count cryptography as a slab, you would still have to consider that Alessandro Zeni has proposed the grade of 9a+ on Maurizio Zanolla's ''Eternit''.

[@ukclimbingofficial]

We got asked this elsewhere. If you watch the videos of Eternit it's pretty clear it's vertical, maybe even gently overhanging in places, so it's far from a slab - slabs are slabby. Here's a link to it the point where it's steepest, where you can see the quickdraw hanging out from the rock: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jparaoJtlrpgobM

[@fab4299]

@@krakenattackin7617 Sorry, I 'm not English and I might have missed it. Thanks anyway for your a little hurried judgement.

[@Sam-cw4ed]

Garn Franco

[@ole7282]

Great interview but a short spoiler warning before the IFSC qualifier results would have been nice.

[@ukclimbingofficial]

I’m not really sure what to say, because we’re a climbing news channel, so if you watch one of our videos on climbing news - it’s going to contain news 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@walterlotte4215]

There really has been enough time to watch these until now dude....

[@DaleTurrell]

​​​@@ukclimbingofficialyou can just say "this next section contains results for blah blah blah". Very easy. The title and thumbnail don't hint that it's going to be a general round up and you have to go and expand the description to see anything there.

[@ukclimbingofficial]

​@@DaleTurrell If we were to do anything differently next time it would be to put the result front and centre in the thumbnail. I know this may sound harsh, but if you don't want to know results - don't go on social media. FWIW, I found out the news via Toby's story on Instagram. The information is very much out there and it would be remiss of us as a climbing news outlet not to shout about it.

[@DaleTurrell]

@@ukclimbingofficial That just seems unnecessarily mean? You could do that, or you could just put a very quick heads up to help out people who are trying to avoid the results. Literally all you have to say is "now on to the results from this weekends comp". It's such little effort it just seems spiteful not to! I don't think KZbin is social media by the way, I would avoid Instagram after a comp, fair enough. I enjoy the content UKC put out but if you're going to start intentionally spoiling the results of comps in thumbnails (?) I'd sadly have to unsubscribe.

[@stephenbaker4950]

Shame he uses like all the time. Brilliant climber