Hardest Trad Routes

It is maybe too harsh to say that traditional climbing is leading a niche existence but it is certainly true if you look at it from the perspective of media coverage and compare it to sport climbing or bouldering. As a consequence, information on trad climbs and trad ascents only reaches the wider public in rare cases, making it difficult to have a consolidated overview of top achievements or just a simple list of the hardest trad climbs out there.

DefinitionBack to contents

Another challenge when it comes to “trad climbs” is their simple definition. While probably everyone agrees that trad routes require climbers to place removable protection against falls while ascending, there are several grey areas that we define here for the sake of a clear understanding of why some routes are listed here and some not and why some ascents are considered being trad ascents while others are not:

1. Mixed trad climbs: many trad routes use bolts to protect parts of the climb. This is typically done to protect parts of a route that can not be protected by removable gear. It may be just one bolt on a whole pitch or multiple ones, making the climb closer to a sport route. As it is almost impossible to decide when these bolts change the character of a route we have included mixed trad routes in the list below. theCrag distinguishes between these 2 route styles and you can easily filter them off if you want to see only pure trad routes using the advanced search options.

2. Greenpointing: while the gear style of a route may be sport, some climbers might decide to climb a route (e.g. a bolted crack) as a trad route, placing gear and not making use of the fixed protection thus essentially converting the sport route to a trad route. Actually some of the hardest trad ascents are greenpoints of sport routes (for example Gondo Crack climbed as greenpoint by Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher). This is why you will find some sport routes in the list of hardest trad routes.

3. Pinkpointing a trad route: pinkpoiting a route means ascending it on pre-placed gear. While this also applies to sport routes (e.g. when draws are already put up) the difference for a trad route is even more significant as you do not have to carry and place the gear. This essentially converts a trad route to a sport route (see also Climber Performance Rating) and thus a pinkpoint ascent of a trad route is not considered a trad ascent. A famous example is the ascent of Privatvägen, 8c+ by Tomi Nytorp on pre-placed gear. Needless to say that this is still an impressive ascent but as Tomi Nytorp put it himself, next is to climb it while placing gear to make it a true trad ascent. The route however is of course a trad route and will thus show up in the list below.

4. Multi-pitch climbs: multi-pitch climbs are really not that different from single-pitch climbs with the only difference that the issue of bolted sections is amplified by the number of pitches. For example the freed version of Dawn Wall is graded 5.14c/d, but the crux pitches are entirely protected by bolts. The hardest trad pitches of the Dawn Wall are graded at 5.14b. To extend the logic applied for single-pitch trad climbs, the Dawn Wall is here considered a mixed trad climb with a difficulty of 5.14c/d.

HistoryBack to contents

While there is a long and well documented history of sport climbs and the progression through ever harder grades (see also Hardest Routes), the same can not be said for trad climbing. One of the reasons being that the distinction between climbing in general and trad climbing is a relatively recent development. In the past climbing was or at least involved a lot of what is now considered trad climbing, only the advent and dominance of sport climbing resulted in the definition of trad climbing as we know it today and also draws a clear distinction from aid climbing.

Another big factor impacting the development of trad climbing was and is the development of ever better gear to be placed as protection. While all sorts of jamming devices are out there since the beginning of climbing (including wooden camming devices), trad climbing started to evolve dramatically with the invention of spring-loaded camming devices (also called friends, cams, SLCD’s) in the mid 1970’s.

Still, many of the great ascents of that early time fall under the category of aid climbing and it is more than difficult to draw a clear line. Some of the most notable ascents in trad climbing history are the following:

• Schwager-Talseite (Sächsische Schweiz, Germany, VIIIc [5.11a]) climbed by Harry Rost in 1952. Just one of many ascents pushing the limits of climbing in the Sächsische Schweiz.

• Crossbones (Malham Cove, UK, 5.11b, [E2 5c]), first free ascent by Pete Livesey in 1967. Livesey was pushing grades all over the UK for many years and was also famous for his strict training and diet regime.

• Clink (Trow Gill, UK, 5.11d [E4 6a]) first free ascent by Pete Livesey in 1972.

• Supercrack (Indian Creek, USA, 5.10, at that time called Luxury Liner) climbed by Earl Wiggins, Ed Webster & Bryan Becker in 1976. As Webster put it, this ascent opened “a new frontier of desert sandstone crack climbing” and put Indian Creek on the climber’s map.

• Gaia (Peak District, UK, 5.13d [E8 6c]) freed by Johnny Dawes in 1986. Featured in the movie Hard Grit.

• The Nose (Yosemite, USA, 5.14a/b) freed by Lynn Hill in 1993. A milestone for climbing in general.

• The Dawn Wall (Yosemite, USA, 5.14c/d) freed by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson in 2015. While certainly a mixed trad route, definitely a notable ascent and one that resulted in tremendous media interest.

• Gondo Crack (Gondo, Switzerland, 5.14b R [8c]) climbed green point by Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher in 2017.

• Magic Line (Yosemite, USA, 5.14c) climbed by Ron Kauk in 1996 as a pink point ascent, freed as red point ascent only In 2018 by Lonnie Kauk, his son.

• Tribe (Cadarese, Italy, 8c+/9a?) climbed by Jacopo Larcher in March 2019 but not graded yet.

Hardest Traditional RoutesBack to contents

What better place to track these routes, their first ascensionist and repeaters than the world’s largest rock climbing and bouldering platform.

theCrag’s advanced search allows you to create any list of routes, by style, region or grade. As an example we have listed here the world’s hardest trad climbs per the definition above. Feel free to play with the filters:

• Find the hardest trad routes per country (example for the UK, just click on a country or region on the left to change the selection)

• Find the hardest single pitch trad routes

• Find the hardest single pitch pure trad routes (without mixed trad)

Or - if you think something is missing or wrong - just fix it by contributing to theCrag.