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socialclimber
Jun 30, 2006, 2:45 AM
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Canadian Sonnie Trotter has freed Squamish’s Cobra Crack. At a grade of around 5.14b/c, it is now considered to be the worlds hardest crack
Gripped.com reports.
UKClimbing has a similar report including a pic of Didier Berthod on the line
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kalcario
Jul 4, 2006, 5:43 PM
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In reply to: Canadian Sonnie Trotter has freed Squamish’s Cobra Crack. At a grade of around 5.14b/c, it is now considered to be the worlds hardest crack
Don't forget Magic Line in Yosemite, rated 14b but like most (all?) of Kauk's unrepeated routes in Yosemite, probably harder.
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tradman
Jul 10, 2006, 11:35 AM
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Outstanding achievement, and I respect the climber even more for making a point of placing all the gear on the lead.
This climb could be a good candidate to replace Dave's Macleod's Rhapsody as the world's hardest trad climb I think, but I guess we won't know until we find two climbers crazy enough to repeat them and settle the grade, right?
Any takers?
:wink:
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socialclimber
Jul 10, 2006, 2:25 PM
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In reply to: ...This climb could be a good candidate to replace Dave's Macleod's Rhapsody as the world's hardest trad climb
Which brings us back to the that old chestnut: define trad...
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camhead
Jul 10, 2006, 2:42 PM
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this discussion will bring up the difference between a "trad" line and a "crack" line. Rhapsody is hard; as I understand it, it has a crux of like v12! But it is not a pure crack route; it requires more face moves than just locks and jams. Basically a face climb in which trad gear was placed on lead.
And as for Magic Line, which is a crack, I believe that Kauk did not place his gear on lead. So, while it is a crack, it is has not yet been lead in truly traditional style.
So, I believe that we could say that Cobra Crack is candidate for the hardest pure crack line in which gear was placed on lead. In other words, a truly traditional crack. whee, semantics!
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socialclimber
Jul 10, 2006, 4:26 PM
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In reply to: ...this discussion will bring up the difference between a "trad" line and a "crack" line...
Actually, I'm referring to the style in which the line is done. To some, the definition of a trad line has less to do with how it's protected and more to do with how it's climbed. Cobra was climbed ground up, placing gear on lead. Parts of Rhapsody were "worked" in the same way hard sport lines are worked. The finer points of this argument were hammered out in this thread:
Hardest Traditional Route in the World climbed? The same argument was thrashed within an inch of it's life on supertopo.
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jefffski
Jul 11, 2006, 7:01 PM
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a difference may be the difficulty of placing the gear. cobra crack requires small, relatively easy to place cams (i say relatively), while the other may require very fiddly nuts. a fall on cobra crack may be up to twenty feet on good cams. the climber on rhapsody fell 60 feet and sustained injuries. both routes are hard, were led ground up, but are different types of climbs, requiring different skill sets and committment. kudos to both climbers. in my book they are both amazing, hardest in the world trad climbs.
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socialclimber
Jul 12, 2006, 12:31 AM
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In reply to: a difference may be the difficulty of placing the gear. cobra crack requires small, relatively easy to place cams (i say relatively), while the other may require very fiddly nuts. a fall on cobra crack may be up to twenty feet on good cams. the climber on rhapsody fell 60 feet and sustained injuries. both routes are hard, were led ground up, but are different types of climbs,
You make a good point there. Mcleod consistantly ripped small wires while attempting Rhapsody. And regularly hurt himself from falling On the other hand, Cobra is overhanging with no feet to speak of... a mighty effort from both climbers, as you say.
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kalcario
Jul 12, 2006, 12:59 AM
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In reply to: And as for Magic Line, which is a crack, I believe that Kauk did not place his gear on lead. So, while it is a crack, it is has not yet been lead in truly traditional style.
You're right, he rapped in and placed it prior to each day of attempts. But I doubt it will ever go ground up because, since it's basically laybacking up an offset seam, there's no way to keep your feet weighted and pull in close enough to wiggle in gear. Which of the 2, Cobra or Magic Line, is harder as a top-rope, I wonder...I'm betting ML because there's no fingerlocks...
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