The World’s Hardest 5.10

Grades make no sense. Anyone who has climbed an offwidth or a JTree slab can confirm this. I myself have had several experiences in which I cursed whoever rated the route I was struggling on 5.8+. But one of the few things I have seen consistency with is that some routes of a lower number grade can feel harder than those of a higher post decimal digit. Especially those of a certain letter grade. One of my favorite quotes from Moutain Project’s “Overheard At The Crag” thread was this: “I think you just found the ‘d’ part!”. I’ll sum it up with a mathematical inequality:

5.X+ or 5.1Xd > 5.(X+1)

This got me thinking… what are the hardest routes of each number grade? Being lazy and already knowing that any single digit route with a “+” is a nominee… I started with the double digits.

The Hilary Step. Photo from Outside Magazine.

5.10 is a special grade. It’s where you become your average climber and you get the weird letters. While there are several local routes I would happily nominate (one being a ground-up slab the FA laughingly said was probably .11c), I broadened my horizons. I would settle on Conrad Anker’s free ascent of the Hilary Step on Mt. Everest. Climbing in the Death Zone with extreme cold, exposure, and a hindering giant puffy suit and mountaineering boots… if that’s not the hardest 5.10 then nothing is.

5.11 is next. Once again I’m prompted to think of a route put up by the same local developer. What is an .11c if he rates one .10+? The answer (according to some surprised Mountain Project users) is 5.12b/c. But we can’t forget a few other more well known nominees. I believe it’s a tie between two infamous stretches of rock, the storied Bachar Yerian and Vedauwoo’s Jihad.

The Bachar Yerian is simply one of the most notorious routes ever, with committing runouts on slabby polished glacier knobs. 

Pamela Shanti Pack mid grovel on Jihad. Photo from Climbing Magazine.

As for Jihad, it’s an .11d offwidth. I could move on and that would be ‘nuff said… but I believe this quote from Rock And Ice sums it up well, “Bob Scarpelli—fearless Vedauwoo, Wyoming route pioneer—described Jihad as one of the scariest routes he had ever established. - [T]he 60-foot, overhanging offwidth remained unrepeated for 25 years after his 1988 first ascent. While the rest of Scarpelli’s legendary Vedauwoo offwidths were repeated one by one, Jihad was the last to fall.”

Alex Homold following on Southern Belle, a route even he found scary. Photo by Will Stanhope.

5.12… hmm. Most of them are hard enough to keep the complaining masses off. To know which is the hardest is a stretch as the pool of the indignant sandbagged is small. One that came to mind is Walt Shipley’s Southern Belle, an infamously runout slab route on Half Dome. This quote from an AAC on free climbing on Half Dome summarized it well, “You could say that the story of free climbing on the backside of Half Dome hinged not on the boldness of its first ascents, but on a July day in 1994, the day Hank Caylor took his sick fall. He dropped 70–80 feet off Southern Belle’s eighth pitch. Such a long fall might be okay on steeper rock. — But this face is only 75 degrees. That’s pretty stout for smearing, but hideously slabby to fall on. Somewhere on his descent Hank’s foot caught on the wall and stopped. When his leg kept going, something had to give. Other foot, other leg too. Imagine rapping out of there on your knees, dangling ankles that crackled. He touched the ground gingerly and started to crawl.”

5.13 is just hard. Even if it’s softer than a cotton ball. But a few came to mind, the first being Sun Devil Chimney on the Fisher Towers (mainly for the danger and consistent layer of dried mud on all the holds). For a single pitch, I’ve got to nominate Windows of Perception, the “world’s hardest rock over”. Just watch the video below (go to 3:12), and you’ll understand.

Caldwell on the delicate crux of the Dawn Wall. Photo by Jeff Johnson. 

Next is 5.14. This one’s a no-brainer. Techy low percentage granite, multiple pitches of sustained difficulty, and high dependence on conditions make the Dawn Wall the obvious choice.

Marty Hong on Flex Luthor. Photo from lacrux.com.

Finally, 5.15. One easy answer is Silence. It has a d. But my pick is Tommy Caldwell’s Flex Luthor. Originally rated .14d (red flag there), it has since been upgraded to .15b after waiting 18 years for a second ascent. Guarded by a brutal hike and ever changing sequences (due to poor quality rock), I believe it is a stands on the podium.