15 Hardest and Scariest Trad Climbs in the World (2025)
Many of the world's hardest single-pitch trad routes got repeats this year
It was another big year in the world of trad climbing, as test-piece gear lines were repeated and new ones freed. From splitters in Yosemite to sparsely protected face climbs on remote cliffs, here are some of the biggest trad sends of 2025 in no particular order. For the year’s big sport sends visit here.
Jacopo Larcher: Bon Voyage 5.14d
Jacopo Larcher repeated the text-piece trad route Bon Voyage E12 (5.14d) in Annot, France, for the route’s fourth ascent. Larcher made three previous trips to Annot to attempt Bon Voyage, between 2023 and 2025, before returning this November. After his send, he said, “On the send go, everything aligned and I slipped into one of those rare flow states where everything feels almost effortless. Finishing a project with a big fight is great, but it’s also nice to finish such a long and challenging process in this way.” Read his full story here.
Jernej Kruder: Crown Royale 5.14d
Slovenian climber Jernej Kruder made the second ascent of Crown Royale, a 100-metre 5.14d overhanging trad route established by Pete Whittaker in 2023. The test-piece is found on the Profile Wall at Jossingfjord in Norway. About his experience, he said, “I reached the bat-hang and repeated it twice to get my forearms as fresh as possible. The higher I climbed, the more focused I became. The remaining cruxes flowed. I began to believe this could really be it. I didn’t rush. I stayed present. Breathing and visualizing the next moves kept me in the zone. I reached the last protection and decided to skip it — better focus and less rope drag at the top-out. I reached the slab where the rope drag got too heavy, so I untied and continued my free solo trip to the top of the wall.” Full story here.
Mary Eden: Century Crack 5.14
American trad veteran Mary Eden repeated the famous desert roof line Century Crack 5.14b. Her ascent is the fifth of the 120-foot (40 m) horizontal crack that’s carved into the White Rim Sandstone of Canyonlands National Park. The route demands exceptional offwidth technique and endurance. Century Crack is notorious for its sequence of technical challenges. It begins with an 85-foot horizontal roof crack, forcing climbers to hang upside-down while employing every form of jam, from simple hand jams in the opening section to painful hand-fist stacks and full-body offwidth techniques as the crack widens. The crux comes where the crack pivots, requiring a precise, powerful flip from inverted to upright.
Pietro Vidi: Tribe
Pietro Vidi climbed Tribe for its third ascent, a technical trad climb at Cadarese in Val d’Ossola, Italy. It was first aclimbed by Jacopo Larcher in 2019 and then again by James Pearson in 2020. “Turned out the route is incredibly condition dependent and gets really wet, this with a technical and low percentage crux made for a real battle that lasted way longer than I expected,” he said on 8a.nu. “The route is actually pretty safe and the crux is well protected, but there are still some no-fall zones like the 7a intro or right after the crux where you place 2 ballnuts that I still don’t know if they would catch a fall, you probably wouldn’t hit the ground tho.” Vidi made several more big sends in 2025 as you’ll see farther down the list.
Lara Neumeier: PsychoGramm 5.14R
In March, German climber Lara Neumeier made the fourth repeat and the first female ascent of the trad route PsychoGramm at Bürser Platte, in the Vorarlberg region of Austria. Neumeier spent seven days working the route in head-point style before sending it clean. The route, which was established by local climber Alex Luger 10 years ago, goes at 514R. PsychoGramm is notoriously dangerous, with significant risk of injury if a fall were to occur from certain positions on the climb. Neumeier told us: “I returned to Bürser Platte at the end of February. It was much warmer, the sun was higher and the rock heated up during the day, limiting the climbing window to an hour or two in the evening shade. In the warmer conditions, the crux felt extremely hard and I only managed to stick to the move on one out of ten tries. Small and sharp crimps, micro footholds and only few placements consisting of micronuts made it spicy, scary and made me doubt: was it really possible to climb the route safely? Was it worth the risk?”
Connor Herson: Stranger Than Fiction 5.14
On March 23, Connor Herson repeated one of the most difficult pure crack climbs in the United States: Mason Earle’s Stranger than Fiction 5.14. Located in Bartlett Wash, Utah, the 110-foot crack line works its way through a range of crack sizes and angles, requiring a mix of jamming techniques, bouldery power, and endless endurance. Fuller interview with Herson here. “Before the send go, I felt pretty destroyed, and I assumed I was in for a training burn,” he said. “It was dusk, and I’d already given three attempts that day. On two of those attempts I’d kept going all the way to the anchor after I fell. However, once I pulled on for that last go, there was never any doubt. Everything felt controlled, and I wasn’t close to falling at all, I actually felt more solid the higher I got!”
Jérôme St-Michel: Hypothénuse 5.13d
Trad ace Jérôme St-Michel made the third ascent of Hypothénuse 5.13d on Mont King in Val-David, read his climb report on Escalade Quebec here. Hypothénuse was first climbed in 2013 by Canadian crack master Jean-Pierre “PeeWee” Ouellet. It was then climbed by Julien Bourassa-Moreau. About the route, St-Michel said, “A brilliant route, technical, beautiful, spicy and full of subtle complexity. Grateful to have had the chance to dance with it. Maybe a little bit short, but well packed.”
Billy Ridal: Rhapsody 5.14R
U.K. climber Billy Ridal repeated Rhapsody, the first climbing route to receive an E11 grade. Originally ascended in 2006 by Dave MacLeod, the route has since been climbed by several notable climbers, including Sonnie Trotter, Steve McClure, Jacopo Larcher, James Pearson, and others. About his send, Ridal, who’s freed The Nose (5.14, 29 pitches) in Yosemite and The Big Island V15, said on 8a.nu, “Having two fresh nuts, and adjusting my quick draws so that the larger, stronger nut weighted first, was enough to calm my mind to get back on lead. The next morning, everything came together and despite feeling the nerves in the last couple moves, I found myself on top of the crag.”
Emma Twyford: Yma O Hyd 5.14R
Experienced trad climber Emma Twyford redpointed Yma O Hyd, an E10 7a (5.14R) on Skyline Buttress in the Ogwen Valley. The test-piece gear climb was first climbed by James McHaffie in September 2024. Yma O Hyd is a direct start to a 1996 climb called Mission Impossible (E9 7a), which Twyford climbed in 2024. “As we arrived at the bottom there was some seepage run off and an unexpected wet hold before the crux,” she said. “I changed my beta here slightly to avoid using the wet bit which worked well. First go I was cruising but fell off the last hard crux move, second go I hit the crimp at the end of the crux in disbelief. My elbow started going up and I power screamed through the next moves knowing I could make it pumped. Topping out was a surreal feeling!”
Reagan Goodwyn (9 years old): Sentry Box 5.12a
American climber Reagan Goodwyn, who was only nine at the time, climbed the Squamish testpiece Sentry Box 5.12a on Nightmare Rock in Murrin Park. It was first freed by Eric Weinstein in 1976. “My new favorite climb, and one of my proudest sends!” said Goodwyn. “Once you’re through the roof, you can take a little rest before heading into the true crux of the route. A super steep, tiny finger crack that leads all the way to the chains. It starts out with pretty good finger locks, but quickly shrinks down to where I can just barely get my two smallest fingers in the crack. After tiptoeing through the thinnest part of the crack, you get back into a few good finger locks, before the final mantle onto the ledge for the send!”
Adam Ondra: Greenspit 5.14 Flash
Adam Ondra flashed the famous 5.14a Greenspit, the steep crack line in Valle dell’Orco that has tested many strong climbers. The 12-metre route originally had green bolts protecting some moves, which is where the name comes from. “I had never been before and I could not wait to finally see it,” Ondra said. “I had a local legend, Andrea Giorda, to show us around, who was putting up some of the crack testpieces in the ’70s and ’80s. But the main goal of the trip was clear: Greenspit, an amazing, steep hand crack. I had Marcello Bombardi show me the beta, and I really wanted to give it a good flash go.”
Mat Wright: One Inch Punch E9
Top U.K. trad climber Mat Wright made the first ascent of One Inch Punch, a spicy trad route near Cairngorms National Park in northeast Scotland. He graded it E9 7a. Wright had travelled to the area to check out an old project with a proposed grade of E10. About the trip, Wright said, “I sampled the lovely granite by repeating many fine traditional routes while being guided by Julian Lines, Britain’s most accomplished free soloist!” Wright, who’s repeated lines like Lexicon E11, Rhapsody E11 and Serenata V15, went on to make the second ascent of a 5.13bX called The Fugue.
Pietro Vidi: Magic Line 5.14c
Italian climber Pietro Vidi repeated one of Yosemite’s most famous and difficult trad climbs with Magic Line 5.14c. Vidi has had an impressive year in Yosemite. In the spring, he climbed his first El Cap route with the second free ascent of the 19-pitch 5.13c Lurking Fear, which was first freed by Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden 25 years earlier. And this fall, he climbed PreMuir Wall (5.13+, 30+ pitches), and Meltdown 5.14c trad. Vidi said this after his send: “I found the route actually suited me really well, with a hard intro boulder, followed by some very delicate laybacking on really bad smears and little edges and then a final no-hands rest before the last boulder.
Marco Sappa: Necronomicon 5.14
Marco Sappa climbed the impressive roof crack Necronomicon, a 5.14a trad route in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. The first ascent of the 30‑metre line was by Jean‑Pierre Ouellet in 2011. Sappa pieced together the crux sequence by his third session, having climbed through it with protection in place. He began taking full-length attempts from the start, knowing the key would be to climb quickly through the start to arrive at the crux as fresh as possible. At the infamous “u-turn” section, executed feet-first, Sappa rested before continuing, but didn’t make it to the finish. In sessions four and five, he fell three or four times at the final moves of the crux, each time taking big falls and brushing through the bushes below. The closer success seemed, after all the time and emotion he’d invested, the heavier the weight became. Managing those emotions, keeping them from spiralling out of control, proved almost as difficult as the climbing itself. Sappa returned on the sixth day determined to finally clip the chains. “On day six, I did it on my second try,” said Sappa. “An incredible emotion. Definitely the hardest crack I’ve ever climbed, physically and mentally.”
Jim Pope: Dynamics of Change E9
U.K trad pro Jim Pope made the third ascent of the U.K. trad route Dynamics of Change, an E9 7a at Burbage South in England. It was first climbed by Pete Whittaker in 2008, and then repeated by Neil Kershaw in 2014. It’s been 11 years since a climber has led this bold route. Whittaker’s first ascent involved a unique heel hook that can be seen in viral photos and videos on social media. The route includes several hard moves, including a hard mantle, and a dyno that leads into the steep arete. While there is some protection, there are positions where a fall could lead to a big ground fall. Pope projected the route on toprope before being belayed by Ben Heason on his lead ascent.
