Anna Taylor climbs the 83 routes in U.K.’s Classic Rock, cycling between and soloing most
"For now however, I’m just appreciating being warm and dry, and I’m pretty relived to have got this over with before it starts snowing"
Photo by: Neil Gresham of Anna Taylor
U.K. climber Anna Taylor, from Cumbria, has completed the ambitious goal of climbing all 83 routes found in the classic book Classic Rock. She soloed 68 of the climbs, and completed the list in 62 days.
Not only did Taylor, 23, climb them all, but she cycled between them for a total of 2,500 kilometres of travel and 10,000 metres of gain. She spent the summer accomplishing the ambitious goal. She cycled from Cornwall to Wales to the Lake District to Scotland to the Isle of Skye.
In 2020, Taylor became the first woman to climb the 610-metre face of Mount Roraima, in Guyana, South America. She joined a big team, including Leo Houlding, Anna Taylor, Wilson Cutbirth, Waldo Etherington, Dan Howard and Matt Pycroft. After the trip, Taylor said, “It’s been a wild month with highs and lows – crazy storms, spiders, snakes, scorpions, waterfalls, endless ascents, vertical mud slides, swamps, slime forests, river crossings, countless cuts and bruises, plenty of suffering, bags of exposure, and some pretty amazing pitches of rock climbing. All in all, it’s been the most incredible experience of my life.”
Classic Rock, written by the late Ken Wilson in 1978, profiles must-climb trad lines throughout the U.K. For a complete list of the routes, scroll down.
About her months-long project, Taylor said:
Two months ago I set off from Penzance with the intention of linking all the Classic Rock routes together by bike. I didn’t have a clue how to cycle tour, or how I was going to get all the climbs done if the weather crapped out, but bit by bit I learned, and here we are. So that’s just over 1,500 miles on the bike, and 83 out of 83 climbs (68 of which were solos, either free or with rope), in a mostly continuous round (I did have to duck out for a work trip at one point). Big thanks to Neil Gresham for coming up to do the last few climbs with me in appalling conditions. The weather has often been unkind throughout this trip, and because of this, things were difficult and pretty treacherous right up until the very last second. Still, we had a fun, mildly epic adventure sliding around on the Cioch, and the Cuillin Ridge was, to put it frankly, f**king grim.
It wasn’t quite the scenic finale I had in mind, but was quite a fitting ending in the sense that virtually nothing about this trip has ever gone according to plan. There’s been some good and very memorable moments, though. Climbing The Long Climb on the Ben in a bubble of mist feeling like I was the only person in the world was ace, as was the watery fight to get out of The Chasm (though that was perhaps more of a type two fun sort of day). Routes like The Devils Slide on Lundy and The Clean Sweep on Hells Lum were also highlights, and all that definitely made up for the times I was frozen, wet and off-route, or regretting my life choices cycling up endless hills. It’s not been a perfect trip by any means, but I’ve learned a lot (mostly about soloing), and I’m looking forward to putting some of that knowledge to good use on future projects. For now however, I’m just appreciating being warm and dry, and I’m pretty relived to have got this over with before it starts snowing.
The 83 routes from Classic Rock
Scotland
1. Cuillin Ridge Traverse (Summer)
2. Cioch Direct
3. Arrow Route
4. Integrity
5. Cioch Nose
6. The Long Climb
7. Tower Ridge
8. Clachaig Gully (Summer)
9. Archer Ridge
10. The Long Crack
11. Crypt Route
12. North Face Route
13. Agag’s Groove (Summer)
14. The Chasm (Summer)
15. Squareface
16. Cumming-Crofton Route (Summer)
17. Savage Slit (Summer)
18. The Clean Sweep
19. The Talisman (Summer)
20. Eagle Ridge (Summer)
21. Ardverikie Wall
22. Recess Route (Summer)
23. Punster’s Crack (Summer)
24. Ardgartan Arête
25. Sou’wester Slabs
26. Labyrinth
Lake District
27. Little Chamonix
28. Gillercombe Buttress
29. Troutdale Pinnacle
30. Bracket and Slab Climb
31. Ash Tree Slabs
32. ‘C’ Route
33. Bowfell Buttress
34. Murray’s Route
35. Jone’s Route Direct from Lord’s Rake
36. Moss Ghyll Grooves
37. Needle Ridge
38. The Wasdale Crack
39. Tophet Wall
40. New West Climb
41. Rib and Slab Climb
Wales
42. Great Gully
43. Gashed Crag
44. Overlapping Ridge Route (First Pinnacle Rib)
45. Grooved Arête
46. Direct Route
47. Pulpit Route
48. Direct Route
49. Hope
50. Lazarus
51. The Arete
52. Grey Slab
53. Nea
54. Crackstone Rib
55. The Wrinkle
56. Flying Buttress
57. Spiral Stairs
58. The Cracks
59. Main Wall
60. Avalanche/Red Wall/Longlands
61. Creagh Dhu Wall
62. Will o’ the Wisp
Pennine and Peak
63. Red Pencil Direct
64. Parson’s Chimney
65. Sail Buttress
66. Topsail
67. Powder Monkey Parade
68. Flying Buttress
69. April Crack
70. Hargreaves’ Original
71. Central Climb
72. Modern
73. K2
74. Via Dolorosa
75. Black and Tans
76. Technical Slab
The South
77. Piton Route
78. The Devil’s Slide
79. Demo Route
80. Terrier’s Tooth
81. Pendulum Chimney
82. Doorpost
83. Climbers’ Club Ordinary
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