Hubble (climb)

Hubble is a short 10 m bolted sport climb at the limestone crag of Raven Tor in Millers Dale, in the Peak District in Derbyshire, England. When Hubble was first redpointed by English climber Ben Moon on 14 June 1990, it became the first-ever climb in the world to have a consensus climbing grade of ; and the highest grade in the English system at E9 7b.

History
Hubble was an aid climbing practice route that used skyhooks to pass the first two bolts, which English climbers Ben Moon and Jerry Moffatt started working on in 1989. Moon and Moffatt had returned from a summer in France establishing some of the hardest sport climbing routes in the world on the limestone walls of Buoux, including Agincourt and Maginot Line, both at ; they wanted to set these new grade standards at home. Moon rebuilt the individual moves of Hubble in his basement and practiced them with Moffatt, in particular using a new device called a "Moon Board", which was not dissimilar to Wolfgang Gullich's new campus board training device.

Moon spent eight straight days completing the first redpoint of the route, which he did on 14 June 1990, on one of the rare occasions when the route was completely dry. Moon later said, "The year before, I had already redpointed a couple of 8c's in France. I already knew that Hubble was more difficult than all my hardest lines like Agincourt or Maginot Line. That’s why I rated it E9/7b. It was the first route in Great Britain that was given a 7b as technical difficulty". Moon also said that Moffatt had come close to redpointing it earlier, but lost interest when Moon completed it. Hubble is widely regarded as the world's first consensus climbing route.

First 9a
Climbers have speculated whether Hubble was actually the world's first-ever sport climb at grade, instead of Wolfgang Güllich's 1991 ascent of Action Directe, which is considered the first – and is still the "benchmark" – for the grade.

German Alex Megos is one of the few, with British climber Buster Martin, who have climbed Hubble and Action Directe; he felt Hubble was very short and probably an in the right conditions (i.e. fully dry), although Megos caveated himself by noting that grading is not an exact science, and is subject to the climber's own style and preferences. Czech climber Adam Ondra had a brief attempt at Hubble when conditions were not perfect (the route is usually damp) and said: "Personally, I would like to see the impressive Action Directe as the first 9a, nevertheless, when I consider it objectively, the first one is in fact Hubble, that’s a pity because it’s quite short and slimy".

The short nature of the route had led some, including Moon himself, to describe Hubble as "bouldering on a rope",  and speculated that the short 4-move crux makes Hubble really a bouldering problem with a circa  bouldering grade. Ondra himself said, "Maybe it would be more accurate to label the route as an bouldering problem; that would make it the first 8B+ in the world – 10 years before the one that we consider to be the first today [Ondra was referring to the bouldering route, Dreamtime, by Fred Nicole from 2000; although Nicole's Radja from 1996 is now considered the first 8B+ (V14) boulder route]".

The later discovery of the possibility of a kneebar rest at the crux is considered to have also likely softened Hubble's grade to its original grade of.

Route
Hubble is described as starting from a big flake, after which most climbers reach for a large pinch hold. Shorter climbers can use an intermediate hold and a foothold to get the pinch. From the pinch, the climber reaches right to an undercut, moves their feet above a lip in a high step while bringing the left hand into a two-finger pocket undercut.

Then comes the circa bouldering crux move, for which the climber slaps right for a slopey crimp, then to a large pinch, and then an undercut crimp. There is another high step to bring the feet above another lip and slap for a rough crimp. This is the 4-move bouldering crux section of the route, after which is a section to finish.

More recent ascents of Hubble (e.g Matthew Wright and Buster Martin in 2020), have seen some climbers use a kneebar short rest – a modern sport climbing technique – at the crux section that can soften the difficulty slightly, although still maintaining the route at a consensus level.

Ascents
Hubble has been ascended by:


 * 1st. Ben Moon, 14 June 1990
 * 2nd. Malcolm Smith, 1992
 * 3rd. John Gaskins, 1994
 * 4th. Richard Simpson (disputed), 2005
 * 5th. Steve Dunning, 2009
 * 6th. Steve McClure, 2009
 * 7th. Alexander Megos, 31 May 2016
 * 8th. William Bosi, 2016
 * 9th. Pete Dawson, 2019
 * 10th. Mathew Wright, 2 October 2020
 * 11th. Buster Martin, 13 October 2020
 * 12th. Toby Roberts, 28 October 2021

Filmography

 * Sean McColl's 2014 inspection:
 * Alex Megos's 2016 ascent: