Hubble (climb)

''Hubble'' is a short bolted sport climb at the limestone Raven Tor crag in Dovedale, 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".

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