Top Results for Granite

The southeast-face route on Lotus Flower Tower lies in the Cirque of the Unclimbables in Canada's Northwest Territories. It follows approximately 2,200 feet of granite in a remote mountain setting, combining the scale of a large rock face with the demands of alpine travel. The climbing is long and c...

First climbed by Fred Beckey and Yvon Chouinard in 1961, the Beckey-Chouinard route follows roughly 750 metres of granite on South Howser Tower in the Bugaboos of British Columbia. This is a sustained alpine multipitch climb, with the length of the route making endurance and efficient progress part...

On the northeast face of Piz Badile in the Alps' Bregaglia range, the Cassin Route follows a historic line through an extensive granite wall. Riccardo Cassin, Vittorio Ratti and Gino Esposito completed its first ascent in 1937. Its significance rests both on that climbing history and on the sustaine...

The Bachar-Yerian is a multipitch traditional face climb on Medlicott Dome in Tuolumne Meadows, California. John Bachar and Dave Yerian made the first ascent in 1981, creating a route graded about 5.11c and known for widely spaced protection on steep granite. Its difficult moves, long runouts and se...

The Grand Wall follows a long granite line on the Stawamus Chief near Squamish, British Columbia. Ed Cooper and Jim Baldwin first climbed it in July 1961, and it is commonly described as a nine-pitch route. Crack, face and corner climbing contribute different kinds of movement, with the exposed sett...

Near Cascade Falls in Yosemite Valley, California, The Phoenix follows a short but demanding granite crack. Ray Jardine made its first free ascent in 1977, and the route is commonly graded 5.13a. Its place in the development of hard American free climbing comes from the difficulty of climbing the li...

Yosemite Valley is a renowned area within Yosemite National Park in California. Characterized by immense granite formations like El Capitan and Half Dome, it features spectacular waterfalls fed by snowmelt and contains some of the world’s largest sequoia trees. This landscape provides unparalleled o...

Standing on a reef off Scotland's east coast, Bell Rock Lighthouse has guided shipping since 1811. Associated with engineer Robert Stevenson, it was built where the rock is submerged at high tide, making construction a substantial maritime engineering challenge. Its masonry tower provided a lasting...

The Regular Route on Fairview Dome is a multipitch granite climb in Tuolumne Meadows, within Yosemite National Park. Royal Robbins and Mike Sherrick made the first ascent in 1958, and the route is commonly graded 5.9, with climbing that includes cracks, corners and exposed face sections. It is a sta...

Within the Trango Towers group of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, the east face of Great Trango Tower forms an extensive granite wall in the Karakoram. Its near-vertical relief exceeds 1,300 meters, giving it a prominent place in discussions of high-altitude big-wall climbing. Sustained rock climbing ta...

In Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island, Nunavut, the west face of Mount Thor presents a vast granite wall within the remote Baffin Mountains. Its drop of approximately 1,250 meters follows a largely vertical line, giving the face a strikingly abrupt profile. The rock wall is a defining geologic...

Central Pillar of Frenzy is a multipitch traditional route on Middle Cathedral Rock in Yosemite Valley, California. The commonly climbed five-pitch version is graded about 5.9 and follows a sequence of granite cracks, corners and chimneys, although longer continuations exist above it. Its sustained...

Torres del Paine is a Chilean national park renowned for its spectacular Patagonian landscapes. The area’s jagged granite towers, including the iconic “Torres,” are sculpted by glaciers and offer challenging hiking opportunities. It attracts serious hikers, photographers, and nature enthusiasts seek...

Fitz Roy, also called Cerro Chaltén, is a 3,405-meter granite mountain in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field region, on the border between Argentina and Chile. Its steep rock faces, severe weather, and technical climbing routes make it a major objective for experienced mountaineers. The first success...

The American Direct is a major big-wall route on the west face of the Petit Dru in the Mont Blanc massif of the French Alps. Gary Hemming and Royal Robbins completed the first ascent in 1962 with a team of American climbers, following a steep granite line that required extensive aid techniques. It r...

A roughly 200-meter rock formation anchors Sigiriya, the ancient palace and fortress complex in central Sri Lanka commonly called Lion Rock. King Kashyapa I established his capital there in the fifth century, developing gardens and reservoirs alongside frescoes and defensive works. A monumental entr...

Magic Line is an extremely difficult traditional crack climb at Vernal Falls in Yosemite Valley, California. Ron Kauk made the first ascent in 1996, and the route is now commonly graded 5.14c after later ascents clarified its free-climbing difficulty. It follows a thin, technical granite crack with...

The Zodiac is a steep aid climbing route on El Capitan, the granite monolith in Yosemite National Park, California. Charlie Porter established the route as a solo ascent in 1972, and it became known for sustained aid climbing on a major big wall. The Huber brothers later completed a free ascent, mak...

The eastern side of the Fitz Roy massif in Patagonian Argentina presents a steep granite face shaped by a glaciated mountain setting. Rock, snow, and ice contribute to the terrain, bringing alpine conditions into a wall that also demands sustained technical climbing. The face is part of the massif's...

The Murujuga Petroglyphs are a significant collection of ancient rock art located on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula. These engravings, primarily etched into granite, represent one of the world's largest concentrations of petroglyphs. The site contains over one million individual images, many d...

Rome's Lateran square holds a red-granite obelisk originally made for Thutmose III and completed under Thutmose IV. Transported from Thebes to Rome in antiquity, the monument now stands in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano. At more than 32 metres, it is the tallest surviving ancient Egyptian obelisk,...

The Northern Obelisk of Hatshepsut is an ancient Egyptian red-granite monument at the Temple of Amun in Karnak, near modern Luxor. It was erected during the reign of Hatshepsut in the Eighteenth Dynasty and formed one of a pair of obelisks associated with the temple's sacred precinct. The surviving...

At the entrance to Guanabara Bay, Sugarloaf Mountain rises about 396 meters above sea level in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The granite peak has a steep, rounded profile that makes it one of the city's principal natural landmarks. Its summit offers views across the bay and beaches toward surrounding moun...

The Great Stele, also called Stele 1, is a monumental carved stone at the ancient Aksumite stelae field in Aksum, Ethiopia. Originally about 33 metres tall, it is the largest known monolithic stele attempted by the Aksumites and was carved to resemble a multistory building with false doors and windo...

The Obelisk of Axum, also known as Stele 2, is a roughly 24-metre granite monument from the ancient Aksumite kingdom in Ethiopia. Carved with false doors and rows of windows, it represents a multistory building and probably marked an elite burial area. Italian forces removed it in 1937; its sections...

Diedre is a six-pitch traditional climbing route on the Stawamus Chief near Squamish, British Columbia. The route is known for its sustained corner climbing on granite and is protected with removable gear rather than fixed sport-climbing bolts. Jim Baldwin and Jim Sinclair made the first ascent in 1...

The red-granite Obelisk of Ramesses II still stands before Luxor Temple, where it was erected during the ruler's Nineteenth Dynasty reign. It originally formed a pair at the temple entrance. Its companion was transferred to Paris in the nineteenth century and now stands in the Place de la Concorde,...

On Cerro Torre in the Southern Patagonian Andes, the east face combines steep granite with ice and other alpine terrain near the Argentina-Chile border. Climbers encounter difficult rock alongside mixed sections, snow, and ice, so the face cannot be treated simply as a rock wall. Its shape and surfa...

Peace is a highly regarded and demanding rock climbing route in Red Rock Canyon, Nevada, known for its steep and technical bolted face climbing on dark desert varnish.