The creators of many of the extreme routes climbed in the film, Jerry Moffatt, Johnny Dawes, and John Dunne, are also shown speculating, and top roping on, future projects such as Wizard Ridge.

[5] The climbers are (in alphabetical order):[6] By 1997, Richard Heap had been climbing full-time and living off the British social welfare system (the "dole") for a number of years.

[7] He was part of what he termed the "Sheffield scene" of leading British gritstone climbers and was renting a room in Seb Grieve's house.

[9] Hard Grit is regarded as an important and iconic film in the genre,[5][10][11][12] regularly appearing in top-10/20 type lists,[2][13][14] and was particularly noted for the blunt and direct portrayal of the risks and dangers of extreme gritstone climbing, and the portrayal of how the climbers dealt with the fear and stress they undertook climbing thinly protected extreme gritstone routes.

[23] The following routes are climbed in the film (in the order in which they appear):[24][6] Towards the end of the film, there is a section on future gritstone routes and projects (or "last great problems"), some of which are shown being attempted on a top rope (e.g. Johnny Dawes on Wizard Ridge, and Ben Moon on Smiling Buttress),[30] and others are just alluded to (and in the case of Equilibrium, only very briefly).

A number of these routes were subsequently climbed, including: Two decades later, the most prominent "last great problem" from Hard Grit remains Dawes' Wizard Ridge at Burbage South Quarries.