Interesting points and questions I ask myself.

Why such a difference between experience

Unless you live on a desert island, it will have been hard to avoid the kerfuffle caused by recent repeats of some of my routes.  People were incredibly swift to jump on the bandwagon and I was quickly labelled as a publicity seeking overgrader.  Whilst I can categorically state that this is untrue, I can see why people could jump to this conclusion, namely that not one, but 3 of my routes have received proposed downgrades (despite only 2 of them being repeated), and also that I am a sponsored climber who indirectly makes a little money from media coverage.

Most people who read this will have never met me, let alone know me well enough to be a good judge of my character, and so saying “I am not an overgrader” is fairly meaningless.  For all they know, I could be a compulsive liar, who enjoys robbing old ladies pension books and regularly steals candy from infants of all ages.  But I am not an overgrader, nor did I purposely overgrade my routes.  I gave an honest opinion of how it felt to me based on the information that was available and my experience at the time.  However, it is also true that other people found the routes easier than I did, for one reason or another, but why such a difference between experience?

The following sections are meant to highlight some of the issues that a FA faces when grading a new route.  These ideas have been buzzing around my head for a while, so I decided to put pen to paper (so to speak) and share them with you.  I am not offering definitive answers, just sharing my thoughts.  There will be more specifically on the use of pads, The Groove, and TWOL in following posts, but I thought I’d give you this to chew on for now, since typing is not one of my more developed skills.  Thanks for being patient.

The Facts

 

Name	No of days working the route	Felt ready to lead after “x” days	Linked on TR after “x”days	How “hard” did it feel on a scale of 1 to10	How “scared” was I on a scale of 1 to10
Equilibrium	4	3	2	5	5
The Promise	~10	7	6	7	6
The Groove	~12 over 4 years	9	9	7	4 or 5
TWOL	25+ over 4 years	~15	Never tried on toprope, only abseil and never linked full route	8	8

 

The above table is meant to give an idea of how much mental and physical effort was required from me to climb each of my routes (with Equilibrium in there to act as a guide).  Hopefully you will be able to see why I graded the routes as I did, simply because each felt far harder than the one before.

Bouldering

Escaping from the messy minefield that is the E grade, talking about boulder grades should be a breeze.  However, actually dishing them out doesn’t seem quite so simple, especially on funny old gritstone.  Now we all know that grit is a bit conditions dependant meaning things feel a little tricky on certain days, and also body shape plays a part, and sometimes if you have had a little too much to drink the night before, things might feel a little tough, but all in all, the grades work out...  This is how I used to think in times gone by when everything seemed so simple, but on reflection, I have to disagree.  In my opinion, conditions, body shape, style etc etc make the difference between moves being easy and impossible, with the biggest factor being conditions.  Normally this would not be a problem; you climb the climbs, succeed and fail, then laugh about it with your mates.  No big deal, where’s the fuss?  However, when you start being called a liar and an overgrader because you offer a grade to a piece of rock based on your experience, and then “x” person comes along on “y” day and said piece of rock feels easier for them, then things are not so cool.

		Equilibrium	The Promise	The Groove (lower section)	The Groove (upper section)
James Pearson	Days to link boulder section on rope	2	6	9	1
	Boulder Grade	7c+	8a	8a+	7b+
Kevin Jorgeson	Days to link boulder section on rope	Not linked after 7 days effort	2	2	Not linked
	Boulder Grade	???	7b+/c	7c+	“Impossible”

As you can see from the table, both Kevin and I’s grades line up fairly well with the amount of days we spent on each route.  For myself, Equilibrium was the benchmark to rate all others against and since The Promise took me considerably longer, and The Groove longer still, I graded them accordingly.  Another thing to ask yourselves, is why did Kevin have such an epic on Equilibrium and the top of the groove, yet cruise The Promise and lower groove?  Body shape perhaps, I don’t know?

The Promise has now been repeated by a few people, with 7b+ to 7c being offered as a boulder grade, depending on who you speak to.  With such a strong consensus it is obvious I was out with my original grade, but I strongly defend the fact that I did not overgrade the route as 8a is genuinely how hard it felt to me at the time! 

Why was this?  I have not had chance to get back on the route this year to see for myself, but my suspicions lie with the conditions.  In early January 2007, conditions weren’t so good to say the least, and so the amount of days and effort needed to climb the route may have been way more than should necessary and hence felt considerably harder.

Actual, or Perceived Danger

Should a route be graded for the actual (what happens on average when you fall) or the perceived (what you think will happen if you fall) danger that you are in when on the lead?  At first the answer seems obvious – grading something based on what you think may happen is surely silly and will vary wildly depending on different people, so we grade things for the actual danger.  What then do you do as a first ascentionist, for unless you have actually taken the ride on the lead (which is usually unadvisable on bold fa’s) you are grading based on (hopefully) well thought out judgement of many different factors.  Sure, you can test gear by pulling/bouncing on it but it is never going to be under the same strain as on a lead whip.  The other option is to do simul- falls (lead falls backed up by a toprope) but these are often not accurate/possible for a number of reasons leaving you back at square one. 

Even after the fa and a few repeats, the route may not have been fallen off and so the grade is still based on perceived danger.  Only when some brave/unlucky soul fails to make it to the top, will this perceived danger become actual.  If the kid lives, then let’s all throw stones at the FA for being an overgrading bastard.  If they die, well, time will tell...  One way of avoiding being labelled an overgrader, would be to purposely undergrade all your fa’s by a grade or two, just to be safe.  The only trouble is, when this brave/unlucky soul pops off a new E7, which is actually an E9 and ends up dead, whose conscience is it on.

Just another few things:

1.       Person A climbs a short grit route graded E”x”.  It is a solo, the landing is flatish, but with lots of small protruding rocks, perfect ankle snapping territory but fine with a few pads.  Person A decides to solo the route and refuses a pad offered by his friend, wanting to climb the route in the original way for the E”x” experience.  When person A is mid crux, his friend is worried and chucks a couple of pads underneath just to be safe.  Person A is unaware of this, and climbs to the top, feeling really happy and proud. 

Question – did Person A still have an E”x” experience (and please, no wisecracks about grit not being proper climbing) due to his perceived danger, even though the actual danger was significantly reduced by the pads?

 

2.       Person B is practicing a classic, but polished fr”xx” at Ravens Tor.  They have been falling off all morning at the crux, but after a break for lunch they feel a little refreshed, time for a few more tries.  They set off up the route, unclipping the rope from the draws as they go and smoothly climb through the crux, arriving at a rest at about 45ft.  On looking down they realise they are not tied in, panic, and quickly clip into the closest bolt.  On the climb, person B was completely relaxed due to perceiving they were safe when actually they were in real danger.  Does this mean they have just soloed an E?

 

Theres more to come soon but my eyes hurt too much to continue tonight. 

Thanks for listening, you’ve been a wonderful audience.