Bouldering grades: Everything is average nowadays

I decided to write down some of my thoughts on bouldering grades, since a lot has been happening during the last years in the bouldering world. This sort of conversation still seems to be some sort of a taboo in the climbing community, so I am prepared to receive a lot of negative reactions, but I feel like this is a really important topic to discuss.

I'm going to start from the beginning of this whole mess. In the year 2000, 8C (V15) grade first got introduced to bouldering, when Fred Nicole did the first ascent of Dreamtime and proposed a never before seen grade of 8C for it. Soon it became known as the standard for 8C in the climbing media. That was 10 years ago. Still to this date, most of the cutting-edge boulders being put up are 8C. To most, this means that a decade passed and we have not progressed at all.

Sometimes things are not how seem. There has been huge progression difficulty-wise in bouldering. What happened is deflation in the grading scale. Dreamtime being set as the 8C standard (by the media), other hard problems are being put up and since Dreamtime is the 8C standard (and the only problem of that grade in the world) they get graded based on Dreamtime. New Base Line gets it's first ascent and marks the upper end of 8C. Time goes by, more hard problems get put up and  graded based on these standards. And then, BOOOM! After Dreamtime gets enough repeats, turns out it is actually not 8C, but only 8B+. Same thing with New Base Line, which marked the upper end of 8C, it turns out to be 8B+ also. This is were it all started to go wrong.

 Dreamtime, the problem that started it all.

In 2005 Dave Graham makes the first ascent of The Story Of Two Worlds and decides to call it the new standard for 8C, even though he could have proposed 8C+ as it was harder for him than anything else at the time. Instead, Dave chose to use it as the 8C standard and make some sense to the chaotic grading scale. Today, there is a lot of variety in the upper-scale grades, simply based on these double standards, because some problems are still graded based on the old standard, while other problems are more reliant on Dave's standard.

Story of Two Worlds, in Cresciano, Switzerland

I have repeated at least five boulder problems that were originally graded 8C or even 8C+, and have now been downgraded by a grade or two. And the list goes on. Actually, most of the proposed 8C's or 8C+'s have been downgraded and many of the ones that have not, are still unconfirmed. The issue here is that a few people (like me and Dave Graham for instance) are still trying to define the 8C grade (which I personally think is still the cutting edge) while rest of the climbers do not necessarily realize the the grade deflation, that has been going on for some years now.

Here are a few examples:

- Dreamtime downgraded from 8C to 8B+
- New Base Line 8C (hard), downgraded to 8B+
- The Never-ending Story in Magic Wood was originally called 8C+, now downgraded to 8B+
- El Techo de los Tres B's, downgraded from 8C to 8B
- Banshousha, supposedly the hardest slab in the world - downgraded from 8C to 8B
- Memento, downgraded from 8C+ to 8B+ (and according to many still deserves a downgrade)
- Amandla, downgraded from 8C+ to 8B+
- Terremer in Hueco Tanks, downgraded from 8C+ to (soft?) 8C
- Ode to the modern man, downgraded from 8C to soft 8B+
- Kheops assis, downgraded from 8C to 8B+

and the list goes on...

I see this trend repeating itself year after year and there seems to be no end to it. Why do so many problems keep getting downgraded? Why are so many problems overgraded in the first place? The media is adding pressure for professional climbers to strive for new grades, since bouldering grades have been stalling or even on the decline for years. An 8C first ascent is not necessarily that newsworthy anymore, after all that grade was climbed already 10 years ago.

Last June I did the first ascent of Livin' Large in South Africa. It is by far the hardest boulder I've climbed so far, a lot harder than any 8C that I have climbed in the past. Does that mean that it is 8C+? Maybe, just maybe. Does that mean that I should grade it 8C+? I don't think so. Why do we always have to shoot high first and then wait for the downgrade. Why is it never the other way around? I graded it 8C because I feel certain that it is at least 8C. If other people feel like it's harder, they can upgrade it. Why do people always choose the egotistical approach to these things instead of "playing it safe"? Furthermore, I think Livin' Large equals in difficulty with The Story of Two Worlds, the stiff standard set by Dave Graham back in 2005, defining the standard further.

The previous standards failed us and sent the highest grades to a down-ward spiral. This time we tried to set standards that are very likely to hold their grade. A solid foundation for the grade is what we need to correct the situation and that also means lots of downgrades. This is where it gets hard, because often people can take it personal, when their biggest pride gets downrated. The few people who actually put themselves on the line and try to make a change for better, get a bad name for criticising other people's ascents or more precisely the grades. Grading climbs based on the new-school standard can mean getting "left behind" so to speak. In the world of professional climbing, that can be a big risk to take.

It is too easy to keep quiet and go with the flow, but where will this lead us in a few years?  Already, the grading scale is so chaotic in the upper end, that sometimes I'm not sure if it's even salvageable anymore, especially if we start basing an entirely new grade on the "standard" set right now.

Like I said before, there are not many people out there trying to fix the current situation, before jumping to a new grade. If others do not approve on this standard that we are trying to set and grade things based on a slightly different scale, that's totally fine with me, but in that case our problems need to be potentially re-graded. Who sets the grading scale, is the question here. I totally agree, that we need to move up on the scale soon, but I'm not sure if the necessary (big) step has been reached yet and further do we want to base a new grade on such a chaotic "foundation".

The fact is, that there is still no clear standard for 8C. We can all be throwingout big grades and flashy numbers and get on magazine covers, get better sponsorship and then a few months later watch our problem getting downgraded. The irony here is that a downgrade rarely makes the news and one would not necessarily get discredited for what he claims to have done.

I see lists of the hardest boulders in the world and in reality there is a three grades alternation between different problems, all categorized under the same grade. This almost makes me want to start a new grading scale. Another important thing is, that grades should be openly discussed, not kept quiet. Although, most grade related conversations on internet forums are usually quite pointless, I think there are people who are in certain situations qualified to state their opinion about a grade, without necessarily completing a climb.

In conclusion, grades are only estimates, personal opinions of the difficulty of a climb. People make mistakes, that is how it will always be. But how does it happen that 99 percent of the time, the mistake happens to be giving a HIGHER grade, very very rarely lower. Especially with upper-scale boulder problems, comes a fair amount of responsibility with the grading, because when the problem becomes a standard of some sort, a test-piece, it can and will affect the grading of many other climbs.

Grades are only a very small and quite unimportant part of climbing, but why do we even bother with the grades, if they really mean nothing?

 

  sreen grabs: www.8a.nu

Jade, V15

Dead Point Magazine posted a video of me climbing Jade, V15 in R.M.N.P. The footage is from June, in some very interesting weather conditions. To read more about my ascent, check out my earlier blog post.

Livin' Large in South Africa

It's been a while since I last time updated my blog. The African internet connections can be unbelievably slow, if they even work. Anyway, once again Rocklands was amazing. I even found that really hard and perfect project I've been looking for. Last season I found this pretty small, but compact area while hiking around in the Kleinefontaine area. In the middle of the area stands a proud, tall, independent arete that looks a lot like a typical gritstone arête. Last year I didn't really get a change to climb in this new area, that we later dubbed the Champagne sector, but when I got to South Africa this year, the arête was the first thing in my mind.

The Champagne Sector

First time we decided to hike to the new area, we ended up wandering around for hours in the heat without finding there. Next day we hiked in from the same direction as I did last year and we actually found the area. First thing I went to check out the arête and it looked just as good as I remembered, maybe even better! To get things started I put a top-rope on it and started working on the moves. Normally I'm not a big fan of working boulders on top-rope. Infact, this is probably the first time I've ever done it, but for this arête, or 'Project Real Big' as we started calling it, there was just no other way. Before I put chalk on it, the starting hold and the top of the boulder were seemingly the only usable holds, and there is 8 meters distance in between them.

Project Real Big

After 4 or 5 days working it in top-rope, I had done all the individual moves: all 24 of them. And that's without including the super intensive foot beta. It was time to start trying it with pads. If it only would have been that easy! Talking people into hiking 45 minutes with their pads, to an area with only one really hard project so far, turned out to be hard, especially day after day. Still, everytime we went up we manged to get pads. Sometimes more, sometimes less. First days trying Project Real Big ground up were not very successfull, but everyday I was getting progressively a bit further. One time I got through the section I thought was the crux, but then fell 2/3 up. I was really dissappointed, because I honestly wasn't expecting to fall there anymore. Next time I fell from the VERY last move! I can't remember the last time I've been so dissapointed. I took a huge fall, but as I was falling I wasn't even thinking about the landing. All I could think was that I jut fell from the VERY last move of something really hard. Next time I fell there again. Turns out that the last move is actually the redpoint crux. That got me really syked again. I mean, how cool is that! You find a perfect, tall highball project just at your limit and the crux is the last move 8 meters off the deck! It doesn't really get any better than that!



One day we finally got really good conditions. Everything was perfect except that it was my second day on the project and i felt like I needed to rest, but the conditions were just too good not to take advantage of. Besides, I was starting to run out of days on my trip. Another problem was that we only had 4 not-so-good pads, which was very little compared to the more reasonable 10 pad we had a couple times before. However, at this point I was willing to take the risk if I got to the last move again, so I gave it a good burn and made it about 2/3 up before falling off. After a longer rest I tried again. I made it through the first crux again and the my foot popped. I surprised everyone, including myself, by somehow staying on. I got into the position to quickly chalk up the left hand, but my foot was sliding so i had to skip it. Every single move after that I felt like I was going to fall for sure, but somehow I found myself at the last move. Without hesitating a split second and trying my best not to think about the 4 small pads 8 meters below me I did the scary highstep and launched for the last sloper. Grabbing the hold instead of hitting the ground really hard felt unreal at that point. 12 days of hard work and mental torture paid off that moment.

After the send

I named it Livin' Large in the theme of the project name. Livin' Large is by far the hardest thing I've ever climbed and I feel confident saying that it's a proper 8C. Before this, I believe the most time I've invested into a single problem is 5 days. Another interesting thought that crossed my mind is that Livin' Large took me more days than Jade took me tries. That being said, the crux on Jade is a very powerful yet simple move, whereas the movement on Livin' Large is anything but simple. Apart from the difficulty, Livin' Large is pretty much a perfect boulder problem in my eyes and I hope the upcoming seasons other climbers will get as psyched to try it as I was.

My focus on this trip was pretty much fully on Livin' Large, but after I sent it, I was happy to be climbing on something easier. During the trip I repeated some classics, that I hadn't done last year, like Splash of Red V11 and Black Shadow V13. I also climbed some problems that I had d0ne before, but that are just so fun to climb on, like In Between Dreams V12, which I've probably done 10 times now, with Chuck yelling "Dance, monkey, dance!" from behind his camera. Chuck shot a lot of video with his new rig and just the raw-footage looks awesome. I can't wait to see it on a big screen.

Splash of Red

Most of my trip I spent at the developing the Champagne Sector together with Chuck. We put up about a dozen quality problems like Spudd Webb V8, Scorpion Slab V7, Mrs. Balls V12, Bob Saget Left V9 and there is still potential for more, if a 45-minute hike is not a problem.

Photos: Chuck Fryberger

FA of Leckerbraai at Death Jungle Area

Colorado

I've been here in Colorado for a couple weeks now and the weather has been anything but good. Actually it's been raining pretty much every day. Still we've managed to get some climbing in. The season is just starting in the park and a lot of the problems in lower and upper chaos are still buried in snow.

Freaks of the Industry, V13

Despite the snow, the Green 45 is in the prime right now meaning that I finally got to try Jade, V15. First day that we hiked up there I was definitely not used to the thin air at 11 000 ft. After a desperate effort to warm up I started working on Jade. I suprised even myself by doing the famous crux move on my third try. It was too cold to stay warm while resting. I got really close after a few tries from the start, but then split my tips on the tiny crimper.

Jade, V15

Yesterday we hiked back up, even though the weather forecast was bad. After I got warmed up up it started snowing really hard and we had to hide in the cave. Luckily it didn't last too long and the topout on Jade stayed pretty dry.

Whiteout at the Green 45

On my first try of the day I got trough the crux and felt solid. Then my left foot slipped. On the ground I noticed that my shoe was wet from the pads. I was really frustrated, because that try took a lot of skin, and you only get about five good tries before you split your skin on the tiny spike. Second try I stuck the crux hold, but my feet swung and I let go to save skin. Right when I fell on the pads I looked into the valley and noticed it was already snowing and saw a huge blizzard coming towards us. I knew this was my last change and with no rest I started climbing. I got through the crux, stuck the sidepull and got to the good rail. At this point it was snowing really hard and I saw some water dripping from the top. Carefully grabbing the holds I topped it out in the rain! In total Jade took me two days and around ten full tries from the start. Such a good problem! Video and photos coming up soon.

A cold day in Upper Chaos

I'm hoping the weather turns better soon, because I'm syked to climb in the park and Mt. Evans. There are a few hard projects that I want to get on before I leave to South Africa. This week we might escape the cold weather and go to Joe's Valley in Utah to climb on sandstone.

Benson

Lake Haiyaha