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Grade Charts or Grading??

henners

17-Nov-2009
9:58:48 AM

In England 6c was about 22. Or so we thought. The other day i struggled up a 17 and felt pretty dead. Is it the grading charts or english Grading????

dimpet

17-Nov-2009
10:02:28 AM

Which 17 did you climb?

I guess it really depends on the style of climb as well.

nmonteith

17-Nov-2009
10:21:55 AM

Is this sport climbing or trad climbing? The British use french grades for sport routes (ie French 6c = 22)
and their own system for trad climbing (ie E7 6c = 28ish). Maybe thats your problem?

henners

17-Nov-2009
10:23:42 AM

i did a little 17 on the aretes at the shady side of the gorge. and the "22" sport climb was in Cheddar Gorge, but im pretty sure it was only about 18, 19 most.

My point is, are english climbs overgraded, or are the grading charts wrong?

nmonteith

17-Nov-2009
10:38:21 AM

On 17/11/2009 henners wrote:
>My point is, are english climbs overgraded, or are the grading charts
>wrong?

There will always be inconstancies in the grading system. There are plenty of wicked sandbags in the
UK!

rodw

17-Nov-2009
10:44:42 AM

Yes you are correct, english are weak and us Aussies are strong...thats why we always beat you at sports.

henners

17-Nov-2009
10:46:52 AM

>thats why we always beat you at sports

hey wait a sec...im not english!

rodw

17-Nov-2009
10:54:24 AM

Sorry profile said you were, Winchester, UK ...I apologise :)

mikepatt

17-Nov-2009
11:49:25 AM

Henners, The main difference between UK technical, French and Aussie grades is that at least for youngsters like yourself can 'climb your age' or better with Aussie grades.

Trying to make grade comparisons across all styles of climbing is virtually impossible.

Even comparing 'like' with 'like' can throw up some glaring discrepancies. I recently led the ring bolted 'Toucan cafe', 20, at Mt Piddington, Blue Mtns. Just around the corner is another ring bolted grade 20, This Sporting Life, which for my style of climbing felt about 3 grades harder..

bl@ke

17-Nov-2009
4:53:57 PM

They are just weak ;) There wouldnt be that much of a difference between the style of climbing at cheddar to the gorges face climbs (cataract). I would have thought that it would be easier climbing at cataract gorge because of the wicked rock.

darryn

17-Nov-2009
6:02:42 PM

The main discrepancy between the Aussie system and the English is the Aussie system makes
sense. When I'm president of the world everyone will speak Ewbank.

Wendy

17-Nov-2009
6:46:56 PM

On 17/11/2009 mikepatt wrote:
>
> Just around the corner is another ring bolted grade 20, This Sporting
>Life, which for my style of climbing felt about 3 grades harder..

ring bolted? When I was a lass, it had carrots .... did that make it 4 grades harder?

If you really want to have your ego bruised by grade discrepancies, try to warm up on a 5+ or 6a in Yangshuo. Someone's appalling grade conversion has put them at 20 and 21 (which is what they actually are). However, if you want to stroke your ego, try one of their 5.11d (realistic grade) and accept their conversion to 25-6.

Duncan

17-Nov-2009
8:35:36 PM

On 17/11/2009 Wendy wrote:
>If you really want to have your ego bruised by grade discrepancies, try
>to warm up on a 5+ or 6a in Yangshuo.

The Font scale is the ultimate ego crusher.

mikepatt

18-Nov-2009
9:46:38 AM

On 17/11/2009 Wendy wrote:

>If you really want to have your ego bruised by grade discrepancies, try
>to warm up on a 5+ or 6a in Yangshuo. Someone's appalling grade conversion
>has put them at 20 and 21 (which is what they actually are).

Sorry Wendy, could you please clarify what you mean by the above :-) ??

BTW I think This Sporting Life had fixed hangers before the rebolt.

Wendy

18-Nov-2009
12:02:29 PM

On 18/11/2009 mikepatt wrote:
>On 17/11/2009 Wendy wrote:
>
>>If you really want to have your ego bruised by grade discrepancies, try
>>to warm up on a 5+ or 6a in Yangshuo. Someone's appalling grade conversion
>>has put them at 20 and 21 (which is what they actually are).
>
>Sorry Wendy, could you please clarify what you mean by the above :-) ??

The place was originally graded by Americans, and the American grades are reasonable. However, when they decided to give a euro sport grade as well, they muffed up and the Euro grades are all skew whiff. If you read their conversion table at the back of the guide, they say 6a=21=5.10b/c. the 6a is the muffed bit of the equation. There's something amis in their 7a=5.11d=25/6 too
>
>BTW I think This Sporting Life had fixed hangers before the rebolt.
Could well have, as Neil says, I'm getting old and my memory of the early 90s is fading ...

There are 15 messages in this topic.