[Paul B]

He also gave a new boulder problem in Wales 8a and it turned out to be about 7A+ which is a massive difference!

what?
 

I read a story in the off-piste guide for Font that Godoffe spent ages working a new problem, it was a dyno and when he finally did it he gave it 7c and thought it was hard for the grade. He told his mate about the problem but not the grade. Later that week he bumped into said mate who congratulated him on his nice new 6c. He missed an obvious heel hook.

It happens.

[Nibile]

no problemo.

[Johnny Brown]

It looks to me that James P does not enjoy climbing trad, his interviews are filled with talk of nightmares and sleepless nights and films of him climbing are scary to watch he seldom looks in control of his nerves. Maybe he does it more for a personal challenge to get over his fear? Also he certainly has climbed less hard trad than many other climbers who have not reached/claimed e10 let alone e11.

However Dave M seems to relish his climbing and seemingly approaches his climbs more thoughtfully, he rarely looks out of control possibly because of his meticulous planning.

Have you seen Committed vol.1? You get to compare and contrast them both on Trauma. I wouldn't say James comes off badly, in fact I think it was Grimer who summarised the whole film as James vs Dave. Just when you think James has won he gets burnt off though...

[SA Chris]

no problemo.

makes me think of



Reckon you could rock the look Nibile.

[Nibile]

that's a great compliment that i proudly accept.
hasta la vista, baby. 

[slackline]

Sorry my good man, I think you've mis-interpreted me! Perhaps I should have said "How was it possible that the route was presented in this way by the media in the first place?"

Fairy-muff, I'm not very good at reading between lines

No harm done I hope 

[emily]

He also gave a new boulder problem in Wales 8a and it turned out to be about 7A+ which is a massive difference!

I should really keep out of this as I'm way too busy with work, but thought this was worth posting.

The problem in question was climbed after james had just "retro " flashed (yet another style to argue the toss over) Diesel Power.  It took him a few tries and he said it felt harder than DP but was unsure since it was end of the day and he was tired, thus didnt name or grade it. 

regarding james' new thing left of diesel power. james did diesel power, possibly the easiest i've ever seen anyone climb anything. then turned his attention to the thing to the left while waiting for me to string 2 moves together. his words went something like "this can't be a project it's piss, i'll have to speak to panton"...

He emailed Si P a few days later to ask if it had been done before, and when asked by Si about the difficulty, compared it to DP at around 8a.  James and I then went to Asia... info was posted as news on NWB... problem downgraded... big fuss...

Ok, time to leave my comfy armchair and get back to work  .

Enjoy,

Emily

[Doylo]

I think James can be excused the cromlech problem. He's so good at doing hard problems quickly or flashing them i can understand why he graded that thing wrong.

[Johnny Brown]

I think we'd all rather be shit hot at climbing than shit hot at grading.

[Adam Lincoln]

I think we'd all rather be shit hot at climbing than shit hot at grading.

 

[SA Chris]

http://davemacleod.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-thoughts-from-devon.html

More interesting (some very true) word from Dave.

[bigd942]

What part do physical attributes play at these grades, I ask because E5 is where I peaked? Are James and Dave similar in build, weight etc. Personally I could only ever see grades as a guide unless every climber was the same height, weight etc, I can't think of any other sport where grade alone is the deciding factor, there would either be a time or subjective (ie judges) aspect, then again those are "competitions" and it isn't Dave v James.
From the video Walk of Life to me seemed to be more slots than anything, if you've four pork sausages for fingers then are you not going to find this harder/make more effort than someone with hands you mistake for a those of a five year old. Two climbs spring to mind, in Dosage 5 the Meltdown/Beth Rodden, can't see many men stepping up to do that as finger size looked all important, so 8c for her becomes 9a for someone with bigger hands.Pete Whittaker/Dynamics of Change, unless someone finds a new sequence I think you'll struggle to do this without yoga lessons, those climbs are nearly body specific so how can you grade them for the average man?
To me how James and Dave write about the climb and their "experience" makes sense to me, unless you have their body(fingers, length of arms, weight, size of feet etc) you'll never climb something with the same amout of effort they have, by the time you factor in everything else (friction, wind etc) it's their experience in a unique moment of time really.

Dom

[a dense loner]

bigd can you please stop talking sense. how else are we supposed to have grade arguments about things we've never even seen in the flesh let alone tried

[SA Chris]

I've seen what is now walk of life in the flesh. and then ran away. fast.

[steveo]

Same here Chris, I,ve abbed down this line and i couldn,t see what a mere mortal would call holds on it. Also the last 100ft is effectively vertical, I would be interested to see what grade DM would have given had he taken a leader fall.

[SA Chris]

It was howling wind, horizontal rain and raging sea when i went for a look. A wild and scary place.

[Adam Lincoln]

Poor footage now up here http://davemacleod.blogspot.com/
Only two of them at the crag.....

[Will Hunt]

God thats a long pitch. Mental.

[orge]

Poor footage now up here http://davemacleod.blogspot.com/
Only two of them at the crag.....

The youtube link has an HD option. Still the same distant camera angle, unfortunately:
http://snipurl.com/acbiu

J

[Jaspersharpe]

http://jamespearsonclimbing.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

[dave]

good post there.  although reading some of the vitriol people are going and posting on james blog comments recently about all this is makes you ashamed to be a climber at times.

[Fiend]

Good post indeed. Some good science going on there.

A lot of people are idiots and trying to create something out of nothing. Simple explanations work the best in this case.

[richdraws]

Yeah I particularly like how he explained pulling E12 from his arse.

[mrjonathanr]

good post there.  although reading some of the vitriol people are going and posting on james blog comments recently about all this is makes you ashamed to be a climber at times.

Any other threads/climbers/ascents springing to mind?

[Sloper]

I recall Dunne's reputation taking a bit of a battering over Partian Shot, but that was before the internet,
Then there was the 'downgrading' of that thing left of Golliath by Rockfax even though it was reputedly un-repeated.

In the internet era I can't remember anyone getting the level of abuse that's been directed at James, after all we're not questioning his integrity hear are we, it's not as if he claimed a route in the UK when his supposed belayer was actually in Australia?