[cowboyhat]

IIRC Ben Moon said 6c was easy and 6b was approaching a rest. He was bouldering Font 8b at the time and english 6b is what, Font 7a+?

He was right.

As for adam and alex; flashing 9a. You'd have to be very comfortable in the Font 8b range for that and it checks out: Moving down the scale, if my max boulder was 7c+ I think i'd be comfortable lapping/ training on a 7b I had wired.

[jwi]

Only those two. Not that many who has onsighted or flashed 8c+ either. I can only think of Paxi Usoibaga, Ramon Julian Puigblanque, Magnus Midtbø and Piotr Schab. Maybe someone else. Magnus and Piotr have only done one respectively afaik (even if they both done lots of 8cs onsight).

I think it might be even more selective than that as it doesn't look like Piotr has logged any 8c+ onsights on 8a.nu (despite logging plenty of other stuff).

Is he taking only 8c for Mandanga? (I do not want to click on the website of Mr. Satan myself, so cannot check).

Klemen Becan is another obvious candidate having the chops for an 8c+ onsight, but I am not sure he has done one.

[remus]

From his logbook:

8c/+ my hardest onsight so far. Such a fight in the lower & middle section and then quite controlled everything till the chain. Amazing route.

[Fiend]

Strong posts Duncan Campbell.

Also can people please stick to capitalised Font 8B grades and lower case sport 8b grades, preferably F8b for that matter, it makes posts like cowboyhat's above much easier to parse.

[Wellsy]

A pleasing visual shorthand that avoids the embarrassment of anyone having to use V grades.

[Ged]

I suppose my thoughts re Dave Mac is just like, who else is ever going to do Echo Wall? I don't think any of those guys is doing a trad route MacLeod can't do, but I don't think any of them are doing that.

But I don't really know trad that well so I'll accept could well be talking guff.

I'm not sure no repeats of echo wall makes him the best trad climber in the world, it probably just makes him the best trad climber in Scotland. Logistical difficulty doesn't equal climbing difficulty.

I think briys often kid ourselves at how good we are compared to other countries. I don't know how we measure being the best at trad, but if we're talking about impressive feats without bolts being involved, I suspect honnold would want a mention.

[Neil F]

I'm not sure no repeats of echo wall makes him the best trad climber in the world, it probably just makes him the best trad climber in Scotland. Logistical difficulty doesn't equal climbing difficulty.

I’m sure Dave is the best headpointer in Scotland, and one of the most impressive all rounders in the UK, as well as one of the fittest. I thought his “all the 8s” day was truly inspirational.

But best trad climber in Scotland? You are joking aren’t you…?  Or is it just that everyone seems to have forgotten what trad climbing actually entails 

[mrjonathanr]

Or is it just that everyone seems to have forgotten what trad climbing actually entails 

Spell it out then.

[Fiend]

He was definitely the best Fort William based climber at carefully choosing a world class climb that is near impossible to downgrade as it's location and the local weather make it pretty much unrepeatable 

Generally when people talk about "best trad climber" at the cutting edge they often take into account both headpointing especially new routes, and onsighting - as well as a variety of terrain and situations. It's hard to argue against DMaccy's combined total being pretty high even if he's not prolific in one of those aspects??

[Fiend]

Also absolutely the best climber in Lochaber at sticking boiled eggs up his arse in the name of ketosis 

[Ged]

I'm not sure no repeats of echo wall makes him the best trad climber in the world, it probably just makes him the best trad climber in Scotland. Logistical difficulty doesn't equal climbing difficulty.

I’m sure Dave is the best headpointer in Scotland, and one of the most impressive all rounders in the UK, as well as one of the fittest. I thought his “all the 8s” day was truly inspirational.

But best trad climber in Scotland? You are joking aren’t you…?  Or is it just that everyone seems to have forgotten what trad climbing actually entails 

Sorry Neil, I'm not massively up to date with Scottish climbing. I know Dave has onsighted and flashed the odd e7 and e8 maybe, alongside his head pointing. There's obviously lots I don't know about.

I assume you're agreeing with my overall point though, that he's not the best trad climber in the world!

[Duncan campbell]

Strong posts Duncan Campbell.

Also can people please stick to capitalised Font 8B grades and lower case sport 8b grades, preferably F8b for that matter, it makes posts like cowboyhat's above much easier to parse.

Mr Campbell to you 

I agree with the capitalised letter for bouldering, lower case for routes. Ain't that hard is it!?

[Adam Lincoln]

I'm not sure no repeats of echo wall makes him the best trad climber in the world, it probably just makes him the best trad climber in Scotland. Logistical difficulty doesn't equal climbing difficulty.

But best trad climber in Scotland? You are joking aren’t you…?  Or is it just that everyone seems to have forgotten what trad climbing actually entails 

Everyone knows the best trad climber in Scotland is Iain Small.

[Duncan campbell]

I'm not sure no repeats of echo wall makes him the best trad climber in the world, it probably just makes him the best trad climber in Scotland. Logistical difficulty doesn't equal climbing difficulty.

But best trad climber in Scotland? You are joking aren’t you…?  Or is it just that everyone seems to have forgotten what trad climbing actually entails 

Everyone knows the best trad climber in Scotland is Iain Small.

 

[Wellsy]

I suppose it's all academic really. I just consider trad to be "no fixed gear, placed on lead" with the various exceptions that seem to be okay in the eyes of the cognoscenti (I.e no fixed gear except sometimes fixed gear, placed on lead except sometimes not) and Dave Mac seems to have done arguably the hardest trad line (an 8c where you go into the crux pumped and if you fall you die).

But also there's Tribe and Recovery Drink and I guess the Dawn Wall?

[abarro81]

And - as pointed out above - onsighting/flashing, which is the most "trad" style of trad. (And also the best style of sport.) It's just not as fashionable as headpoint/redpoint nowadays.

[Wellsy]

Yeah that's too. E grades or H grades and all that.

[highrepute]

I didn't come to the ondrawad thread to read about trad climbing. Can we keep that shit elsewhere please.

[Duncan campbell]

c'monnnnnnnnnn. The ondrawad thread already has trad climbing woven into it. Plus there is the classic Ondra quote;

"I want to climb everything, onsight, redpoint, overhangs, slabs, boulder, multipitch, cracks, bold vert trad, loose dusty cheese by the sea"

 

but yeah i get ya

[lukeyboy]

That was a great video, which I wouldn't have started without the endorsements further up the thread. I love Ondra, he really does fucking love climbing doesn't he.

His home area reminded me a bit of Avon and Cheddar, very much a local delicacy. I can't think of any other international rockstars that would be psyched for a session in Gollums Cave, but I bet Ondra would. Didn't Alex Honnold visit Cheddar and describe it as "disgusting" 

[colin8ll]

I loved that video too. The bit that struck me was the contrasting mindsets between Magnus and Adam, with Magnus talking about being nervous about the possibility of him falling off the 5+, and Adam going on to say how this kind of thing doesn't bother him. Adam strikes me as being almost entirely intrinsically motivated, and surely this is one of his greatest strengths as it will give him a lot of resilience.

[Yossarian]

That's what I thought. I binged a load of videos on Ondra's channel afterwards, and there's a Croatian road trip one where shortly before onsighting an 8c (he thought it was 8b+) he falls 2-3 times off a 7a. Most ego-driven climbers wouldn't dream of publicising that, whereas he seemed to find it hilarious.

Also, I liked the way he acknowledged his various weaknesses (e.g. cutting loose at full span, etc).

It was interesting in the training room episode that Ondra was quite impressed by MM campusing a move on that splatter board problem. MM is obviously very strong still, but has ended up down a path where he only ever unleashes it indoors on video.

I think when MM is nearing 2 million subscribers, we make a concerted effort to get him to make a celebratory video with Fiend.

[cheque]

I think when MM is nearing 2 million subscribers, we make a concerted effort to get him to make a celebratory video with Fiend.

Just magining the thumbnail and clickbait title if this video  .

[duncan]

Didn't Alex Honnold visit Cheddar and describe it as "disgusting" 

Answering a question from someone called duncan...

"...my experience at Cheddar Gorge was one of the worst climbing days of my life. I warmed up on some short, sharp 7b+ in the rain. And then we left. It was heinous. But it made me appreciate why Brits don't really warm up - they never know when it's going to start raining so they just hop straight on their project".

[andy moles]

I liked Ondra's top rope truth bomb:

"I like climbing, I don't like clipping."

Take heed, world.