[Bubba]

James Litz has flashed Forced Entry at the Grampians in Oz.

8a.nu are also reporting that French lass Charlotte Durif (13)  has flashed an 8a route. Jeez, kids of today, no respect  :roll:

(from: 8a.nu and australianbouldering.com)

[the_dom]

By all accounts, James Litz is one strong, and low-key, dude.

Good work by him.

[irish si]

On all accounts, litz hasnt actually failed on anything yet (it would appear) he has done the hardest problem everywhere he has gone.

[a dense loner]

lets hope it's an 8B n not on 8b, as per oz.  :shock:

[Greg C]

Sorry but everything vaguely impressive of late, in the way of hard flashes, 10 8a+'s in a day and flashed 8b's is coming out of Oz at the moment and do you know why... cos ain't 8b, it ain't V16 and nobody flashed nothing!!!  :D  :saythat:

[c.j.d.]

Chappers - you fuckin' said it!  Grades today are absolutely fucked.  Why people cannot just say ' actually, that was way over graded ' I don't know.  Fucking pansies.  

[unclesomebody]

I have to agree.  When you go to font you realise how hard an 8A is and then you read about people flashing 8B's (of which there are only a few in all of bleau!) and climbing 8C+ it makes you think...  I can not believe, as much as i'd like to, that these things are as hard as they are made out to be.  Every grading system has it's good and bad points, and it would seem that the V grade has majorly tripped up in these circumstances.  All these wannabe boulder problems that are 30, 40, 50, or even 60 moves long are stupid, and to give them Font8C+ is stupid.  Just give it a route grade, it makes so much more sense in my opinion.

So, when is the UKB crew going over to downgrade everything to Font7B+?  

[Bubba]

Yeah, but this is supposed to be a confirmed 8b, so why shouldn't it be the case? Standards aren't going to stay the same forever.

Font isn't the be all and end all - just because there aren't many 8b's in Font doesn't mean that people aren't doing them elsewhere.

Some people might think route grades are more applicable to long problems, but I guess it depends how you define a boulder problem. To me, a boulder problem generally means something you can fall off unroped without hurting yourself, regardless of how many moves long it is. You get power problems and you get stamina problems and everything in-between.

It's all very well for armchair downgraders to keep trying to knock the achievements of others, but unless they've been on the problems concerned,  *and* have climbed with those concerned then it's all just spray anyway.

So, how many of you doubters have:
a) climbed 8bs in Oz to confirm that they're all overgraded?
b) climbed 8bs at all? (Yes, I know a couple of you have)
c) climbed with James Litz?
d) Watched James Litz on Forced Entry?













Thought so.

[irish si]

litz is capable of flashing a long 8b, without a doubt.

[jonP]

Well said Bubba.

[unclesomebody]

something from an aussie site regarding grades of up problems and traverse ones... interesting read.  

http://www.australianbouldering.com/table.html

[Bubba]

I don't see why stamina problems should be graded differently, just because they call upon a different set of skills to those that are necessary on a  power problem a few moves long. It's all bouldering, it's all climbing.

Surely grades are a guide, not an exact science anyway?

When it gets to this stage:

Where;
    N = numbers of sends per V grade (the Y axis).
    V = the V grade (V13 = 13, V12 =12 etc - the X axis)
    n = 2.17 a scaling constant that reflects the popularity of/population in Australia.
    r = 2.35 a relative constant that reflects the difference in difficulty of each successive grade.

...it's getting stupid. Some people need to go back down to the train station  and pull out their notebooks. I suggest that some people get so caught up in an obesssion over grades that they might even forget to enjoy going bouldering, which is surely what it's really about?

[a dense loner]

of course this is wot it's all about goin out havin a laugh n (for me) climbin as hard as u possibly can. i couldn't give a fuck wot grades these probs r given, that is until people start bangin on about them. to me 30 6b moves does not equal 3 7a moves n i don't really care wot anyone elses opinion is. this is not a witchhunt of litz cos he's mutant, this is based on the simple fact that everybody i know who has been to oz say's its way overgraded. n sayin its an established 8B, by whom n did they not downgrade it so they cud take another big tick for 8a.nu. we have enuf probs of our own here wi gradings, someone offers big numbers then someone else says its not that hard n he gets an earful. we are always goin to moan about grades but c'est la vie (16)  :roll: