[rich d]

Someone should start a UKC thread on their forums, then slackers could statistically prove something along the lines of "UKB on average 5 grades better than UKC"

[tomtom]

Someone should start a UKC thread on their forums, then slackers could statistically prove something along the lines of "UKB on average 5 grades better than UKC"

It would be nice to do the same over there and get a comparison... but hey ho...

I expect this sort of information would be quite useful to wall owners, climbing gear manufacturers/retailers etc...

[andy_e]

Yeah, but how many wainwrights have you walked up this year? IN THE RAIN?!???!?!

[highrepute]

Peak District

Fontainebleau

From 8a.nu. Showing recorded ascents in peak district and Fontainebleau (for comparison).

Seems to suggest a lack of 7A+ ascents being done in the peak.

And a clear lack of + grades for problems below 7A.

don't know what that means, meh

[JamieG]

It gets graded 6b+ and it but is really hard for that and there's no 6B+ option anyway, tomtom, you fool.

 

You didn't think I was going to downgrade it did you . . . . . . 

[JamieG]

Peak District

Fontainebleau

From 8a.nu. Showing recorded ascents in peak district and Fontainebleau (for comparison).

Seems to suggest a lack of 7A+ ascents being done in the peak.

And a clear lack of + grades for problems below 7A.

don't know what that means, meh

This pretty clearly shows that people that don't climb at least 7a, don't really care much about recording their grades or completing surveys etc.

[tomtom]

It gets graded 6b+ and it but is really hard for that and there's no 6B+ option anyway, tomtom, you fool.

 

You didn't think I was going to downgrade it did you . . . . . . 

I believe the common justification argument nowadays is that a hold broke on Yates and made it a bit harder

[slackline]

Peak District

Fontainebleau

From 8a.nu. Showing recorded ascents in peak district and Fontainebleau (for comparison).

Seems to suggest a lack of 7A+ ascents being done in the peak.

And a clear lack of + grades for problems below 7A.

don't know what that means, meh

Or that people don't bother logging ascents < 7A.

[rich d]

Or that punters (like me) don't use 8apoo but will reply to surveys

[tomtom]

Or that people don't bother logging ascents < 7A.

Or that punters (like me) don't use 8apoo but will reply to surveys

Both are probably very true...

[kingholmesy]

Indoors doesn't count, obvs. Or you're on a slippery slope that ends with taking 8a for holding the slopers on a beastmaker.

+1.

[tomtom]

Peak District

Fontainebleau

Thanks Kingsholmesy - eyeballing these - the median/mean is a bit lower than the UKB one.. so clearly, climbers on UKB are better than those on 8a

[nai]

Don't know the process of logging ascents on 8a but on pb.info it's a slow process finding, selecting and logging each ascent individually, having to grade it (even though you might not have a clue (if it's your first at a grade for instance)), log the key aspects and so on.  So I don't always log all the problems I've done in a day and as I'm a grade chasing whore it's usually the lower grade stuff I miss out, unless it's a classic/highball or whatever.

Either that or there's too many 7As

or people will climb and log a piece of dogshit to be able to log a certain grade rather a great problem at the one below

[abarro81]

Thanks Kingsholmesy - eyeballing these - the median/mean is a bit lower than the UKB one..

Presumably you're being flippant. If not, I despair a little... The 8a.nu data is for a totally different thing to the ukb data.

[r-man]

Peak District

Fontainebleau

Thanks Kingsholmesy - eyeballing these - the median/mean is a bit lower than the UKB one.. so clearly, climbers on UKB are better than those on 8a

Unless I'm missing something, that 8a graph shows number of ascents at each grade. This is very different to hardest problem in last 12 months.

If the ukb users made a similar graph of all their ascents, you would expect a similarly high number of 7a's, since this is well below the limit for most.

EDIT: What Alex said. I post too slowly.

[tomtom]

Thanks Kingsholmesy - eyeballing these - the median/mean is a bit lower than the UKB one..

Presumably you're being flippant. If not, I despair a little... The 8a.nu data is for a totally different thing to the ukb data.

The smiley at the end of my post indicates how serious my statement was   << note smiley here too!

(Just seen the other posts above..)

Yes of course 8a logs all probs people decide to put in so a daft comparison...
Please dont get me wrong - not trying to say x is better than y - just interesting seeing the numbers... (and those from 8a etc..)

[abarro81]

Sorry. Been reading ukc too much recently!

[tomtom]

Sorry. Been reading ukc too much recently!

No worries - just been watching Guys video of you on Kaabah  - really excellent stuff - good effort! (and Guys best film by a long chalk so far)

[Doylo]

Sorry. Been reading ukc too much recently!

Is that cos your on the homepage?  2000 views and 1500 from a bedroom in sheffield

[Pantontino]

Stating the bleeding obvious perhaps, but the hardest problem you've climbed in the last year is not that useful as a guide to ability. If you 're a seige merchant who only boulders you'll have a relatively high number compared to a 'circuit' boulderer who also does lots of routes but is of a similar general ability to you.

I'm not having a go at the seigers btw (I've done  a fair bit in my time) as I know that it requires a strong head to keep going on a long term project. Constant failure hurts and all that...and maybe you could argue that the seiger is using good tactics, and that good tactics are what maketh a good climber...

As for claiming indoor grades - too much variation to have any bearing on reality.

And to Kelvin - which 7A did you do at Ysgo? Just curious to get feedback for the new guide.

[tomtom]

Stating the bleeding obvious perhaps, but the hardest problem you've climbed in the last year is not that useful as a guide to ability. If you 're a seige merchant who only boulders you'll have a relatively high number compared to a 'circuit' boulderer who also does lots of routes but is of a similar general ability to you.

I'm not having a go at the seigers btw (I've done  a fair bit in my time) as I know that it requires a strong head to keep going on a long term project. Constant failure hurts and all that...and maybe you could argue that the seiger is using good tactics, and that good tactics are what maketh a good climber...

As for claiming indoor grades - too much variation to have any bearing on reality.

Just thought I'd comment to explain why I asked the question the way I did. And comment on the mistakes I made. I've no axe to grind on this by the way - I've been wondering about this for ages and finally got around to asking. This a general comment - though your post has made me think about it Simon

OK - so the question. I thought a quite a bit about that. The best or 'ideal' way would be for everyone to put in a full tally of all the grades they'd done in a year and then you could get a histogram looking like one of the 8a graphs posted earlier. You could then pick the 90th percentile (or other suitable percentile) as representative of what you climb hard at. But of course most people (Myself included) don't have that. You could ask for an average - but then what would you say your average hard grade is? Everyone would have a different way of figuring that out for themselves. You could say take the average of the ten hardest (or five) problems you've done in the last year - but then would people bother working that out when they just want to click and move on?

So I went for the hardest - as its simpler - and less ambiguous than other measures.

If I were to ask again (I might in a year - to compare - would be interesting) then I would make it outdoor only. You're right that indoor grades have too much variability. Outdoor ones can have that too - but because they are there for longer (for ever except for some rock types!) then they have time to be adjusted and stabilise... so yes they are a more reliable barometer.

There are always going to be issues with people putting the wrong answer down, or over or under estimating - but by having a large sample size (are we at 150 yet?) then this can act to cancel itself out. There have been subtle changes in the shape of the graph as it has evolved, but the mean has been on 7B+ from about 50 answers onwards...

Anyway. I think its really interesting that 17 of the 150 have climbed 8A or higher. This is where my interest in these numbers lie. Lets do some extrapolation. For that we need to work out the number of UK boulderers (towards the top end) who have filled in this poll. What percentage go on UKB? 20%? (I'm just guessing with all these figures..) and lets say that only 50% of this 20% bothered filling in the poll - that means that 10% have filled it in (50% of 20% is 10 % etc..). So 17 * 10 = 170. Are there 170 people in the UK who have climbed 8A or more in the last 12 months.. Does that sound reasonable?
By the same calculations, there are 570 people who have climbed 7C or more in the last 12 months.. does that sound feasible?

Just some thoughts....

(edit - changed a couple of figures from the first post, miscalcs when I re-read it)

[Fiend]

Done some amazing 6C+s over winter, some good 6B+s too. HTH.

[Oldmanmatt]

I went with 7B, because that would be the hardest I've completed outdoors this last year (ish). But it was almost a year ago and I wouldn't have done it in one session.

Now?

I would finish a 7A in a session, even if it killed me (which it probably would), because I'm mentally defective like that...

In my heart of hearts?

I'm a 6A climber who doesn't know when to stop.
Eg Projecting "La Grotte des Soupiers" in Creci (never got close), up until I had to quit.

Still, watch this space, no excuse for not training now!

[Jaspersharpe]

I read somewhere that there were 60,000 people involved in the London riots.

Nice to see Fiend using proper grades nowadays btw.

[fried]

I read somewhere that there were 60,000 people involved in the London riots.

Nice to see Fiend using proper grades nowadays btw.

I thought he was still one of the faithfull of the church of Vcrap.