[SA Chris]

but what about those who don’t have a smartphone

I'm guessing such people may exist, but I've yet to meet one. How on earth are they videoing their sends?

[Fultonius]

Just sayin'.....

[SA Chris]

Pure babble. Do the staff only let you use non - toxic wax crayons?

[Bonjoy]

Grades are definitely nonsense in all sorts of directions and not fixable in this universe. There are too many variable to take into consideration. That's why I favour grading for a fixed/idealised set of variables, at least then you are acknowledging that the grade is not taking everything into account and you know what the baseline is from which you need to make your own calculation (good conditions and an averagely proportioned able bodied climber).
A more accurate means of grading might be to give the grade as a line graph of height against grade. This would only really be an increase in accuracy on very popular things where a large number of votes from a wide range of climbers was available. Obviously it would still be a blunt tool, missing out innumerable other factors. And even more obviously nobody would actually ever be arsed enough to do the legwork to regrade everything in this way. Might be worth the effort in select guides or articles on specific problems though.

Edit: - or what Fultonius drew

[Will Hunt]

I'm getting memories of an identical discussion having taken place on this forum in the past. Can someone reboot The Matrix please?

A lot of the mental gymnastics goes away if you think about grades in a different way. Grades are not trophies that you award to a climber based on their ability (hence trying to come up with elegant solutions to save the blushes of competent short-arses who cant' get up a very reachy 7A). Grades are a means of comparing the difficulty of climbs, and grades are the best predictor of difficulty when comparing climbs of a similar style.

Thus a 7A reachy wall should feel similar in difficulty to other reachy 7A walls; 6B aretes should feel a little easier than 6B+ aretes and so on. Shorties are going to find 7A reachfests harder than 7A lowball arse-drags and vice-versa: what a surprise!

It's only really possible to comment on grades with any competence when you've done plenty of benchmarks at a variety of grades in the style you're trying to comment on.

[Bonjoy]

Sounds like mental gymnastics to me. It also still falls down if one bum scraping roof is graded based on the opinions of tall people (on a mission to downgrade anything they can lank  )and the next based and the opinions of shorties, and you have no idea who voted for what.

[dunnyg]

Perhaps grades should have the estimate notation, e.g. 7B̂. Then everyone is clear it is just an estimate and not the true value. Unless of course it is benchmark (such as benchmark at Brimham) when the grade would be 7B. Enjoy adding circumflexes in your guides.

Has the bonus of looking a bit french

[petejh]

Chapter 14.

Kneepads...

[northern yob]

This is the best thread in ages! 5 pages of bollocks basically going round in circles, isolation finishes tomoz I’m out.

[mrjonathanr]

This is like ukc with Font grades.

[duncan]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVA0ZViNIpi/?utm_medium=copy_link

/thread

[petejh]

They need slash colours.

[mrjonathanr]

This is the best thread in ages! 5 pages of bollocks basically going round in circles, isolation finishes tomoz I’m out.

Half term finishes tomorrow, aye to that 

[scragrock]

 A few years back i did my usual Boulder set for Inverness Wall and graded the problems as fine single malt whisky.
"Rib blue on the 40 degree wall, Grade- 26yr old lagavulin, In the light, ultra-smooth and oily texture a sweetness briefly gleams, soon tinged with salt and pepper, the whole growing more savoury and smokier all the time. Here is all the precious sweet-smoky style of Lagavulin, in a glowing, well-rounded form. A puff of chalk, not needed, yet seems to heighten the harmony of flavours".

As you would expect it didn't last long but i still think the idea is sound.

We are discussing Art and no amount of words will truly encompass what we are/were and will be as we sprawl across our various Geology.

 

[Fultonius]

A few years back i did my usual Boulder set for Inverness Wall and graded the problems as fine single malt whisky.
"Rib blue on the 40 degree wall, Grade- 26yr old lagavulin, In the light, ultra-smooth and oily texture a sweetness briefly gleams, soon tinged with salt and pepper, the whole growing more savoury and smokier all the time. Here is all the precious sweet-smoky style of Lagavulin, in a glowing, well-rounded form. A puff of chalk, not needed, yet seems to heighten the harmony of flavours".

As you would expect it didn't last long but i still think the idea is sound.

We are discussing Art and no amount of words will truly encompass what we are/were and will be as we sprawl across our various Geology.

Give me an early bottle of Ardbeg Uigeadail any day....

[DAVETHOMAS90]

In that context of course, it's good to remember that in gymnastics - and similar "movement" disciplines - the "grade" moves along with advances in technique/strength.

That was the idea behind Gill's B1-B3 grade system for bouldering.

Of course, Gill is a mathematician. I love Einstein's remarks about maths: “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”

We attach the "number" to the rock, and therefore think it's fixed/solid, which of course it isn't. Everything gets shuffled up the curve slightly.

[SA Chris]

I'm getting memories of an identical discussion having taken place on this forum in the past. Can someone reboot The Matrix please?

This

[36chambers]

Perhaps grades should have the estimate notation, e.g. 7B̂. Then everyone is clear it is just an estimate and not the true value. Unless of course it is benchmark (such as Benchmark at Brimham) when the grade would be 7B. Enjoy adding circumflexes in your guides.

Has the bonus of looking a bit french

If Benchmark is 7B then Zoo York probably needs bumping down a tad.

[Mullett24k]

Can someone enlighten me on what 8a/b is

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVVp0CCDDHz/

[Bradders]

Can someone enlighten me on what 8a/b is

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVVp0CCDDHz/

The most accurate description I've seen of how difficult that problem might be for different people?

[36chambers]

Can someone enlighten me on what 8a/b is

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVVp0CCDDHz/

The most accurate description I've seen of how difficult that problem might be for different people?

V10 in Cameron-Duff

[Bradders]

Can someone enlighten me on what 8a/b is

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVVp0CCDDHz/

The most accurate description I've seen of how difficult that problem might be for different people?

V10 in Cameron-Duff

I refer you to my previous statement...

[shark]

https://www.instagram.com/nilsfavre/tv/CXHGaQfIu4A/?utm_medium=copy_link

Apollo, ~8a\+

Genius.

Has the backslash been used before?

[Fiend]

Backslash and the "approximately" squiggle 

[dunnyg]

I think it is a really exciting time to be climbing, with all these new grades appearing. You don't even have to be climbing hard to get new grades, ~5\5+ is out there every night. Very egalitarian.