[jwi]

In the gym I'm currently going to the hardest circuit has colour black and cover a grade span between 7B and 8B. The strong climbers vote with their feet and almost completely ignore the circuit in preference of the moon board and the kilter board. It might be a lot less fun, but at least there is some form of information about what difficulty a problem has, apart from what you can guess by looking at the holds and the distribution of chalk.

[Durbs]

I'm on the fence... I like the "vague range circuit" as if it's mostly in my range I'll have a go at it, and can't use an excuse of it not being in my grade range as it might be...

Equally, I like the satisfaction of ticking off a specific grade, even it it is arbitary - this mostly depends on the consistency (more so than accuracy) of grading at a gym.

[JamieG]

the hardest circuit has colour black and cover a grade span between 7B and 8B.

That's clearly ridiculous. The span of grades shouldn't be that large, since it's basically useless then. That goes from some like me a keen punter to borderline world class! Within a colour they need to be relatively consistent. Most spans I have seen tend to be just a few grades. e.g. V5-7, which I think works fine.

[jwi]

the hardest circuit has colour black and cover a grade span between 7B and 8B.

That's clearly ridiculous. The span of grades shouldn't be that large, since it's basically useless then. That goes from some like me a keen punter to borderline world class!

And I think we're in general agreement that indoor boulders have a high variability in grade, so realistically grades between 7a to 8c. On the easier end of "black" I sometimes flash, so those are probably more 7a than 7b.

[Duma]

Every hardest circuit at every wall I've been to covers a very large difficulty range - it's inevitable unless you're willing to waste the walls money and the setters time by having a whole circuit or two that is too hard for 99% of the customers. The only realistic solutions are to either -
Set nothing above 7C, or
Have a fairly open ended hard set that's focused on low to mid 7's but also has a few high 7's and low 8's

[JamieG]

I agree with you Duma, often the hardest circuit is just something like >7B, which I usually take to mean 7B-7C+, which I'm fine with. Firing the odd 8B in there doesn't really benefit anyone. The wads won't be on the circuit as most are too easy. And the punters will just think its ludicrous for the circuit. Probably worth having a few 8s that are clearly labelled as such, but I appreciate they are catering to a diminishing (albeit usually super keen) market.

[jwi]

Every hardest circuit at every wall I've been to covers a very large difficulty range - it's inevitable unless you're willing to waste the walls money and the setters time by having a whole circuit or two that is too hard for 99% of the customers. The only realistic solutions are to either -
Set nothing above 7C, or
Have a fairly open ended hard set that's focused on low to mid 7's but also has a few high 7's and low 8's

Or use ... eh... grades?