And yes, I really do think that if you took the crux “move” off the headwall on Positron or the crux of Right Wall and transferred it to a bouldering wall that it might be pushing 4b if you were being optimistic.
Whilst clearly this is flat out BONKERS, I think the kernel of truth you are alluding to here is that some Welsh Extremes are easy. But some are not. I'm pretty confident the crux of Vulcan, for example, would still be 6a at ground level, and of course many routes exist outside Wales. If you'd done all the E5s at Chee Tor I'm confident you'd have a different view. Or even just warmed up on Queer Street.
Typically what the UK tech grade really is is how hard the hardest move feels in the context of the route.
Which is fine, not because it's a sort of french grade (and only rarely is it like Positron) - it's because
in the context of the route is the only place that move exists.
the grade of "the hardest move" being a ridiculous nonsense. Which move? A hand movement? A foot movement? A sequence of movement? – Oh wait – that’s what we use Font grades for… (And yes, that's the bit that JB was mocking previously, but it doesn't remove the absurdity of pretending you're grading the hardest move).
You are literally the only person who I've heard express this opinion. No one has a problem with defining a move, because it doesn't need a definition. We all know what we mean. Sometimes it's a slap, or a short pull on a hold, sometimes a tricky sequence, but we all know what a hard move is, and that the UK tech grade broadly tells us how hard it will feel.
Which is my beef with JB's version of grading things like WSS,
As Tom has so neatly illustrated, it's not my version, it's THE version. The discussion of whether the tech grade was for the hardest section of additive over the pitch was had right back at its inception. Remember Ron on Supersonic - "could this be Britain's first 6c?". Well no, it's 6a, but at the time some people were adding lots of 6a up to make 6c. But why do that when that's what the E5 bit represents?
It is too late in the day to change the entire grading system for all grades to an E grade and a French or Font grade, and it’s unnecessary
It certainly is. However, all your thinking need not be wasted...
what I'm trying to do, is persuade a few people that it actually is possible to do what the eGraders tried to do but didn't get right.
But which people? It's been staring us all in the face! They've got the budget, and the reach. You've got the vision. And, I believe, some programming expertise?
eGrader 2.0!!! This time we get it right!
You pitch, they pay!
If it works, you get to change the climbing world. If it doesn't, they get loads of clicks and you get rich anyway. AND you get to appear on youtube in a lab coat while the wideboyz 'gently' mock your opinion of 4b.
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