[tim palmer]

I've wondered about this, why bouldering grades seem to have become stuck at 8c with great reluctance from all parties to admit to anything harder. Its the new English 6c.

Also called the Nicole-limit. Up to 8C progress was easy, and done by repeating various Nicole-testpieces around the world.

There is also the chance that very little real progress has been made in the last 10 years. It's not uncommon in sports: for instance the world high jump record is more than 20 years old, and equaling the world record from 35 years ago would still win you almost all big high jump competitions.

i think a lot of these long standing records are due to undetected doping though, that Cuban guy who still holds the record had a few drug related bans did he not?

It seems highly unlikely that standards have not improved in an era of better training facilities and a larger group of full time pros 

[Fiend]

As far as 8C/V15 goes, I thought there were a few previous V16s out there (Goia, Ondra's grotty traverse thing, errrr, Bugeleisen SS?), and that some 8Cs had got shunted down to 8B+ too?

[cowboyhat]

I've wondered about this, why bouldering grades seem to have become stuck at 8c with great reluctance from all parties to admit to anything harder. Its the new English 6c.

Also called the Nicole-limit. Up to 8C progress was easy, and done by repeating various Nicole-testpieces around the world.

There is also the chance that very little real progress has been made in the last 10 years. It's not uncommon in sports: for instance the world high jump record is more than 20 years old, and equaling the world record from 35 years ago would still win you almost all big high jump competitions.

i think a lot of these long standing records are due to undetected doping though, that Cuban guy who still holds the record had a few drug related bans did he not?

It seems highly unlikely that standards have not improved in an era of better training facilities and a larger group of full time pros

Yes see womens sprint records. Athletics isn't great parallel.

[Nemo]

All that's happened is grades have become more standardized between different areas.  So things which were getting given 8C and 8C+ (Entlinge, Anam Cara etc) ten years ago in some places, but were only as hard as things getting 8B in other places all now tend to get 8B+...

Stuff has got way harder in the last ten years.  The grades just appear to have stagnated because the areas which orignally evolved with softer grading systems haven't been the areas which have dictated the system which has become standard.  The standard has largely been dictated by travelling americans and has ended up somewhere in between the extremes of grading between different areas from a decade or so ago...

[r-man]

As far as 8C/V15 goes, I thought there were a few previous V16s out there (Goia, Ondra's grotty traverse thing, errrr, Bugeleisen SS?), and that some 8Cs had got shunted down to 8B+ too?

Gioia was 8C. Ondra suggested 8C+ (At around the same time he suggested 8C+ for his traverse, Terranova). Nalle didn't agree.

Bugeleisen sit has been repeated and 8C suggested.

The Process and Hypnotized Minds look like a couple of the strongest contenders for the new grade.

There are a few others, but might not be attractive enough for travelling Americans. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RndNw9F74rvgvqDA1i512MwxHf7PtacojVD4s7DHVz8/htmlview

No two boulderers have yet climbed a problem that they agree is 8C+.

[Doylo]

Nalle seems the be the only one of the top boys committed to a proper seige. That thing in Finland sounds like it will the hardest problem in the world.

[Fiend]

The next hardest boulder problem in the world .

Who repeated Bugle SS?

[r-man]

Jakob Schubert. His first 8C.

http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/jakob-schubert-gets-second-ascent-of-bugeleisen-sit-austria-s-first-v15

[Fiend]

Wow. Nice one him. Amazing looking problem.

[r-man]

Birtle the beetle is back. No cuts this time...

[tomtom]

Go P-bert