[monkey boy]

Carlo Traversi just sent Jade, 6th ascent
Cool pic

More to the point he downgraded it! Good lad!

[Paul B]

to what? (Can't see it on the blog of the all knowing swede)

[Doylo]

8b+, theres a surprise

[Johnny Brown]

didn't try danny's a lot

No you didn't. Not compared to the amount you talked about trying it.

[Stubbs]

Seeing as everyone else has taken 8C for it I guess it's 5 against 1! I was trying to find the bit he wrote on Deadpoint about how sponsored climbers should be role models and give back to the community and not swear: it was hilarious!

[monkey boy]

Yeah he comes off as twat on everything he does and says but props for suggesting a downgrade!

[Jim]

why props for suggesting a downgrade?

[Andy B]

I think it's fucking good that he's encouraging people not to fucking swear.

[clm]

note to self. not done rings for 2 yrs. not touched kettlebell for one yr. didn't try danny's a lot. people's perceptions never fail to amaze me

Well maybe if you spent time anywhere but your bedroom and the works peeps would build a more up to date picture.

[a dense loner]

i enjoy the myth/mirth too much

[shark]

i enjoy the myth/mirth too much

Every generation needs a Smythe

[a dense loner]

very good! did u see that straight away?

tho we are movin ever so slightly off topic. to put us back on track a friend of mine did gorilla warfare last wknd, rather significant methinks

[lukeyboy]

a friend of mine did gorilla warfare last wknd, rather significant methinks

WADDAGE! That's an outrageous ascent. Has he emailed ukc/8a a news report on it yet?

[shark]

very good! did u see that straight away?

You are crediting me with too much intelligence - it was an accidental pun. I deleted the karma point, but thanks.

[Drew]

More to the point he downgraded it! Good lad!

Surely if it was only 8B+, then a certain D. Graham would've climbed it first, several years ago, no?

[drdeath]

Hey , different strokes for different folks i guess...

[c.j.d.]

Different strokes indeed.  What's the bit about not swearing and the community?  Fuck the community, and fuck giving them anything back - cunts.

[fatdoc]

god bless this place
 

[Bonjoy]

Yeah he comes off as twat on everything he does and says but props for suggesting a downgrade!

Like Jim says, why props for the downgrade?
I tend to think that the climbing community’s habit of slapping people on the back for downgrading stuff on principle is a bad thing.
Don’t get me wrong, if something is overgraded then it deserves to be downgraded. What I don’t buy is the idea that this is a brave and charitable act on the part of the ascentionist. Downgrading can either be an honest expression, or an act of willy-waving one-upmanship. I think randomly (ie where you don't have good evidence to support the downgrade) handing out kudos on the basis of a downgrade only serves to encourage the latter motivation.
This whole ‘downgrading is always a good thing’ idea has given us the weird situation where ten people agreeing with a given grade is routinely overiden by one or two people suggesting a downgrade. Presumably this situation is borne out of a widely held belief that the downgrader is always being more honest than the climber voting for the status quo. Is this actually true?

[Doylo]

Some folk seem to have a complex about downgrading and declaring everything 'soft' regardless of whether it is or not.

[Bonjoy]

Yes and when asked to elaborate will always quote the worst undergrading anomalies as benchmarks. There certainly seems to be a school of thought that everything should be downgraded to fit in with a handful of Gaskin problems. Aside from being tedious this does nothing to make the work of guide writers any easier and leads to infrequently climbed problems being left behind as relics of ‘old school’ grading, whilst the grade of the popular stuff is bounced around by the whims of the latest crop of angry youth.
Benchmarks should be firmly middle of the grade. When classic long standing benchmarks gradually drift in either direction it indicates that the whole grade scale is being skewed by an excess of grade changes one way or the other.

[Pitcairn]

I dont think many people understand that grading is a science and the grade of a route or problem should be the mean or median value from the total number of ascentionists.  Of course its good that he suggests the grade he feels it warrants but thats 1 out of 6 or so ascents.  And maybe some other people who climbed the problem might agree with 8b+ rather than 8c now that someone has suggested.  But again it is a consensus and just because one person suggests a downgrade doesnt mean it has been downgraded.

IMHO.

[Johnny Brown]

that grading is a science and the grade of a route or problem should be the mean or median value from the total number of ascentionists

Hmm... a science? I guess the statistical bit could/ should be, but the opinions are still highly subjective. I guess that's no different from psychology though...

In the UK, its part of the national climbing psyche to say 'it wasn't too bad' than say 'it was the hardest ever. by anyone!'. Whilst I prefer that in many ways to the yank spray alternative, it does lead to conservatism in the grades, which is a problem. Has uk tech 7a officially been wrested back from the idiots yet? For anyone in the media spotlight though, its a tricky balance.

[Pitcairn]

Hmm... a science? I guess the statistical bit could/ should be, but the opinions are still highly subjective. I guess that's no different from psychology though...

In the UK, its part of the national climbing psyche to say 'it wasn't too bad' than say 'it was the hardest ever. by anyone!'. Whilst I prefer that in many ways to the yank spray alternative, it does lead to conservatism in the grades, which is a problem. Has uk tech 7a officially been wrested back from the idiots yet? For anyone in the media spotlight though, its a tricky balance.

You are right.  But I think that in an ideal world it should be a science where an individual grades a routes based on how it fits within his/her own database of experience, and then the actual grade of the route is a mean or median of a large number of ascentionists opinions.

In reality we as climbers are inevitably drawn towards either the conservative British-style approach or American-style spray approach. I agree that conservatism is generally more palatable but I feel (as is the case with science in general), many people and the climbing media (not just 8a!) just dont get it.

Anyway, interesting though it is, this is now seriously 

 

[Paul B]

many people and the climbing media (not just 8a!) just dont get it.

I find this statement quite amusing