[abarro81]

Thought more about this.. Although Mecca is 7C into 7A with a good rest and staminahumps is 7C into 7B+ with a worse rest I thought  they were the same difficulty did them for the first time - a perfect example of the traverse being harder physically but this being made up for by ease of working...

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Thought more about this.. Although Mecca is 7C into 7A with a good rest and staminahumps is 7C into 7B+ with a worse rest I thought  they were the same difficulty did them for the first time - a perfect example of the traverse being harder physically but this being made up for by ease of working...

Good stuff.

Steve made the obvious point to me earlier, that you can probably work things out based on how long they take you. The route may take the same time as the boulder, for the same reason - easier climbing : harder to work.

All that said, I think I'd want to claim my 9a "status" with a route rather than a boulder. They're all voies though  As for Mecca, half the top section is now a knee bar rest; maybe that's why it's 7A? 

[dave]

Thought more about this.. Although Mecca is 7C into 7A with a good rest and staminahumps is 7C into 7B+ with a worse rest I thought  they were the same difficulty did them for the first time - a perfect example of the traverse being harder physically but this being made up for by ease of working...

So what you're saying is a F8b+ route and a supposed F8b+ equivalent boulder problem traverse in actual fact have neither the same standard of climbing nor the same logistical difficulty. So, they aren't actually comparable, despite having the same on paper grade. Which just proves the point you can't treat traverses as routes!

[jwi]

A traverse is a traverse, and should be graded on the Fontainebleau traverse grade. This was solved ages ago by the old Bleausards.

[abarro81]

Highball 7C and lowball 7C are typically neither the same standard of climbing nor the same logistical difficulty either...

Comparing staminahumps to mecca is not really any more absurd IMO than comparing stamina boys to the ace. Not that I'd advocate using a route grade for staminahumps. At 20-30 moves there are enough boulder grades used to have things to compare to, but when it gets to 40/50/60 moves it seems sensible to use a sport grade as the comparison is (for most) easier to make. If you asked me to give a boulder grade for staminaboys or pilgrimage all I'd do is give it a route grade and then take 3 grades off to have a guess.

[abarro81]

Steve made the obvious point to me earlier, that you can probably work things out based on how long they take you. The route may take the same time as the boulder, for the same reason - easier climbing : harder to work.

This is pretty much how people grade things normally, taking into account how hard it feels when you do it and how much beta you had along the way..

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Steve made the obvious point to me earlier, that you can probably work things out based on how long they take you. The route may take the same time as the boulder, for the same reason - easier climbing : harder to work.

This is pretty much how people grade things normally, taking into account how hard it feels when you do it and how much beta you had along the way..

Yes, of course.

I was just pointing out how the physical difficulty/ease of working relationship made it far easier to offer comparative grades than people think.

(I think) I'm with you regarding use of grades - it doesn't matter what you're grading "is", but rather, it's just a choice of language determined by what you're trying to convey.

Rather than calling it a route grade, why not say "sport grade". What sport grade would (does?) Wheel of Life get? That way, we get less hung up over whether something "is a boulder" or "is a route".

[Nacho Toranzo]

I made a visualisation with the data from the 9a list just for fun, hope you like it

https://public.tableau.com/profile/ignacio.toranzo#!/vizhome/THE9THGRADEROCKCLIMBINGLIST/Dashboard

[jwi]

nice!

[andy_e]

That nice graphic shows us that Era Vella is the most popular 9a, therefore is the easiest, therefore can be downgraded to 8c+ 

[SA Chris]

Most popular by some distance!