MischaHY
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2014
- Messages
- 525
Interesting one this as I've only climbed multis up to 7c+ in various countries but they've always been on the money.
That being said I have realised that depending on who made the first ascent, a single hard boulder sequence in the middle of more standard 'terrain' does tend to end up with a screwy grade if the person who did the first ascent is someone who typically does just that - first ascents of long routes.
In Sardinia for example we climbed a route called 'Legitimo Bastardo' (brilliant name) which gets 7c. We had to bail at the 5th pitch due to a totally rotten belay (pic below) but up to there climbed 6b+, 7c, 7a+, 7a+. The 7c felt easier to me than both the following 7a+ due to the fact that the crux of the thing was simply pulling hard on some good edges whereas up above was pure wobbly runout tech climbing and much more insecure. I probably wouldn't have been mad if it said something more like 7b+, 7b, 7b.
However I must say I agree that 'overall' grades have no place in fully bolted multis. The grade is the grade and that's pretty much it. In the mountains it's often the case that an 'E' grade will be applied to routes to denote the difficulty of protecting them, ranging from E1 to E6 where 1 is perfect and 6 is YGD (aka take your small wires).
Personally I try to apply British trad grades to the big trad multis in the Alps because otherwise it's frankly very hard to process what you've done. A couple weeks ago I did 'Supertramp' on Bockmättli and it was anything but sport climbing. Crux pitches 6c+/7aish on very techy slab with huge runouts over bolts, and then easier pitches mostly trad with 2-3 fixed pieces on 50m. '8-' says absolutely nothing about the level and head required for that route!
It seems to me like there's a good case for generally trying to consider routes with a combined grade such as is sometimes the case on modern hard trad routes in the UK. Supertramp for example is probably E5/8- which immediately gives a much better feel for the kind of runouts and commitment you might expect.
That being said I have realised that depending on who made the first ascent, a single hard boulder sequence in the middle of more standard 'terrain' does tend to end up with a screwy grade if the person who did the first ascent is someone who typically does just that - first ascents of long routes.
In Sardinia for example we climbed a route called 'Legitimo Bastardo' (brilliant name) which gets 7c. We had to bail at the 5th pitch due to a totally rotten belay (pic below) but up to there climbed 6b+, 7c, 7a+, 7a+. The 7c felt easier to me than both the following 7a+ due to the fact that the crux of the thing was simply pulling hard on some good edges whereas up above was pure wobbly runout tech climbing and much more insecure. I probably wouldn't have been mad if it said something more like 7b+, 7b, 7b.
However I must say I agree that 'overall' grades have no place in fully bolted multis. The grade is the grade and that's pretty much it. In the mountains it's often the case that an 'E' grade will be applied to routes to denote the difficulty of protecting them, ranging from E1 to E6 where 1 is perfect and 6 is YGD (aka take your small wires).
Personally I try to apply British trad grades to the big trad multis in the Alps because otherwise it's frankly very hard to process what you've done. A couple weeks ago I did 'Supertramp' on Bockmättli and it was anything but sport climbing. Crux pitches 6c+/7aish on very techy slab with huge runouts over bolts, and then easier pitches mostly trad with 2-3 fixed pieces on 50m. '8-' says absolutely nothing about the level and head required for that route!
It seems to me like there's a good case for generally trying to consider routes with a combined grade such as is sometimes the case on modern hard trad routes in the UK. Supertramp for example is probably E5/8- which immediately gives a much better feel for the kind of runouts and commitment you might expect.
