12 February 2008

As routes change, so do the grades

As routes change, so do the grades
Through the years, Dani Andrada has sometimes been accussed of putting up soft routes, and hence blamed for being one of the main perps resonsible for inflationary tendencies. We at 8a.nu can hardly say we've been innocent here.
As it seems, we've been dead wrong. Not in stating the many of his FA:s are now soft or overgraded, but in blaming him for it.
Dani himself agrees 100% in many of the routes being overgraded, but also says they weren't at the time of the FA. The reason for this is simply that the rock is not 100% solid and that some holds, over time, have become bigger and better. Dani goes on to say it is very important that everyone suggests and states their opinion instead of using the 'old' grade, something we've been urging climbers to do for a long time.
Dani.jpg
Here are a bunch of routes that, according to Andrada, has become easier since the FA:

Geminis: Then 8c now 8b(+)
La novena enmienda 9a+ - 9a
Definicion de accion 8c - 8b+
Latido de miedo 8b - 8a
Pomermos rouge: 8a+ - 7c+
Bon Viage 8a+ - 7c+
Ingravids serps 8c - 8b+
El Koala 8c - 8b
Estato Critico 9a - 8c+
El Percal 8c - b
Falconetti 8b+ - 8a+
Ultima hola 8c+ - 8c
Welcome to Tijuana 8c - 8b+

Of course this process isn't something that's unique for Dani's routes, meaning this is just the tip of the iceberg.
So, what can we learn from this? What's the consequence?
Well, for one thing we're going to have to understand that a route can have different grades depending on when it was climbed. Holds break, get bigger and get polished. All this affect the over all difficulty and, hence, sometimes change the grade. This is already common in cases of broken holds when the route has become harder, but strangely enough the opposite isn't as common.
The only way to get fairly accurate grades is that everyone honestly states his or her opinion about the difficulty, regardless of the level. If everyone did, I don't think grades would be such a sensitive issue.

But then again, maybe Dani is right thinking: "La gente sta loca!"


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