Let me give another possibility for why top-end route grades went up, but top-end boulder grades did not. If I understand it right, the new top-end routes are endurance beasts. Climbers aren't moving through tinier, more difficult holds. They are linking hard boulder problems with 8c+ routes...stacking 8c+ on top of 8c+ with little to no rest. i.e. they are climbing at the same highest difficulty level as the top climbers did a number of years ago, but over longer routes. By their nature, that can't happen with most boulders. Short and sweet might be a way to describe them. If you do link together a few boulder problems, the question might rise whether it is now a route. And boulder routes often don't get the same prestige, it seems, as "pure" sport routes. Look at the reception the climbing community gave Jumbo Love, compared to Delicuente Natural Extension. This brings me to my real question. Have climbers nearly reached the ultimate in difficulty on sports routes? I'm distinguishing difficulty from endurance. I'm sure we haven't reached the ultimate in endurance. Someone will link 9a with another 9a. But will climbers send 9c routes, that are not longer endurance tests? If they can't, doesn't that suggest a close limit on the boulder grades we might achieve?
2008 High-end analyses