Even though, that I'm far from climbing interesting (higher) grades, I still follow the big guys and their achievements. There is a lot of discussion about grading and grades to be confirmed. But only few high-end routes seem to get repeated soon. I don't want to, and I guess nobody does, doubt the abilities of someone like Dani Andrada.
I was first curious and then surprised that only one of his 11 9a or more wasn't FA (7of 35 8c+ or more). There is certainly a great merrit for finding and climbing high end routes. And therefore the 10 bonus points are reazonable too. But if only estado critico and el intento (this one being rather 8c+ for Puigblanque and Usobiaga) of his 9a are repeated, there must be doubts -incluiding for himself- about the right grade, as grading always will be very subjective.
Wouldn't it be nice then to have a "benchmark" option? Isn't it a merrit to repeat a confirmed hard grade.? Wouldn't it be possible, to integrate the possibility aside of hard/ soft/ .. to mark a route as benchmark. If no one (or an infinite low percentage) contest the grade and -for example- at least 3 ascenders marked it as solid benchmark, this climb will automatically turn to a benchmark for this grade (being "highly" confirmed). I know that there would be the need for some programming. But then you could even give 5 xtra points for a benchmark ascend and the 8a community will by this automatically create a system of confirmed routes and grading.
Benchmark and grading. to be confirmed...