9 February 2018

Bertle refuse Ondra's personal 9a+ grade of Meoise

Pirmin Bertle put up Meoise in 2015 calling it 9b. Two weeks ago Adam Ondra made the first repeat giving it a personal 9a+ grade and part of the explanation was a no-hands rest he found. Pirmin has written a blog saying, "I clearly refuse a downgrading of Meiose." Using it as a 9a+ reference for Switzerland would mean to block the way further up for almost every actual 9a climber of the country. Pirmin arguments that Adam's suggestion must be considered a highly personal grade as without his length and knee-bar skill and his length it is more difficult for others. 8a has for several years said Adam is a role model as he is the top climber in the world that most frequent gives personal grades. Without climber like him and some few others, the grade inflation would have been much stronger. Bertle seems to say that repeaters should give community, meaning that Ondra should take into account that he is super good at knee-bars and that he is relatively tall, i.e. give it 9b. On the other hand, it would be very hard to ask all repeaters to not base their grade suggestion or confirmation on how difficult they personally thought it was. Instead, they should make a scientific estimation on how difficult they believe the whole climbing community would perceive it. Grades are the number one criteria, for the media, deciding which ascents should be reported. At the same time, grades should not be so important for the climbers that instead should focus on the challenges. Although in theory, it could work as Pirmin suggests, in practice, this type of community grading might get the climbers confuse. When am I allowed to give a personal grade and when should it be community based? Possibly, Bertle sets the bar too high? A third way of grading is to use the Time Comparison Grading, meaning that you could base the grade on how much time you have invested, using the best sequence and in good conditions etc. The 8a stand here is that we are grateful towards all like Pirmin and Ondra that help us to present as accurate grades/news as possible at the same time, we fully understand that most want to stay away as long away as possible from suggesting or confirming grades.
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