2 December 2018

Lack of hardcore onsights and flashes

During the last years, we have seen a great progress when it comes to redpoint grades for both male, female, youngsters and oldies. Strangely enough, when it comes to route onsights it seems the level is decreasing beside Adam Ondra. Nowadays, it is very seldom we hear about 8c's respectively 8a+' being onsighted by male and female. In comparison, Ondra has done 84 onsights 8c and harder. In bouldering, we saw some progress up to 8B and even 8B+ some years ago but last year, almost none did flash an 8B. Kind of strange as there exist videos of most of the hard 8B out there and also that there are many more to choose from compared to five years ago. Among the male, James Webb sticks out with 19 8B boulders flash. When the 8a scorecard was set up in 2000, we choose to award onsights very high in order to motivate more onsights. Maybe it is time to increase the bonus and also report more high class onsight? Remember that it might not be a coincidence that Adam Ondra had a focus on onsights being a teenager. In general, many coaches and trainers say that it is better to build a wide onsight pyramid instead of just redpointing a personal best.
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