Mind control grade confirmed at 8c

Mind Control in Oliana was put up as an 8c+ by Chris Sharma in 2009 and the high quality route quickly became one of the most repeated 8c+'s in the world, having also some female ascents and Adam Ondra's onsight, who was the first to call it "soft". In early 2012, Gabri Moroni did the route and commented, "Everybody knows it's only 8c...but nobody will ever downgrade it :-P" One year later, Reffo Silvo flashed it and recorded it as an 8c, "Stay a dream send a 8c+ flash...8c is the true". At the same time we started to report it as an 8c (+) and there were some complaints about this meanwhile others sent e-mails confirming what we said but did not want to record it as 8c since they did not want to upset their friends and celebrities. Of the last seven ascents recorded on 8a, all have marked it as an 8c so it is time to drop the 8c (+) grade and call it an 8c. In fact, other media still have created 8c+ headlines for it several times over the last years. It should also be noted that of course it might have been an 8c+ when Sharma put it up in 2009 as some holds might have been broken. Some 15 years ago, 8a was first out to questioning hard core boulder grades mainly in Ticino, in order to present as correct news (gradewise) as possible. Later this was confirmed and the same story has also happened regarding several other crags. The easy way to track grades that are too soft is just to check the percentage personal best that appear in an area, aka Time Comparison Grading, see the picture. Mind control as an 8c+ would mean that in fact most who did it actually made a personal 8c+ best based on grade or invested time. This grading theory article was presented in 2002.