In reply to Dangerous Dave: The reason people from Sheffield compare everything to grit is because that's what they climb as 'bread and butter'.
In summer, I'd much rather be having an adventure on Gogarth than on some little outcrop; there is no implication by comparing the difficulty of other stuff to grit routes that they're comparable in terms of experience. But at Gogarth particularly, stuff is graded for grip, seriousness, slime etc, and often the physical difficulty of the climbing is not great as great as the grade suggests. I have come across the exceptions to this rule on Main Cliff though...
Not all grit routes are hard for the grade by any means, loads are piss. However, HVS grit cracks are f^cking nails compared to pretty much anywhere except Cornish granite. So for people who climb a lot of grit (and people who climb grit tend to climb it a lot as it's easy to get to in the evenings and you can get a few routes done several times a week), it's a good way to talk yourself into something which seems hard (top of your grade on a big serious cliff).
I don't get why everyone's so touchy/defensive whenever grit is used as a benchmark - it's not because it's the be all and end all of climbing - that's grit highballs, not routes
- it's because it's very popular and it's purely about technical difficulty and boldness, since there is no adventure element. Makes it an excellent benchmark for technical difficulty and boldness.