In reply to UKC News:
The comments here are making me cringe, so here is my two cents, sorry, tuppence.
The pitch Tommy freed on the dawn wall proj is NOT a trad pitch. Its is primarily protected by bolts, and fixed pins, so the claim that this is one of the hardest trad pitches in the world is both absurd, and false.
Grading. Any american who uses french sport grades in the USA is a goddamn traitor! Seriously tho. its YOSEMITE, where the YOSEMITE decimal system is used.
Century Crack. Granted these guys trained hard to do this crack, and it was an impressive effort, but it only took them a couple sessions to climb it. Tommy has been training, and attempting this route for years, and for techy granite, he is #1. How, then, could anyone possibly argue that Century is harder? Hogwash!
E grades. I'm sure Tommy has a basic understanding of E grades. Unlike the UK however, here in 'mericu we have enough rock so that we can happily bolt climbs that don't have any gear :-O