UKC

was up their over the weekend, it's a grand little place, climbed about thirty or so of the routes between the three of us

but the grading appeared to be monstrously erratic

it seems that the smartboys who wrote it although clearly accomplished bouldererers, are less skilled at the application of grades at the lower levels

for instance jack the lad vs 4c, fine route, but felt like v diff, if not diff - definitely not even severe let alone very!

it got to the point where we stopped using the book and just climbed what we thought we could do and reversing it if necessary... a far more satisfying way to climb in my opinion

loads of other examples too, but many clear cases of over grading and under grading - including a severe that felt exactly like climbing three pebble slab again (except i fell off it twice - the severe, not tps)

anyone else been there and had similar issues with the new north east guide book?

cheers

Iskven

In reply to Iskven:

That'll be the 'Northumberland' grading system they're using then.

In reply to Li'l Zé:

indeed that's what we thought at first, but it wasn;t just hard for the grade, in somecases it was embarrassingly easy

iskven

In reply to iskven:

That's what I mean by 'Northumberland' grading. You can find (for instance) VS applied to anything between about Severe and E1. The strongest tendency seems to be undergrading, but others are spot on and some are quite overgraded.

In reply to Li'l Zé:

no one else been there then?

In reply to Iskven:

It's been over 8 years since I went to Slipstones so can't remember much about the feel of the grades.
Looking at the guidebook, however, I find:
"Chockstone Pull Up 3m E1 6a"

A 3m E1 ???

In reply to Iskven:

Sadly the new guidebook although a worthy venture hasn't done justice to the Slipstones nor several other crags as regards grades and stars. Micro-routes are given boulder problem grades, 3m problems are given route grades, some grades are fairly out as are some stars.

Using the Yorkshiregrit.com bouldering topo in conjunction with the published guides would help...

In reply to Neil Conway:

A good one for early in the season! Actually you will find it is only 2.5m long!

Bob

In reply to Bob:

What's the protection like?

In reply to Neil Conway:

Absolutely appalling, probably why it gets the grade /-) I have to take issue with the 6a part though...

Bob

In reply to Li'l Zé:


So why is it known as "Northumberland Grading" when the slipstones are quite clearly in North Yorkshire?


We (I was one of the said three in the OP) were wondering why can't some of these grading anomolies been ironed out then.... surely thats the point in new guide books (as well as adding new routes of course) some of them are quite obvious to be honest...I set off up a nice easy looking arete ( I forget the name...) and tell the other two it can't be much more than Vdiff, but its a fantastic solo...lo and behold its VS 4c in the guide. I'm normally a little closer than that!!!!

any how. Great crag if you want to pack in lots of great fun solo's, away from...well everyone. and its got a boulder problem called The Emergancy Hat, what more could you want!

In reply to Neil Conway:

could this be the same chockstone pull up in the new guide graded diff?

In reply to iskven:

Bah! Rumbled!

Bob

In reply to Iskven:

Whilst all the routes were climbed and checked for grade and quality by leading Teesside based climbers(except many of the V grade which were added at a late stage buy using a comlex mathamatical formula) I can't say which were checked at the begining of the day and which were checked at the end.

All comments sent directly to the publishers can be found here:

http://www.smartboysonline.co.uk/climbing_in_nee_corrections.htm

as you can see not too many at the moment. So send them in and help get the next guide to be more accurate.

In reply to Iskven: We went there on sunday again- I find the grades there aren't bad above 5c- but you're right- some of the easier ones are totally random. I've found this to be the case when bouldering at lots of places though- Shipley Glen for one.
Slipstones is fantastic though- so good the erratic grades aren't too worrying.