UKC

With the recent repeat of Smiling Buttress, I was thinking about why the hardest grit boulders peak at 8B+ and not higher.

There are 8C to 9A boulders elsewhere in the UK (including nearby Peak lime to 8C+).  Many UK climbers have climbed harder than 8B+ abroad and we have the highest density of climbers around the areas where we have a ton of grit to climb.

So why are there no boulders harder than 8B+?

Is it the nature of the rock?  A sandbagging thing, where someone would be shot for proposing a high grade on grit, because it’s not the done thing?  Something else?

Possibly because grit either has holds or it doesn't.  And when it doesn't, it REALLY doesn't. 

Grades try and compare the difficulty of climbs across any and all factors, including rock type, style, accessibility, etc, when in reality these things are just not comparable. You can't compare Smiling Buttress to Fat Lip (f8B), the grade suggests they are of comparable difficulty whilst one has much less ascents than the other. The hardest slabs in the world at f8b+ can't be compared to any overhung limestone f8b+. At best a grade can tell you how hard something is to other climbs in a similar style, rock type, and location.

At the risk of veering off in to grade debates, I’d roughly assume that grades reflect difficulty, so that one 8B in one area, on one type of rock, should indeed be a similar difficulty to other 8B’s elsewhere.  I appreciate that different climbers may do better at certain styles.  But surely across a consensus of climbers, there should be some correlation of grades?

Grades definitely shouldn't take into account accessibility.

They are literally comparable in difficulty, that's what grades are for.

one happens to be super accessible, easily workable longer problem (moves are likely to be easier individually) the other as described in the interview is much harder to get in good conditions and is a short series of super condition-dependent moves.

You do get regional variations in grading because people can only suggest grades based on what else they've climbed, but 8b+ will be comparable to 8b+ regardless of style, people just tend to have a preferential style which will feel easier. An 8b+ slab is still 5 grades harder than a 7c slab in the same way a steep limestone 8b+ is 5 grades harder than a steep limestone 7c.

I think to some extent it's the nature of the rock. On limestone you can bassically have ever decreasing minging crimps on ever steapining overhangs to create 9C+ or whatever but grit is much more techy, much more on-off climbing which is both harder to grade (as once you've sussed the body positions after a billion attempts it will suddenly feel ok) , and also  i dont think the grading system can cope so well with techy stuff as its harder to quantify that pulling down on s*it holds ( i think Alex says as much in the interview)