UKC

Just read the first ascent details of the Classic "Savage Slit" in the 1946 SMC journal. Pitch descriptions goes like this.

Pitch 1. 25ft. Mod.

Pitch 2. 20ft. Diff.

Pitch 3. 15ft. Mod.

Pitch 4. 30ft. V. Diff.

Pitch 5. 50ft. Mod.

Quite a jump to a classic grade severe. 

One grade isn't much of a jump. That 15ft Mod pitch 3 seems odd though, surely that's in the corner?

It's also grown a bit since then 80m vs 140ft...

States scramble up the bed but outward movement is not easy.

Sounds like most mornings!

I wonder if the fact that it's usually done in two (or sometimes even one long glory pitch) means it seems more sustained than it would if done in 5!

I think the biggest factor though is whether you climb it inside or outside the 'slit'!

Hardly unique. Facade in Glencoe was VDiff in the 1980 guide then VS in the 2005 Scotland guide. 

Very modern in 1946 with the pitch grades!

Not a that surprising! In Kevin Howett’s guide - released in the 1980s i think, Jack the Ripper gets VS (it’s e1 now and not a soft one!)

Can we all just agree that grade inflation is out of control and modern climbers are wall-bred softies* rather than having to go through and list every climb that's been upgraded since the first ascent?

*Not my actual opinion but seems to be the way these threads always go

In the original Howett guide I'm fairly sure it was described as joining November Grooves for the last pitch.

Don't have the guide to hand atm.

Oooo that would make sense - I’ll have a look when I’m home!

I tend to agree about grade inflation. To give just 2 examples from Avon, Mediator (E1 5b), used to be HS, and Krapp's Last Tape (E3 5b), used to be HVS

It's definitive f3b, VO. 

Andy Nisbet was the last climber to upgrade Facade, never thought of him as a ‘wall-bred softie’.

It felt HVS when I did it!

There seems to be some confusion about the first ascent.  The 1946 SMCJ implies that the FA was made on 17 July 1945 by Richard Frere and J.D.Walker.  However in Greg Strange's well researched history of The Cairngorms he states that the FA was made by Richard Frere and Kenneth Robertson in the summer of 1939.  This info appears to come from Frere's own publication 'Thoughts of a Mountaineer' 1952.

The 2007 comprehensive SMC guide also attributes the FA to Frere and Roberson in 1939, whereas the more recent SMC Wired guide says Frere and Walker in 1939.  And Classic Rock says Frere and Walker July 1945.

I suspect the 1945 ascent was a repeat ascent by Frere, six years after he made the first.