UKC

I know that I have been away quite a long while, but as I was entering some climbs into my logbook, a few of the climbs came up with this prefix. Could someone enlighten me please.

In reply to sofajam9:
I think its a grade that ahs been used occasionally as a bottom boudlering grade below V0, but Im ont totally certain.

In reply to sofajam9:

I coined it when I was doing the Rockfax Happy Boulders guide. There was no grade to describe problems below V0- and there were lots of them from V-Diff to VS, and also lots of people interested in bouldering at that level. So I climbed a load of that stuff, and marked them with a VB on the topos. VB means several things, take your pick.....Very basic, Very beginners, Very bumbly (only kidding) and Vertical Brain.

Mick

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com: Thanks for that Mick, the routes were on Hetchell crag and at the time were short 20'V Diff routes.

In reply to sofajam9:
I've noticed those, is Hetchell included in the Yorkshire bouldering guide perhaps? If not, then the grades are wrong, they're certainly not given bouldering grades in the Yorkshire Grit route guide.

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:

Trouble is V grades are not suppossed to deal with height. Hence Sunset Slab is highball VB.

We use a new U grade system for our website to extend V grades downwards U9 roughly equates to 5a down to U0 for 2a (the sort of climbing youd find on a run out mod) with V0 at 5b etc above. U for Under V, Useless, Uncomfortable with bouldering etc

We also cheat and take landings and height into account (they certainly affect how hard a problem feels in a way which is important to lower grade climbers)

In reply to Offwidth:
And at Hetchell there aren't many people who'd consider the low grade routes to be boulder problems

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

I dont know Hetchell but certainly Shipley is a great place for midgrade climbers to raise their heartrate on 4a boulder problems. Also my mate got a nasty ankle sprain slipping off one of Caley's 'benign bumbles' (gives you a change to check out the bouldering outside Leeds A&E

In reply to Offwidth:

They do to an extent though sometimes. For example I've seen Crescent Arete given V2 5b and also Font 5+, but V2 and font 5+ would both usually be 5c (and having done it I reckon 5b is about right).

Si dH logged out

In reply to Anonymous: maybe V2 cos it's got a few 5b moves on there rather than height? (CA best done as sans mat low E1 onsight anyway!)

In reply to Simon Caldwell: Simon,it seems to make sense re the bouldering grades if that is what the climbing community want, but as I know nothing about bouldering grades the point is academic. I agree with you,I would have considered the routes to be significant enough to be counted as routes with original grades of, in this case, V Diff and Severe.
Pete

In reply to sofajam9:

Guides including occasional boulder problems ingnore their main audience at their peril. Thats why I'm so glad the BMC put UK tech grades on everything.