UKC

I know this has been discussed before, but a search mostly turned up discussions on HDiff and MVS trad grades. My current moan is slightly different.

I've just come back from El Chorro where I climbed lots of easy sport, but the UKC and Rockfax gradings are a little out from my experience and the topos produced locally. The issue is that there are so many subdivisions on the UKC grade-voting panel that you often can't vote for the grade you actually want. This is mildy annoying for users but must really limit the usefulness of votes for reassessing grades (and if the grade is ever reassessed the old votes will make the new grade look wrong).

For example, I climbed some routes given 4+ which I think should be 4 and (vice versa) but the lowest I can vote a 4c is a 'low 4b'. If I (hypothetically) contact the moderator and they then change the UKC grade to a 4a, it will look like I (and everyone else) thought it was harder.

A few climbs were much further out - for example Tira-mi-su (5a) at Escalera Arabe is a 4a currently masquerading on UKC as a 5c! Notice the votes piling up for 5a - the lowest option.

Could the voting panel be expanded? Or more radically could we scrap the 'hard' and 'easy' options? Can you really tell an easy 4c from a hard 4b?

In reply to Oujmik:

Yes I think you can tell between a hard and easy grade. For example there a lots of VS routes I have done that a hard for VS but don't constitute HVS and lots that are soft but aren't HS due to dangers odd moves ect. However sport grades are different as your not talking about danger.

In reply to Oujmik:

It is, and always has been, a problem with the UKC voting system that it begins with the assumption the grade is almost correct and therefore you are mostly just debating easy/hard or at most a single grade upgrade/downgrade. It is completely useless when, for example, a climb given HS should really be given HVS, or a climb given 5 is more like 6a (not even outrageous examples!).

There should either be more options or just 'easier than above' and 'harder than below' options added.

In reply to Oujmik:

Simple solution - note this in your comments section on the climb.

In reply to Mark Kemball:

That is my current solution, but it seems less helpful to others than the ability to simply vote for the right grade.

In reply to Oujmik:

As a guidebook author, I tend to take more notice of a written comment than the votes, particularly if there are only a small number of votes (as is usually the case in the area I'm working on).