UKC

The logbooks seem to be missing a vital grade.

Mild XS!

This massively useful grade is unavailable and I fear I have overgraded a route by logging it using the XS grade.

Can we have MXS to log all those weird and wonderful routes which are both easy and defy normal grading?

(it also appears to be missing HXS as well but this is not an immediate problem)

Hi

Thanks for your suggestion.

Adding small divisions of grades is a more complex procedure than it may at first appear. The linking of databases and grades means that they exist in tables with sequential ordering numbers to give equivalents on UKC Logbook and on Rockfax Digital. Every time we add new grades to this system it becomes more complex so we are no longer adding subdivisions to grades. MXS and HXS would effectively be subdivisions although where they fit in comparison to E1, E2 and E3 would be anyone's guess.

Additionally, many people don't use 'Mild' in their own mental scales of grading. This is why MVS is only awarded in a tiny fraction of cases. In a roughly linear grading system there should be an equivalent proportion of routes given MVS as the grades HS and VS on either side. This isn't the case since most people don't use it and we don't use it on Rockfax for this reason. It does historically exist on UKC but is still rarely used.

Finally, I personally think of 'XS' as being an all-encompassing grade of ambiguous climbing. To me it means that you can expect anything - easy moves on loose rock or just general weirdness which can change all the time. To apply a gradation of weirdness when it is already a moveable feast doesn't make sense to me.

Alan

Thanks for your reply. It sounds like it will have to stay in as a soft touch XS then.