UKC

Beth Rodden is 28 years old and lives in Yosemite, California with her husband Tommy Caldwell. She is an exceptionally talented climber, with previous ascents up to 5.14b/F8c (The Optimist - First Ascent) and free ascents of The Nose, Lurking Fear and El Corazon on the legendary El Capitan.

She has just made the first ascent of The Meltdown, one of the worlds hardest Trad routes.

I caught up with her to find out more about her climbing:

Read More: http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=864

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: Think your examples of putative french grades for trad routes are pretty unrepresentative (was that the intention?).

Ok, lots of E5s might be F7a (though lots are much less)
E6 is usually 7a+ (though there are a few E8s eg. Countdown to Disaster, The Complete Scream which are 7a+). Strawberries at F7c is hardly representative of E6s!
Most E8s and E9s seem to be around F8a/8a+
E10s seem to be around the 8a+-8b+ mark
You are allowed rhapsody I suppose as there's only one route claimed at E11

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: That's really impressive, I can't think of any other sport where women can compete on the same level as men. And to top it off she's quite fit. Well done.

In reply to (marktomlinson): Hi Mark,

In regard to the UK Trad routes being different sport grades - I think that's the whole point..

You can see from the table that each UK trad grade encompasses a huge range of French grades.

Jack

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

only one way to confirm the UK adjectival grade....and that is for a UK climber to go there and do it (not nominating myself btw).

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: Impressive! btw Is it the camera angle or *does* she have a telescopic right arm?