In reply to martin heywood:
Thank you Martin,
To be honest, the OP didn't specify indoor, outdoor, french or English gradings (though 8a English would be, erm, interesting). Nor did they specify that any reply had to be from someone who is regularly on-sighting 8a NOW - as opposed to in the past.
There's also the point that the OP talked about a goal of climbing 8a. There's a big difference between regularly on-sighting 8a and achieving a route of that grade as a goal. They specified a goal, which implies once (ish). They didn't even specify that any respondant needed to have *ever* climbed 8a.
By the above, Inspiral is totally qualified to comment. No he has not regularly on-sighted 8a outside, but in fairness if you look at his profile he's never claimed to have done. I don't doubt that he could - he *was* regularly doing 7c outdoors a few years back.
You're right about the miscroscope though. This forum tends to be a little over-critical - there's a tendancy to pull anyone's achievements to bits rather than just taking each individuals achievements and congratulating them for something that is hard for them.
It says E4 on my profile, for example. It's true, I have on-sighted E4, I've not climbed many, and almost every single one was a bold slab (which is how it got the grade) at the relatively harmless tech grade of 5c or 6a. I'm not, and have never claimed to be, an E4 leader. Right now I doubt I could repeat any of them as I'm out of practice.
e.g. If someone saw me today at Redpoint being spat off low graded routes at the end of a session (ok, miss-dyno-ing for a hold and punching the wall instead really didn't help!) I'd guess my claim to climb anything harder than VDiff might appear a little, erm, over-enthusiastic. Making a judgement of someone's ability on the basis of a short viewing on one occasion should not be a reason for slagging them off on a public forum.
...but does that fact that I can't, right now, lead E4, that mean I'm not qualified to reply to a post which asks "How difficult is it to climb E4?". I think not. Others may differ.
On the other hand, I have a long term goal to on-sight (or at least redpoint) Obsession Fatale, at E7/E8. Am I disqualified for asking about the route because I've not cleanly led anything from E5 upwards? (actually I wouldn't ask about it as I want to have the "fun" of working it out for myself, but that's my personal preference).
As you've probably gathered, I'm a mate of Inspiral. I'll stick up for any mate where I think they are being unfairly treated. Actually, I'll stick up for more or less anyone who I think is being unfairly treated, as people on this forum know. I think some of the above, from some posters, was harsh.
Just my two cents, and best wishes to all.
JHx