UKC

are what they say they are. They are what font grades are.
How do people think they compare to the British font grades?
I find British grades much softer font 6a and below.

In reply to pigeonjim:

No one got any comments?

In reply to pigeonjim:

it is a law unto itself.

I did a 6c which felt spot on this weekend and was trying a hard 7a that felt about right.

I got thrashed by le flipper which gets 6a/b depending what book you look at but feels much harder. I couldn't some of the blues on Saturday either...

c'est font pour toi!

They are about right.

I have found that climbing in Font (as with many places) is about being used to the type of rock and the movement/technique required.

Font grading feels hard until you get your body positioning right.

In reply to ypy:

Not the full picture that. It's just inconsistent out there. Some stuff is right and lots isn't.

The addition of POF doesn't really help things...

In reply to Wilbur:


Hell no. Some of those easy routes are so polished there is no friction left on the lower footholds. Lots of that looks like pof.
I hear the rock type comment and i have considered that but I have been on font 3s that felt british font 6a!

In reply to pigeonjim:

Below Ft6 in Fontainebleau there's almost no correlation between the grade given and the difficulty of the climbing. That's my experience though someone will obviously point out I'm wrong and I just don't get it.

jk

In reply to jkarran: For many of the older circuits the holds are polished and the soil level lower than when first climbed/graded due to erosion. But the grades given haven't changed, the Cosiroc guides even say that grades for some circuits are 'traditional' (so undergraded by ?)

In reply to pigeonjim:

Comparisons with the UK are largely meaningless, I think. The beauty of climbing in Font is that one day you can happily crank up some 7Bs, only to be left confused, spanked and unable to touch the 5Cs next door. Climbing in Font is unusual in that even 'lower' grade problems usually can be super-technical, too. That's unusual to find say in the Peak.

In reply to pigeonjim:

Font grades in Font, below about 6b, are wildly inconsistent in describing the difficulty of a problem. They are far more consistent, and softer, over here.

In reply to Stefan Kruger:

This is very true.

In reply to jkarran:

I'd say that feels true on some circuits but in general there is a correlation - they certainly don't seem to keen on upgrading things however deserving!

In reply to pigeonjim:

You are right... I rarely find a correctly graded UK problem below Font 5: almost all are too soft. Equally most popular easy font problems are too hard due to polish...but there are hidden venues where you can tell what they were like before the crowds got to them.

In reply to pigeonjim:

As someone who only boulders orange/blue/red circuits at Font and who has never bouldered in the U.K. I can tell you only that on average an orange problem is easier than a blue which is easier than a red.

I also believe that some of the newer areas grade stiffly even if it's not polished because everyone now thinks that problems started like that.

I have honestly never seen evidence of pof, problems are polished because a lot of people climb them, and some don't clean their shoes.

The only comparison I can make is with Targasonne where a 4c bears no resemblance to a 4c in Font.

I look forward to visiting the U.K and climbing Crescent arête no-handed.

In reply to pigeonjim: its hard to quantify.i did carnage and angle incarn(both 7b)then couldn't touch a font 6a that some old french dude just walked up.lots of the 6a-6c whites at cuvier are nails(dernier jou and la ravensbruck iirc? whereas la lili and defroquee felt piss

In reply to pigeonjim:
Mixed bag of comments so far. Interesting.