UKC

has anyone noticed the grades at the arch becoming easier in the last few months

In reply to teddy jones:

Bu@@er! & I thought I was improving

In reply to teddy jones: theyve always been much softer than everywhere else imo. V3 at mile end or the castle needs a few goes for me, but is a regular onsight at the arches. I can see why they do it, as the grading system doesent work that well until about V2 (proper V2 that is!) and loooooads of people are climbing under this. Much nicer to do a V1 after being stuck at V0, rather than the fairly unimpressive sounding leap to V0 instead of V0-

but its still not really a V1

In reply to teddy jones: to reply to myself ill add, i actually like climbing there a lot, I just take the grades with a pinch of salt......they dont mean much anyway!

In reply to teddy jones: From checking the tags before I climb, and only bouldering to V3 (not very well) at mile end and the arch, at times it can seem slightly subjective to me. Routes are set by individuals with a higher skill and all round strength level im guessing to those especially to the lower grades. So a v2, for example, hold placement wise may seem easy enough, but to someone with less reach or less developed muscles, it will always be more of an effort. I do say this from the opinion of someone who admittedly has not done any courses and is predominantly self taught, so I agree on many levels my technique will not be as good. But trying a v2 at the arch, last week, which was upside down for at least two moves, before what appeared to me at least to be quite a stretch upwards, that after this long winded rant that may not have progressed this post any further, that sometimes no, the grades at the arch have been spot on for me, apart from the odd route.

In reply to teddy jones: ...and why have they adopted Font grades on some of the routes in the "cave with slope" area (I'm sure they've come up with a better name than that!)? I dare anyone to compare the F6b yellow traverse (big jugs) with any 6b at Craggy2! I may of course be getting my grading systems mixed up

To end on a positive, the Arch extension is a great improvement.

In reply to LionSJH:

That's because the F grades in that room are french (ie. sport) grades not font grades, as the long problems in that tunnel are basically routes.

I will never understand indoor grading, since a V0 outdoors isnt ridiculously easy a lot of the tmie, since its a UK tech grade of at least 5b. V0 and most V1 and even some V2 at the Arch are like ladders.

The arch clibnig is technical, and not very bouldery a lot of the time though. Mile End's moves to me seem a lot more commited and leap of faith like (and I dont write this just because of the height!)

In reply to plexiglass_nick: Thanks for the clarification on grading. That does indeed make sense (after a quick check on the Rockfax grades conversion chart).

Whilst I'm on, anyone got any thoughts on the grading at Craggy2? Hard / easy / just right. I've done most of my climbing there so have little to compare against.

Cheers.

In reply to LionSJH: yellow 6b route is a bit of an exception. I thought that blue 6c and its 7a extension before the recent re-set, as well as the new blue 7a aren't necessarily that easy for the grade. Agree though that the 6b route was more like 5 / 5+.

In reply to Lupine Lacuna: I'm with you here, a V1 outdoors, for example delivarete from standing at the plantation, is quite hard, english tech 5c is no pushover. However a V1 outdoors is usually very easy. Why the discrepancy?

In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

Because the V -grading system (if it starts at uk5b as you say ) is completely inappropriate for use in London climbing walls as 50% of the users or more would only ever climb V0s ??

from my single 1 off recent visit to the arch I'd say the grades seemed easier than the castle where I do most my bouldering, especially the v1/v2's.

However as far as I can tell the castle bouldering grades are marginally harder than outdoor grades... except in glen nevis where I found the grading harsh

But it also seemed true that the arch was more technical and the castle is more about strength (many problems you can't get off the ground without strong fingers whatever the technique).

I mostly climb at flashing v3, sometimes flash v4 but normally get them after about 5 goes, struggle on v5, get the odd one if I'm feeling strong.