In reply to Björn Pohl - UKC: I wonder if you guys could tweak a couple of things in the news story? First I'm pretty sure natural method isn't one of the worlds hardest problems. In my blog I was trying to say that there are many problems in less well travelled corners of the globe which are comparible or harder than those in famous bouldering spots which are known for soft grading. Natural method is one among many like this. There are quite a lot in the uk. I know Dan V likes the idea of grading by area. More achievable yes but desirable I'm not sure. It does rather prolong the wonky system. I sense it's a part of British psyche to revel in this; sandbag furiously at home and tick hard with ease abroad. But if the grades were more consistent they could be discussed less which is a seriously worthy goal!!! Having said that so many hard bouldering FAs are downgraded so it's a balance. They are harder to grade than routes to be fair.
Second I didn't go on a Swiss bouldering trip to compare it to my Own climbs. That was just a bit of fun. I just went because the climbing is good.
The biggest challenge, or at least one of the top few in world bouldering in my mind must surely be a repeat of Shadowplay. Its one of the few climbs I can think of there where I'm not sure if there is a climber that could do it.