UKC

Dave MacLeod has completed his long-term project at the Arisaig Cave. He has decided on Lithium as the name and has graded it 8B+ in difficulty. Dave first heard of the cave after a tip-off from a friend 9 years ago, and has since spent a significant amount of time establishing first...

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In reply to UKC News:

Well done Mr M!

In reply to UKC News:
Well done Dave!

The grading logic is confounded...He is happy to say it's harder than the 8B+ & 8C's he has climbed and taken the grade for and it's easier or similar to 8C's he has not climbed.

So either it's 8C and Dave's past ascent are on the grade or it's 8B+ and his past efforts in Magic Wood are all soft/inflated grades.

I propose the answer that Dave doesn't actually know how really strong he is and praying at the temple of waddage has borked his frame of reference

In reply to alx:


I suspect it's alluding to the well-known elephant in the room that the two work on a slightly different spectrum. All in all, an incredibly modest but well-reasoned decision on Dave's part, as far as I can tell.

It looks like an immense piece of climbing. Can't wait to see the video of the final thing.

In reply to UKC News:

'Shallow Water to Riverbed 9B+'... Bloody hell, has someone told Nalle he's been outdone already?

In reply to kwoods:

I agree it's a valid point, I guess the rub is that Dave didn't need to mention it at all, he could have said, hard 8B+ needs a repeat to be confirmed.

In reply to UKC News:

If it's 40 moves maybe he should just have route or traverse graded it -- just for the LOLs.

In reply to UKC News:

Little clip from one of Dave's earlier attempts for anyone interested, pretty impressive to watch! https://www.facebook.com/darkskymediaUK/videos/1379811812078219/

In reply to UKC News:

I just don’t do enough bouldering to have a good handle on grades.‘

LOL

In reply to Malarkey:

I think your right.

I'd have graded it as a trad route - 40 moves, an 8B+ crux and certain groundfall throughout. Sounds about E15

In reply to UKC News:

Crikey, make sure your volume's turned down if you're watching the vid, proper power screams!

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

Th ground fall looks heinous, sand in the shoe!

In reply to siwid:

Crikey, make sure your volume's turned down if you're watching the vid, proper power screams!

I know, the neighbours called the Police and the dog attacked the computer!

In reply to chrisprescott:


My technique is almost as good as Dave's!

And by technique i mean doing the fall off, storm away, turn around briskly, storm back move.

In reply to alx:

As it's a floor of cow and sheep dung, I reckon that merits an extra E-point.

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

Yeah it seems odd to give a 40 move problem (the Dark Sky page says 50+ moves) a boulder grade at all. Convention seems towards route grades for boulder problems that are this long.