UKC

Repeated Soul Sacrifice ("E3") couple of weeks ago. And Mother Africa ("E4") third go about a month ago. I'd been in Pembroke immediately before before and climbed and E4 (Suspense) and E5 (Just another day/Scorch Earth) (both acknowledged as soft) both easier than Soul Sacrifice. Mother Africa harder than JAD/STE by a grade.

Now I know you can find all sorts tough and easy at Pembroke (Pleasure Dome and Zepplin for example tough E3) and also at Swanage (Ocean Boulevard easy E3). But Swanage does have a lot of classics that are sandbags; Heidleburg Creature, Tatra (before it fell down), Billy Pigg, Buccaneer, Ximenes(!), Dune Dust (at E3), Soul Sacrifice, Mother Africa...

I'm not moaning, just passing comment!

In reply to Mark Warnett:

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/humblebrag

In reply to Mark Warnett:

That's Swanage for you.

However, grades at swanage are comparable to Gogarth in my opinion.

Mother Africa would be E4 on the main cliff.

Cheers,

TJB

In reply to Mark Warnett:

When 2 routes of the same grade are found very different in difficulty, the grade of the harder one is more likely to be questioned, rather than that of the easier one.

In reply to john arran:


Could this be Arran's Law?

In reply to Climber_Bill:

Compared to Graduation Day and The Camel I thought Mother Africa was pretty straightforward!

Pembroke is always judged by its soft touches, simply because people often (consciously) ignore taking a look at the hard touches - Luke Skywalker, Beat Surrender, Yellow Pearls, Iron Maiden, Snake Charmer, Grey English Morning. I could go on...

That said - and here's the confessional - I've done exactly the same in Swanage, avoiding things like Surge Control (which looks to be around 8 grades harder than the neighbouring Lean Machine) and Fly Crazy But Free (which again looks far more than the single grade harder than Warlord, which is just next to it).

As such, it's often better to compare hard for the grade for hard for the grade, as opposed to grade for grade, mostly because in this case the numbers are often meaningless as they're all desperate.

In reply to Mark Warnett:

I have no experience of the routes you mentioned as I don't climb at those grades but one observation I've made is how much difference it makes if the rock is greasy at all. The same route could feel a grade harder/easier on a different day. This applies to both venues of course but still complicates comparison even if you climb there on consecutive weekends you can never be sure you're comparing like for like.

In reply to Mark Warnett:

In general (and at the grades I climb), Swange grades are gradually becoming mainstream with new guide books and Pembroke grades are becoming significantly softer (and they were generally soft before).

In reply to Rob Greenwood - UKClimbing:

In rare occasion I get there it's true I take the opportunity to target soft ticks to push my grade ... one of the many good things about Pembroke...

Think you've done them all so how does warlord compare to mother Africa and is lean machine a big step up from WOW?

Thanks

In reply to Kirill:


I'll second that. Sometimes you will find the rock surprisingly greasy and that definitely affects your confidence (grade?)

I think it's caused by tiny particles of sea spray in the air even when the weather seems bright and sunny. Never climbed at Pembroke, but I should imagine a similar thing happens there