In reply to Mick Ryan and others:I was going to do be diplomatic but:
This is a NATIONAL competition. It's not a local, fun, competition for beginners or recreational climbers. It's aimed at individuals who have a serous interest in indoor lead climbing AS A SPORT IN ITS OWN RIGHT and would like an objective standard by which to measure their ability both in absolute and relative terms.
As such, having the majoirtiy of the routes in the grade 7s is perfectly reasonble. In fact my initial thought was that the grade range from 6b to 8a in 6 steps whilst logical was perhaps on the wide side and that an extra route(s) in the range middle range of 6c to 7b would be more useful than either extreme of 6b or 8a.
Quite frankly if anyone considers climbing 6b indoors is hard then they are not taking indoor climbing seriously as a SPORT. There is nothing wrong with viewing indoor climbing as 'recretion', 'fitness training', 'fun', 'practive for outdoors' or 'something to do if it's raining outside' but if anyone genuinely embraces it as sporting endevour requiring effort and commitment (i.e. consistently climbing on lead hard enough to fall-off) they will end up climbing 6b easily.
Using the well-worn running analogy, this is not a 'a 10km fun run' where the aim is just to get round the course this is more like a '10km track race' where the aim is to post a PB under race conditions.
Kate, IMO, your arguement about age is spurious and I think that in climbing as with fell runing the older competitors whether in their 40's, 50's or 60's will give the teenagers and 20-somethings a run for their money. The proposed (single) age limit seems sensible and the only alternative of having veterens, super-veterens, very-super-veterens, hard-very-super-veterns, mild-extremley-veterens etc. covering ever finer age brackets quickly turns into a farce.
Indoor boulder comps (eg. SIBL) I believe have contriubted to the rise in standards of bouldering by providing many indoor climbers with a focus for their training and their climbing year. If this ladder can get more climbers pushing themselves to the limit on indoor routes then it only bodes well for British climbing as a whole.
I've been entering leading competitions both here and abroad for 6 years now and 'edge' the competiitons give to my climbing has been invaluable in getting me to understand my limits. I'll be entering the ladder and I'll be encouraging anyone else interested in improving their route climbing (indoors, sport or trad) to participate as well.