UKC

Charles Albert has made the first ascent of L'Ombre du Voyageur (The Traveler's Shadow), in Salève, Haute-Savoie, France. He has graded the boulder 9A. This begs the question: if you don't use shoes or kneepads, will the grade stand up to scrutiny?

Nice kitchen Rob. Is that an empty bottle of Oyster Bay, Sauvignon Blanc in the background? Nice! Also like the bowls,

Cheers,

Nick.

PS, sorry It's coming up as anonymous, cant seem to rectify, ah well. 

I get a lot of compliments on the kitchen, which would be great but for one minor detail - it's not actually my kitchen (it's Nick Brown's) 😅

He's earning way too much, and drinks posh wine! Should have known 😉.

Nick.

How is Oyster Bay posh?

This is not the controversy I anticipated us discussing when we filmed this 😅

OK Kieth Floyd, calm down! 😆

Maybe getting confused with Cloudy Bay? 

Less seriously, for certain routes and problems where it makes a critical difference in difficulty, (particularly if they are established without kneepads/bars) I think it is reasonable to consider them as separate challenges if done with or without pads.

Malc’s Pilgrimage and Bens Roof are deliberately repeated without kneepads even though it is well known how much difference kneepads make. In those cases kneepads weren’t even around when the problems were originally done so for some it is a mark of respect to repeat them in the original manner.

Hubble too is one to consider. Although the kneepad there only makes a marginal difference but that marginal difference is important as it could make the difference between failure and success for someone and for the chroniclers may conceivably even make the difference between it being considered the first 9a in the World or not. 

Alex Kneebarrer will be along shortly to make the counter points, no doubt. 

So far off topic I think this deserves it's own thread!