UKC

Hi All,

I am Maltese and I was up to a 6c+ for climbing. Recently moves ti Wales and went first time outdoors in Llangollen Trevor quarry.

I found that even some of the 4 grades were a bit tough, having said that I onsighted them all.

I wonder if the grades back have are slightly over graded or maybe the routes were just polished.

Any feedback?

Quarried UK limestone is an unusual style, that won't help. And a rule that seems to apply everywhere...the lower the grade the more inconsistent the grading.

Yes I agree completely on the continent I climb up to around the mid 6's, whereas even the late 5s feel very stiff in UK quarries.

For reasons which are too long and boring to go into here, you'll find that UK mid to lower grade climbing often feels tough for the grade, low quality, and sometimes polished...

Solutions are to either climb trad (which I don't) as there's a lot of excellent trad in the uk, take lots of trips to the continent (which I do), or to get really good and be able to jump on the excellent but high grade sport we have here (Malham Cove, Pen Trwyn etc)

I can remember climbing my first F7c and thinking, "I'll never fail on a VS (F4) again."  (Had done many, many hundreds, if not thousands of VSs, by this point.)

Well, Lordy, Lordy, the very next week I failed on a VS. Who'd have thought it?  Well, not me!  Got a much needed dose of humility.

F4s can be tricky. A lot of understanding trickiness is just getting a feel for what different rock types can throw at you (e.g. quarried, versus natural limestone, slate versus sandstone).

Wander around different venues and don't worry about grades too much. You'll get a feel for things.

If you've been doing F6c+ in Malta and it's Stevie Haston who was doing the grading, I doubt they were overgraded!

Mick

I nearly fall off VS every time I go near one- it's one of the few aspects of my climbing that is consistent....

I think I've spotted where you're going wrong. Instead of going near to them, try actually getting right on top of them - close enough so you can touch them with you hands and feet. Should make them much easier

Yeah most of them were graded by Stevie haston. I like to know the grade to keep track of my progress

Alas, it doesn't work that way. Your performance is depends on how familiar you are with the friction, type of holds, and length and steepness of the hard bit.

Everyone knows a local hero, who can climb really hard on their local crag, but fail to even get close to performing this elsewhere. Nowadays there are plenty of people who can easily do 8a in the gym while struggling on 7bs outdoor, while there are also plenty of falaisists who can onsight 8a in any style outdoors, but struggle to even redpoint 7cs indoor.

A good friend could onsight any crack you put him on up to 5.13- before he did his first 7c onsight of a bolted face climb.

In short, progress is specific to style. However, I found that when you get used to a style you usually find that the grades are fair compared to other styles. When people say that some areas have hard/soft grades what they really are saying is that they have severe deficiencies that are exploited by certain areas.

My €0.02

Sometimes that's very true, but I'm not sure that's always the case. Wasn't RRG seen as soft by a few visiting wads and some grade readjusted has been happening, or at least has been suggested? And hasn't Ondra commented on some stiff grading at Frankenjura even though he's spent a lot of time there? And I would guess that (without any real evidence), crags that see less visiting climbers are likely some have some variance in the grading across Europe, and even more so globally.

Apparently some of the hardest routes in RRG were between a quarter to a half grade out. I think my point stands?

All I'm saying is experienced and well travelled climbers said the area was soft. And I'm not sure that was due to 'serious deficiencies'. Which does directly contradict what you said.

Just to add, assume I'm totally wrong on this, what makes you so sure that grading doesn't vary at all from area to area?

RRG?

RRG = Red River Gorge, Kentucky, USA