The Park
The Kind Traverse V10 or V11
Sunspot V10 or V11
Riddles in the Park V11 or V12
Wildcat V11 or V12
Jade V14 or V15

Mt. Evans
Silverback V8 or V9 or V10 or V11
Clear Blue Skies V11 or V12
Mental Pollution V10 or V11
Public Execution V9 or V10
Ode to the Modern Man V13 or V14

Here is Joe Varela on the first ascent.

I have also returned to training with Athletik Specifik. Most of the training revolves around maximal efforts on the System Board and the campus board. I am really hoping to progress this summer and I firmly believe that working with Athletik Specifik will get me there. As I get more involved with training I will be posting more about what we do there. It’s awesome to see these guys in Movement, where I am almost everyday setting new routes and boulders.

David Graham responded to Daniel’s send on this site with this comment:
I think this boulder being graded v15 could be devastating to the future of the v15 grade. I have climbed esperanza, and consider it be soft 8b+, even potentially 8b. If you want to use a logical comparison, and leave hype out of the math, this boulder does not end up as v15…but future repetitions by people who have independent minds will be able to give an honest second opinions…No one likes it when people try to judge a boulders grades without making a repetition for reference, but as time goes on, we will have to find a solution of how 7a+ into 8b+ equals 8c, and further how 8b+ into 8b+, also equals 8c.
Does anyone follow me?
The history of bouldering up to this day still stands for something, especially outside of Boulder, Colorado.”

And Nalle Hukkataival added these thoughts with a great post from his blog here.

And finally here was my post regarding all of this in November.

I maintain that 8a.nu, with little or no incentive for taking a lower grades, has lead to grade inflation. It’s not only at the highest end either, here is a short list of problems that have been downgraded in Colorado in the last few years.

Ode to the Modern Man (V15) now low end V14
Clear Blue Skies (V13) now low end V12 or hard V11
Freaks of the Industry (V15 by some accounts) now V13
Ground Control (V13) now low end V12
Authentic Battle Damage (V13) now low end V12
Circadian Rhythm (Hard V14) now V13
Nuthin But Sunshine (V14) now V13
Surface Tension (V12) now V10
Both Sides of the Spectrum (V13) now V12
Sunspot (V12) now V10
Silverback (V11) now V10, some say even easier
Storm Shadow (V13) now low end V12
Lochness Monster (V13) now V12
Centaur (V13) now V12
Child Stars (V13) now V12
and the list goes on….

But why? are people interested in inflating their egos? Are they motivated by points on 8a? Do first ascents feel more difficult on the FA, and as beta is discovered do things naturally become easier? I think there are elements of all three that lead to high grades. I think there are several problems that should be downrated that aren’t and the only reason why is because of 8a.

It seems like a Jade V15 downrate is coming fast as well, although interestingly enough Nalle went with the accepted grade after his quick ascent. There are no answers and unless some phenomenal technological breakthroughs are made, this circular debate will continue. It would be great to see Nalle, Dave, Daniel et al. take a lead on this and really try and grade things honestly. Nalle bring up the idea of establishing The Story of Two Worlds as the benchmark of V15 and I approve of that idea. In Colorado it seems the benchmark climbs are No More Greener Grass V12, Circadian Rhythm V13, Nuthin but Sunshine V13 etc. None of this is really new, but I thought Nalle’s thoughts and Daniel’s were worth a read.

Here are links to their scorecards.

Dave Graham
Nalle Hukkataival
Daniel Woods

-His primary concerns were:
A) He does not want to see any stashed pads or litter at the boulders.
B) He does not want to climbers to cut down trees to make room for new problems.
C) He encourages climbers to not use the road, but to do the hike in, as to minimize conflict.
D) “If climbers do a few simple things to treat the area with respect, I see bouldering at Mt. Evans as a win win situation.”
E) He felt the trails that existed now were acceptable, but that we should keep the impact on the those trails
F) He was definitely aware if the negative impact of the Horan guide and the subsequent uproar, and felt that a well written guide could go a long way to correcting the mistakes.

He was in fact a climber himself and was even impressed at the difficulty of some of the problems. He couldn’t have been more friendly and reasonable. We spent 10 minutes or so sharing our love for the work of Edward Abbey. It looks like Areas A and B will be included in the book, and C,D, E, The Aerials, and Lincoln Lake will be left out, due to access concerns.

Terremer, Hueco Tanks, V15 for its third ascent.
The Game, Boulder Canyon, V16 First Ascent
Desperanza, Hueco Tanks V15 First Ascent

not to mention his convincing win at the ABS Nationals in Alexandria on Feb 14th. He writes on 8a.nu about Desperanza “.. adds in 6 moves of v7 to the stand but it makes for the full line. Sent during the rock rodeo… projects back in CO leaving the desert.” He has had the power for a long time and it’s great to see him start to take the lead by doing the first ascents of standard setting boulder problems.

CORE Official Trailer from Chuck Fryberger on Vimeo.

But where has that left women’s climbing today?

In America, 2008 was a pretty good year for women’s bouldering, in terms of difficulty.

Lisa Rands made an awesome ascent of the Mandala V12 in Bishop.

Angie Payne climbed European Human Being V12, in RMNP, Alex Johnson climbed Clear Blue Skies V11/12 at Mt. Evans, and Alex Puccio did CBS, The Marble V11 or V12, and most impressively Trice V12 on Flagstaff Mtn.
This year Puccio added The Gentleman’s Project V11, The Maze of Death V12, and several other V11s to her ticklist.
During the same two years the top men flashed several V13s (including a V14) and established problems up to V15, one of which is 25ft tall. It would be hard to argue that the gap hasn’t grown. Have women fallen behind, or is this gap appropriate? Should there be any gap?
While Ms. Hill’s ascent was not a bouldering ascent, it was a significant advancement in climbing, and in some way addresses two key issues. First, the idea that women can climb at the same level or higher in terms of pure difficulty, and secondly that women can do important and classic first ascents.
Perhaps twenty years ago the top women of today would have been climbing stronger than the strongest men. If one were to look at the total number of hours men have spent climbing, it would far out number the total number of hours that women have spent climbing (simply due to the fact that there are far more men than women in our sport) and is this the gap that is reflected? Often times when such a debate arises, the fact the men and women have different bodies is used as the reason for the difference. There seem to be climbs that favor a smaller climber, like Chablanke in Hueco Tanks and Clear Blue Skies at Mt. Evans, but those are the exception. More often than not climbs established by taller climbers will favor taller climbers, and most of the climbs established are put up by taller climbers. Perhaps The Nose just happen to fit into the exception, an excuse many men used when they failed to repeat Hill’s route. Do men have a psychological advantage simply because as a group they have more practice and have had the opportunity to push the bar farther? Should we even be comparing the differences between men and women? Perhaps it is the lack of an objective standard that blurs this line, unlike swimming, or track and field.

Angie Payne trying hard in Fontainebleau

The second issue is that of women actually going out and doing first ascents. Women have done very little development in modern bouldering, more specifically of individual problems, let alone finding and developing whole areas, as Fred Nicole and Dave Graham have. A situation where a guy steps aside so a girl can do a first ascent does nothing to push things forwardly. Women are not the ones hiking to the boulders with rope, harness and wire brush to clean and climb the newest boulders. This is one obvious niche that has yet to be filled in the growth of our sport. The argument could be made that only a small percentage of the total number of men that climb develop new problems, and if more females did climb, the number of female developers would increase. Conversely, almost no women have done any significant first ascents of classic problems at the best climbing areas. Are men acting selfish, territorial, and egotistical, and do these generalized traits lead to development? This is a complex issue but one that is rarely addressed. The intention of this post is to be honest, and to generate some discussion as to why women haven’t made more significant contributions to our sport (bouldering) as Lynn Hill demonstrated could be done with her sport (traditional climbing) almost 20 years ago. I for one would love to see them do so.