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This year,Ben Moon repeated two of

Franee's'hardest routes;:Bronx 8c+ and Su

prompted Ben toStruestion whieh is the ha

-Acti o n Direete,.*$rd' what- 6ffi-is-it? Doe

edge of spor$cl i mning O6ifrg#hlrntener

*'pl'atform tor a#spqn de'bate be&&een'th

route in the world. Could it be

-Action Direete,.'$d,what.6ffi-is-it? Doesga*exlstonrock yet? ls,the'euttin&.

edge of spor$climning b6ifrg#tuntened loy over-grading? Using OTE as a

platform for ariopen debate betWeen the vvgrld's top redpointers, Ben

Moon l&ks dttre controversy."ia if'

Bsr lllloon on hiE lnfamous prolect ollKilnseyt north buttress, udoubtadly 9&pocFihly harde_r. Heinz Zak.

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'- Bc. '90 Hubb1e,.&

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'95 Bronx Bc+.

Nane: Ben Moon" -4(E -'2I::"Regtateg.- S

e.v. hishlishts: '84 tateIB'€rrb---of 1gain any real credibility. Surely it is important, if you areputting up routes that you think to be 8c+ or 9a, to be ableto prove to the climbing world that you can cut it at thehighest level in any countuy on anyone's routes. If you arenot bothered by what people think, then why shout aboutit in the first place? It is too easy to just go out, place a fewbolts on a steep piece of rock, spend some time climbing it,give it a big grade and then make a lot of noise. How isanyone going to know anything about a certain level ofdifficulty if they have only experienced that level whilstclimbing a first ascent. I feel that the grading system at thetop end has been pushed up too quickly, by people whowant to grab the headlines with the new hardest route inthe country or even world. People are throwing 9a aroundwhen we never consolidated at 8c+. For that matter didwe ever consolidate at Bc? Let us not forget how broad a

grade is, and the differences that exist within a grade, as isdemonstrated by comparing the difficulty of La Rose etLa Vampire Bb and Theorum Bb. Also let us not forget thedi{ferences in difficulty between one grade and the nexf e.g.

Reve d'un Papillon Ba and Chouca 8a+. This is why 8c+ isso hard because it is a grade harder than 8c. Certainly Ican think of two 8c routes in England that are as difficultas Bronx and Super Plafond, which are graded 8c+. SuperPlafond, originally graded at 9a has now had five ascentsand is a good example of how far out a top climber canget a grade when he is climbing at his limit. \\lhen a climberclimbs something at his limit all he can really say is that itis either harder or easier than a previous route at the samegrade. If he thinks it is harder that still doesn't necessarilymean it is a grade harder, just harder.

The line between success and failure at the highest levelis a fine one and the smallest improvement in power orpower-endurance can have a massive effect on how a routefeels and thus make grading very difficult. I {eel that peoplehave been too quick to grab the next grade up when a routefeels harder than they expected. Why this need for gradesto rise with each passing year? Is 8c+ not difficult enough?I was always under the impression that it was horrendous.

gave lt9a, he just said it was harder than WallStreet 8c. Somehow it seems to have become generallyaccepted that it is 94 which has, in my mind, enabled othernew routes to come in at 8c+ that would perhaps other-wise have been 8c. Both Hubble and Action Directe brokeinto a new level of difficulty and a level that it would taketime to understand, appreciate and consolidate. This I feelhas not happened,and I believe that both these routesshould have been the benchmark by which all 8c+ routeswere measured. The criticism I have heard levelled at thesetwo routes, that they are too specialised. is obviously ridicu-lous. To say this is to expect routes to come in only onestyle. There are three styles; power, power-endurance andendurance. Whatever the style of route it is still the effor!

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DunrNc AN INTERVIEW with Heirz Zak a few months back,the topic of hard routes arose and of which were the hard-est. There are a whole batch of routes up there r,ying for the'hardest route in the world' title and obviously it is veryhard to say which it is, particularly when not a monthpasses and we hear of a new super route with a big grade.However, I felt and still feel that Action Directe is the mostworthy contender and thus expressed my opinion. A fewweeks later I received a letter from Heinz suggesting thatit was a little disrespectful to Alex Huber and Fred Nicolethat people always talked of Action Directe as the hardestroute in the world. Both Om and Bain de Sang were rated9a and might wellbe harder, as hard or easier. He also saidit was wrong to judge unless one had been on one or moreof these routes. This, together with all the news we readabout the latest 8c+, 9a, and now can you believe it 9b, newroutes going up around the world, has provoked in mymind a great deal of thought.

Now I think we have a problem of over-grading. Nodoubt a lot of this is unintentional and done by peoplewho just aren't sure but are erring on the high as opposedto the low side. But a lot, I think, is intentional, done bypeople who have exaggerated ideas of their climbing abil-ity, or who have sponsors to satisfy, or who want to gainpublicity and perhaps negotiate sponsorship contracts.

Why did I suggest Action Directe as the hardest routein the world and place it above such routes ab Bain de Sang,

Om, and Hugh? For one very simple reason. It was climbedby a climber who was generally regarded by the climbingworld as being one of the best ever at the art of red-point-ing. Wolfgang's track record was beyond question. He hadtravelled extensively and been at the cutting edge of the

! think weby peopletheir climbing

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sport for the previous ten years. For me this gave immensecredibility to the route and immediately made me sit upand take notice. Now I am not saying it is the hardest routein the world, Om, Bain de Sang and Hugh all might wellbe harder but they are, to my mind, unknown quantities.They are all routes that have been climbed by climberswho, to my knowledge, have no previous track record ofrepeats at the highest level.

Certainly for me one of the most important things a

climber can do is to travel to foreign countries, visit wellknown testing grounds and make repeats of the hardestroutes. This is the only way that climbers and climbs can

!n:>-1rt+t..-_ .,_.._. E When I attempted to repeat Action Directe I

rfl'*l*r,..ti;}[:+ thought it was very hard indeed, harderof.uv:ffig1adin$lisatedjdrlEb of..s.

at"!-t-t_€..i,-l. than Hubble but still not necessarily 9a.

i Of,S:-: I thought then, and still think now, that---.i=:+,-+, , this route is hard 8c+. Certainly whenit;-' L'"n WoHgang climbed Action Directe he never

difficulty and achievement that is being measured. The

bottom line is that after five and four years respectivelyHubble and to a greater extent Action Directe continue torepel the world's best climbers.

To finish I would like to make a few points concerning

the grades of certain routes. There is no doubt that some ofthese comments will upset a number of climbers but thisis unavoidable and I do feel that this is an issue that needs

discussing. Let us not forget that the ascent of an 8c is no

small achievement and the e{fort required to climb an 8c+

is on a level with that needed to run a world record timeon the athletics track.

I have to repeat my belief that both Action Directe and

Hubble are 8c+. The only person who suggested otherwise

was the climber and journalist Tilman Hepp in his biog-raphy of Wolfgang Grillich. His opinion must surely be

questionable. There is no doubt in my mind that bothAction Directe and Hubble are a grade harder than Bronxand Superplafond. The latter two routes are also of a verysimilar grade to Sea Of Tranquility 8c and Liquid Amber8c both at Pen TrwyrL North Wales. Therefore to my mindBronx and Super Plafond are no more (!!l) than 8c. Thisalso fits in with the opinion of both Nic Sellers and myselfthat Maginot Line (Le Plafond) is no more than 8b+ since

the discovery of the crucial toe-hook on the crux dyno.Accepting Bronx as 8c throws into doubt a number of

other possible routes at the 8c+ grade. Firstly La Connexiory

its neighbouring route. Is it possible for |B Tribout

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I cnsw uP in a culture very different from the presentclimbing scene. In East Germany in the early 80s the sportwas stil very much an unpublicised ininority activity. The

commercialisation of the sport was still a very long wayinto the future. At that time a far more cautious approach

to grading was in evidence. The main objective was to putup an excellent new route taking an ideal line. With increas-

ing abilities this lead to ever higher standards o{ difficulty.Grading had a practical purpose, as a guide to climbers.

In recent years the grade has become more and more an

end in itself. It is di{ficult to avoid the impression that theroute is less important than the difficulty which it repre-

sents. The increasing popularity and commercialisation ofclimbing has certainly played a large part in this develop-

ment. The overgrading of which Ben Moon speaks in hisarticle is a fact but it isn't just attributable to the above.Ultimately it is the top climbers themselves who havecreated this competition for ever more fantastic grades.Here, I see clearly the need for restraint and reflection. This

situation wilt only be remedied by greater honesty andself-control. Last but not leas! we must be quite clear that

the grades we establish and leave behind

to fail on Bronx over a number of years

yet to climb a route of a sirnilar style rand just to the left that is suppos-edly just as hard? Personally I ..:i,:,,.ithink not. Staying for the'.'.j.:;.moment with Bronx it is alsoworth noting the comments of the

,,', ...,,-,,. serve as a standard for others.

the In this context I find iti-. -:1! : :ri-:a1;,-il :.i::.i:i.

-.-,,,.r--,,,r,,:,, difficult to reduce the

1:, -:L.,1j::: whether it is actually 9a or

1:t:i=:ti::lr:':'r:tj:1 rOute Action DireCte

fif+*il;. merely to a question of::::!i_' j:li::r_:i:r-_' 1 rl !r:_ --L,,-11__6_ ^,_

' ,:.:.'..,r: :' only 8c+. During the nine'

months of preparation I didn't concern

to be harder than the Spanish 8c+ routes Onda Vital and

Mojave. Is it not more likely that both these routes are also

not more than 8c?

Moving onto Just Do It Smith Rock+ USA" another 8c+

route, there must be a big question mark over whetherthis deserves the grade. Climbed way back in'92by lBTribout can this really be the same grade as Action Directe?

For that matter can it be the same grade as Bronx?

I know that for a lot of people this is going to be hardto take but unless you move Action Directe and Hubbleup to 9a, which they just are not, there is no room for allthese routes to go in at the same grade.

I would like to end with a quote from a climber who is

no stranger to the hard route, Alex Huber, whose ownroute Om comes in ai the whopping grade of 9a. Taken

from Wolfgang's biography and after a brief visit to ActionDirecte he had this to say: "I can't compare Action Directe

to my first ascents because I don t have the necessary objec-

tivity but Wolfgang's route is the hardest I've seen and

I've seen some hard routes all over the world." With five

years gone since the first ascent (of Action Directe) perhaps

'96 will be the year that all is revealed.

. Ben Moonr

myself with it.I would certainly never have tried this route, let alone

have climbed it, if it had only been for the difficulty. Indeed

the reverse is true. Particularly in the last few days before

the redpoint, I found it difficult not to be over-awed bythe so-called hardest route in the world. To quote a verywise Chinese proverb "The way (to something) is the goal".

I am only able to say that Action Directe is the mostdifficult route I have ever climbed, it demanded far more

from me than Wall Street 8c and other routes of similardifficuliy. I would also like to add something to Ben Moon s

last point. He suggests that Action Directe is the hardesiroute in the world because Wolfgang Grillich spent a

decade at the top of the sport and had always been ableto compare his routes to standards set internationally.Without doubting Wolfgang's ability and judgement weshould be aware of the following: Grading in rock climb-ing is about establishing one rule. It could be described as

a collective rule. To quote the philosopher L. Wittgensteiry"There are no private rules". Consequently a gradingsystem must be established collectively and not based ona personal scale.

Alex Adler

7

Nafie: Jerry MoffattAqe: 32. Resides: Sheffield, U.K.c.v. hiohliqhts: Reqaroed as havingbeen the best af]-round climber in theworld with hard first ascents andrepeats over the last 15 years. '95Evolution Bc+, Progress Bc, Renegrade

Master E9 '7a...

CnAorNc RourES HAS always been a tricky one. It seems

blatantly obvious to me that some climbers are overgrad-ing routes for publicity which is unfair on the people whoare trying to play the game fairly. Climbing has alwaysbeen the type of sport where people get carried away, a

10' fall turns into a 20' fall very quickly as do people's

memories of whether they did a route on-sight flash orwith a fall. At the top end of the sport the differencebetween one fall or on-sight is massive. The same as thedifference between 8c and 8c+ so it's really all the moreimportant that people try to be honest. For myself and theroutes I did this year I tried to get as many people on eachroute to find out their opinion of the grade.

The only grade I got wrong was Progress on Kilnsey.When I first worked the route I thought definitely not 8c+.I spoke to three others who had been on the route who allthought it probably 8c+. In the end I gave it 8c+ thinkingthat perhaps I was climbing better than I thought. Thebummer was that I was originally right about the 8c gradeand wrong to think I was climbing so great.

I can't comrnent on Ben's thoughts on whether the 8c+s

lems between 8a and 8b; Yosemite, Dominator graded 8b

by Ben Moon and that I think is 8a+; Buttermilk area LivreOuvert 8a+. In Fontainebleau I was the only stranger tomy knowledge to open an 8a boulder problem, Karma. Asfor Bain de Sang, I sti1l think it is worth 9a, even though itwas, and still is, to be confirmed. I accept that the routecould be downgraded, but only by the person who repeats

it. This has always been the rule and it has to remain. I didmy first 8b+ when I was 16 years old, I'm now 25 and Ithink I have gathered enough experience to propose a

grade.Friddric Nicole

r''''*'-€26.Al;;-ii"a";

Above: Jerry Moffatt indulging in a little over€rading himselfon Progress, Kilnsey, quickly downgrading it to 8c before

everybody else did. Ben lvloon. Right: Swiss powerhouse

Fr6d6ric Nicole showing the way with his New Map of Hell, a

V12 at Hueco Tanks, USA. Mary Gabrieli.

in France are 8c or whether many of the 8cs are really 8b+

as I haven't really been on them and don't have muchdesire to do so. I do have my suspicions about their over-

grading but find it hard to believe they got it all wrong.I think the best solution when people do new routes is

to try to get as many people to work the route and gettheir opinions so you can give an honest grade. I also thinkthe magazines have some responsibility in trying to check

and question grades especially when a high grade of say 9a

is given by people of questionable reputation.

lerry Moffatt

Nanne: Frederic Ni

I rurNr IT is good that Ben wrote something about over-grading, but what seems strange to me is that he didn'tmention any previous track record of repeats at the high-est level. In Switzerland where I live I repeated nearly allthe routes around 8c. I was the first Swiss to do an 8b+ ('87

Toit d'Auguste, France) eight Scs, an 8c+, a 9a, maybe the

first in the world to do an 8b boulder problem, an 8b+traverse and an 8c traverse. During my trip to the USA Ialso opened or repeated what seemed to be the hardestboulder problems in the US. In Hueco Tanks, eight prob-

routes at==..-5

:"i 3b . .'. * :

Crr\aerNc IS A game and like every other game the play-ers have to follow mles. But in climbing there's the compli-cation of the ratings are something personal and subjec-

tive. Every grade has its history and to confirm routeswhich should represent a special grade takes time. Aboutthe highest grades there's only confirmed that some routesexist which are harder than 8c. But which route will be

8c+,9a or harder, this will show in the future. The climberwho did the first ascent never knows definitely whichgrade his creation has. So he has to make a suggestion. Inmy eyes this suggestion has to be respected until the climbis repeated the first time and then maybe graded differ-ently. To confirm the rating of a route needs several repeats

and the definitive grade given will be what most peoplethink of how hard the route is. So everybody should respect

the ratings of Fr6d6ric Nicole and myself (and the others)up to the moment that somebody gives a different sugges-

tion of the rating after (attempting) climbing the route.Finally Ben used a personal quote of mine from Hepp'sbiography of Wolfgang Gtillich. This is not the whole storywhich I gave to Hepp over the phone and in this contextthese lines are incorrect.

Namer Jean-Bap

'92 Just

libd wrote the following two pieces for his column in the French

magazine Grimper.IMile it is a shame that he zoas too busy

with his work to reply directly to Ben's essay, the topic is ouer-

grading and lib1 leartes us in no doubt that he and Ben agree on

some points, but are aery much opposed on others...

Wg uavr sPoKEN much about grades these last years withthe annoucement of 9a and recently 9b! It is clear there isa drift of levels of grade since no one today is capable ofclimbing 9b. Despite everything the world level has

progressed and lots of climbers can

claim today to climb 8c+ and even9a.

I would say that it is logical forclimbers like Fr6d Nicole or myself,having done their first 8b+ in'87, todo 8c+ in '95 with eight years oftraining, with five years on the wall,and I truly believe Ben Moon waswrong thinking that only a selectfew could climb 8c+ or 9a. It isn'tonly in England where people climbhard. To say that a route repeatedseveral times like Superplafond orBronx is clearly easier than Hubble(repeated twice by climbers whohave done nothing else), is absurd,for these routes have been triedmore they are in the south of France.

Which top climbers have triedHubble in good conditions? None!Move Hubble to Orgon, and itwould have seven or eight ascents.

The real problem is that the topclimbers prefer to put up new routesrather than repeat those already inexistence. And that's logical; giventhe investment to climb such routes,

surely it's better that it should be afirst ascent. Of course it's better togo and see what others are doing tocompare and thus avoid overgrad-ing but it takes time and energy andit is easier to try a very hard routenearby than one thousands of milesaway. To say that routes of staminaare overgraded compared to powerroutes, does not stand up. It is simply that there is atendancy, due to stamina training on walls, that climbersprefer climbs of this type when they visit the crag.Accordingly the few 8c+ boulder routes like Hubble are

true ball breakers ("Couennes de merde,"as we say inFrance) and it's much nicer to try La Rambla or Bronx.

It is true that certain climbers overgrade the routes forpublicity, especially in France or Spain, but who hasn't,intentionally or not? Ben originally graded Maginot Lineat Volx 8c and now he says it's 8b+, but at the time it was

good publicity. I believe that all of this is not of primaryimportance, the important thing is to enjoy climbing fullyand future progress will tell which routes are, or were, thehardest.

Grading is in any case subjective and even more so when

one is on form. Thus it is only with repeats that we can

really tell the grade of a route; before then a grade is, at

best, only a proposition.

Fred Rouhling's 9b has suprised the little world of climb-ing. Surprised and astonished; my God, what a perfor-mancel Most impressive, above all, is the degree of skengthwhich is irr.plied by a 30m 9b, requiring a physical stateunknown of until now. For a boulder problem, it could be

said that there has been a 'mutant' day, but for a power-endurance route...

Competition climbers who

... specifically work thiselement (po-er-

endurance) know thatit is unrewarding and that

'mutations' are rare... and it is the type ofstrength which demands the most hours of training. The

second point of note regarding the 9b is that such anincrease in grade implies a leve1 of climbing which shouldbe evident in other, easier, routes like 8c+, 9a,9a+ and weshould be able to draw a table of equivalence between

,.Hardds-t on.siElht'..... ..gc,,-

r 8bt:,8b

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levels of 'on sight','after work' and routes done in a day.

This table is valuable for almost all climbers (with some

small variations of course) and to do 9b logically implies

being able to do 8c on-sight and 9a in a day. (See below)

Above: Jean Baptiste TIibout, presumably training for when

Hubble emigrates to the south of France. Jerome Rochelle

Right: Fred Rouhling on Hugh, Eaux Claires, France, gladed

9a. Has this man really climbed 9b before anyone has claimed

a 9a+, or befote a 9a has been confirmed? Sam Maziere

confirmation of the validity of the grades and the credi-

bility of the proposed grade, thus avoiding saying it'sharder than such and such a route therefore I'11 add twogrades.

A1l this does not speak in favour of Fred's 9b, for whilebeing a great climber he is not capable of easily doing 8c or

even 8b+ on-sight. Nor 9a or even 8c+ in a day. Nobody is

at the moment. You're going to say, one can do something

extraordinary once etc, yes of course, it's called a worldrecord and all it takes is a quick look at the world athletics

championships to see that someone is capable of achieving

the levels below that and still be the best, see Bubka,

Edwards, or Morcelli.9b will come one day, but it is still a dream today.

lean-Baptiste Tribout

Name: Fred RouhlingAqe: 26 Resides: France.; rriotriott* '93 Hugh 9a. '94Karmi Bc+, '95 Akira 9b... TheFrenchman claiming a 9b made no writ-Len comment on Ben's essay, buL senL

us the cartoon opposite..a

>iri. , , ,Htildest'in one day

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9b

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9a

8c+

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..., '. 8b

8a+

8a

The problem of announcing a 9b is it assumes the level

that goes with it, and that's hardl An 8c climber cruises 7c

on-sight (957o succesfully) while a climber of 9b should

cruise 8b on-sight, succeed on70% of 8b+s and do, fromtime to time, an 8c on sight!

For routes done in a day, the same story applies, and

there should be no saying: "I am not an on-sight climber,

I don't like that etc." It's the same as a route worked to the

max and again 9b implies doing 8c+ in a day easily, and

most 9as. OK this is a cartesian notion of climbing I am

describing here but its interest is to show that there are

gaps between grades and that they should be similar inthe 6s, the 7s, the 8s and the 9s.

The equivalence with on-sight and after working allows

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OTE wouldiliks to-ihanli i!:le foiaowlng diimbeis fOr!?king tlme !-0, lespond to Ben Moon: Alex

Adldr,i.Jein/-rtittoffatu Aler:Hllb.gr:;.rFr.ed aNieoie; Jib6 Tripqut;'Fo-itianslating: .Ben Masterson

.and William'.Pdtlt;:;andrfbi,'ddvanciigrthrj debate one step further;.Fred Rbtihlihg.