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General Climbing Discussion

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Sport grades 'higher' than trad? 5-Nov-2011 At 8:38:21 PM Olbert

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What is the hardest sport climb in the world? 9b
Hardest "trad" route? 8c+ according to this article:

http://www.8a.nu/?IncPage=http%3A//www.8a.nu/articles/ShowArticle.aspx%3FArticleId%3D4729

It's hard to believe that a three grade difference is because the people attempting the sport routes are better climbers. I think it much more likely that climbing trad is just dam fcuking hard and placing gear is not fully respected in the grade. Otherwise people would attempt to do 9b's on gear that, when preplaced would be significantly easier.

Note 1: "Trad" climbing at the highest levels is a a very fuzzy term. You could argue that one for years.
Note 2: The Australian Ewbank grading supposedly takes this into account whilst the other grading systems may or may not (I have no idea on that one). Noone really cares about the theory though. The actual way climbs are graded is: Do the route, compare the route to others around, give it your best opinion, have others shout at you and rant to the guide book author until the grade is changed to the consensus opinion. This is pretty much the same for every grading system in the world - the only difference with the Ewbank system is that it does away with silly letters, and plusses and minuses.