We warmed up at this nice little boulder with some nice edges. I knew that I was close to “The Great Shark Hunt” and was very psyched to see it. I walked up the hill found it and decided I would love to give it a try. Even though at the beginning of my trip, I really wanted to flash this climb I had been cooped up for so long I just wanted to climb on something cool! So I headed up there and did it in a few goes, probably around 10 minutes or so. I should have flashed it; I fell going to the final jug because of a foot slip and followed in suite doing it two tries later. I have decided for this trip I am not here to contradict any grades on my 8a.nu scorecard but rather will talk about it here on my blog where I feel a lot more comfortable. I hate downplaying others sends, getting criticized, etc for my beliefs on that website and have decided to mainly stay with the grade given the boulder in the guidebook. Here is my opinion on “The Great Shark Hunt,” it felt super casual. If this is V13 then “Nagual” would be V15. If I were to rate this climb I would have given it soft 8a+. Since it is my style to a T I feel that this is reasonable. Now on to “Schule des Lebens,” at first I thought my beta was good but after a little while of trying found new beta that made it a great deal easier. This climb yet again is definitely not V13. I mean it was 22 celcius, V13 is hard!! and it is hard to justify saying this is legit V13 on such a hot day because I don’t want to ever down play the grade of V13. V13 is “Nuthin but Sunshine,” “Spectre,” “Nagual,” and “Algerita.” So my guess on “Schule des Lebens” is hard V11. I am not trying down play anyone’s ascents of any climbs but rather give my honest opinion.
The other day as well as today was spent at the beautiful area of Magic Wood. On my attempt to climb a lot of amazing problems quickly I took full advantage of the day. Climbing from noon until night set in. I warmed up and flashed the famous “Jack’s Broken Heart.” A very nice campusy climb out this nice roof to a scary top out when you are pumped. I loved the climb and am psyched to have done it! Right next to “Jack’s” is “Octopussy.” I should have rested longer after doing the previous climb before my flash go on this one. I got pumped quickly and fell after the crux stupidly. Anyway I finished it off next go after a few minute rest. I was psyched to head up the hill after that to try this nice V12 called “High Spirits” that I had tried in the rain a few days before. To say the least it felt a lot easier! Today my tips hurt and I thought it was going to be a rest day but got roped in to trying the second section of the “never ending story.” Amazing line!!! I did it second go and did the crux of part one very quickly as well. I am psyched to try the full line soon! It should be quite interesting to link the two cruxes!!!
Tomorrow is up in the air, either my first attempts at “New Base Line” or an attempt at the full “Never ending Story.” We shall see! All I know now is that I am psyched and can’t wait to get out to Magic Wood tomorrow morning! Until the next update, keep the comments coming, I love reading them! I will try to post pictures as soon as I remember to bring my camera in from the car at night.
And until next time, download the song, “You Aint know” by Lil Wayne and Birdman. A classic! “I aint got a money printer, so for this paper chase I’m out runnin sprinters!”
16 comments:
Great to hear your finally getting better weather. Look forward to hearing more about your exploits to come, stay Psyched!
So psyched to hear your actual thoughts on problems. Regardless of what you put on 8a I want to hear how you really feel about a climb. Keep up the good work!
Represent Represent!!
hey mate, congratulations to your quick ascents:-))it would be interesting what do you think about the grades in magic wood..cheers
People who get upset because of others downgrading things have clearly not understood a single thing about grades. I think it is important that the leading boulderers (and others as well) like you, Paul, give a true opinion about the grade, because others will just pick up the grade given by famous strong climbers. For example a 7c climber who does his first 8a will hardly downgrade it if it was graded 8a by people such as Dave Graham (this does make little sense though because the almost-8a-climber knows the difference between 7c+ and 8a better than the guy who flashes 8a) . Also I find it interesting to see how the US grades compare to the ones in Europe. An approximately correct grade can only be achieved if as many people as possible give their real opinion about a grade. Climbers who just pick up the "common" grade do little for a functional grading system or even make it worse.
On the other hand I know sometimes it is annoying to be the bad guy who downgrades everything, but I want to ask you and everybody to give a shit about people who can not cope with the downrating of a problem they have done. Keep up the good work!
Andreas Barth
I agree with Andy. I dont think you would offend anyone by downgrading anything. Because you have climbed so many hard problems people look to you on 8a to try and set things right. Its great that you write these things on your blog but it would be much more effective for you to put them down as such on your score card, and be as consistent as possible.
Not long ago I was in Swiss. and climbed Schule des Leben. I had good conditions and I thought this felt like solid 8A+ for me and very comparable to V12s in the Park like Secret Splendour and European. Daniel had done it a few months before and had taken the 8B and I thought "well if DW thinks its 8B then it must be" A few weeks after I did it Adam Ondra, the "notorius downgrader" also suggested 8B, as well Olson was crushing everything he got on but struggled with this one and I was further justified. My point is that climbers of lesser abilities, like myself, look up to those who are at the cutting edge. Which brings me to my next point, that these are lesser problems climbed by weaker climbers. You should be talking about Dirt Grows the Flowers, The Story of Two Worlds, In Search of TIme Lost, Practice of the Wild, The Dagger, Confessions etc. Hopefully when things cool off a bit you will have a chance to try some of these things and give us your opinions on the grades of them.
Finally, it would have been nice if you would have given some props to James Pearson for flashing these boulders. Regardless of the conditions or the grades, he did what you could not (which should be taken as a compliment). Very impressive on his part.
Keep up the good work. All grade nonsense aside you are 20 years old living in Europe!, for the love of God enjoy yourself, have fun and be safe.
Jamie
welldone, paul, and well wrote too
unrepeated practice of the wild, ¡go for it!
Got to see some of the South Africa bouldering at the Reel Rock premier in Boulder last night. So sweet to finally see some of the climbs you talked about here. Sounds like you're crushing in Switzerland too. Keep up the good work - it's really an inspiration.
dood: after you finish that silly outdoor climbing business on that horrid swiss choss, get psyched for RJ2! rylan has been setting evil but cool crimp lines on the steep wall that only you can do. nagaul? pfft! child's play!
this shiz is the real deal, son
[i.e. have a great trip and enjoy god's own stone in swizzy]
...nice to hear from diffrent persons what they feel how hard a problem was for them, especially from people with a lot of experience... but its important to consider that THE grade for a problem woud be never found (despite 8a.nu is desperatly trying this). so every downgrade, upgrade its just another statement. no one is truer or falser because there is no "objective" scale where you can mesure how hard a grade is, because its way to "subjective". and i hate it when people come and say... : o mister XXX has downgraded this to XXX, so its XXX now - this is just stupid!!! (thats no offense against anbody who makes a downgrade/upgrade, just an offense to people who want to make a gradingstatment "offical" to everybody)
good example is paul's statement about the great shark hunt. as its a really crimpy crux and he is super strong on crimps he (and others) thinks about (soft) 8a+. and i have no doubt that he really felt so. but as for me i am not really strong on crimps at all, this problem was a pain in the a***. despite some days of work i was not able to send, but nearly destroyed my fingers. so for ME shark hunt is really HARD. confessions (super cool problem in cresciano) is way more my style and i did it in a few days. so confessions was way easier then shark hunt for ME. so if i take the shark hunt to compare, confessions must be 8a. and as the riverbed felt easier then confessions i downgrade the riverbed to 7c+... !!!
THATS grading logic and thats STUPID!!! but thats how this gradingshit works out when people start to take this as an "exact" science. so everybody can just talk for himself (herself) as everbody just can climb for himself (herself) and the only one who knows how HARD a problem you have climbed really was - are YOU!!!
have fun out there on the rocks,
greez,
martin keller
Practice of the Wild: Sharma never graded this problem...
I think that he was a good person.
I think that he was a good person.
I think that he was a good person.
I think that he was a good person.
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