Ozone - Rolling Thunder

[MrGecko]

If you have climbed Rolling Thunder at Ozone what would you grade the route for an "On Sight" lead ascent?

 

I'm curious as I haven't personally met anyone who has on sighted it; I'm sure they are out there.

[Lodestone]

5.10d-ish

[kevbone]

11.c

[mksportn]

I don't remember if I onsighted it or not (I don't remember falling on it before though), but I would have graded it 5.10c.

[stevetimetravlr]

I on sited it and it didn't feel to hard, certainly did not seem 5.11. Kevbone, what you talking bout Holmes? Its allot cleaner then the "old" days.

[MrGecko]

mksportn - Kenny and I were with you on one of your sends but you had mentioned to us you had been on it before. That was the day we added the bolt up top.

[Lodestone]

I guess I don't understand the distinction of grading things on an onsight vs redpoint. Yes, when I'm attempting to onsight a climb it often feels harder but I'm cognizant of this and can still categorize the climb relative to other climbs in the area. For me, Rolling Thunder is easier than House of Pain, Vicious and Chainmail but harder than Screaming For Change, There & Back Again, and Orion. Therefore (in my mind) it's about a 5.10d.

 

 

Chad

[MrGecko]

The difference to designating a grade based on an onsight vs. red point can be significant especially if the FA doesn't consider the subtleties of working on a route.

 

Some climbers will put up a route, work and wire it and then assign it a grade. Of course once it has been rehearsed and the climber is more efficient, the route may seem easier. Does that climber decide to grade it based on their most current experience or on the experience of the first time they climbed it. Do they base it on the first time they climbed it clean or just the first ascent? Top rope or leading it? Preplaced gear or fixed quick draws? Although we would like to think that none of these things would affect the grading of a route, they do. If you climb a route only once and have to assign it a grade how accurate would that be? You may have missed key holds and your experience would again be different.

 

Rap bolting also lends itself to pre-inspection of a route vs. a ground up ascent. So I rap and drill bolts and then pull my rope and climb the route. Technically I am red pointing it since I have intimate knowledge of the line. However, the next climber that shows up and does it from the ground up has a different experience with no inspection. Do I grade the route based on my first redpoint go or should I consider what it would have been had I not known all the key hand holds etc?

 

Grading is a subjective thing and hence the challenge with quantifying it.

 

I'm jumping this thread into another if you want to chime in ... CLIMBING GRADE THREAD