How do people decide

what to put as their climbing grade in their profiles?

The sport climbing lies thread got me wondering. Do people put their hardest ever route? Or what they can currently climb? For trad grade, is it your onsight grade that is relevant, or what you can reasonably get up without a major epic? Etc.

Since I am listed in Partner Finder I have listed "realistic" grades rather than career best performances. Anyone curious enough can look through my ticklist.

I climb mainly at the Gunks where I think a lot of people think of their leading ability as the same as their onsight level, but since I mostly work on projects now rather than onsighting, my listing reflects that style.

Let the games begin.

- Alex

I listed (for trad) what I onsight a bit more than half the time. I feel I can be a good partner at that grade and be pretty confident of leading a route of most styles without creating a time-consuming shit-show, which is what I look for in a trad partner. If I had listed a sport grade, it would be whatever grade I wanted to spend the most time on, since people would probably be looking for someone who wants to climb the same routes, and it doesn't matter so much what style the ascents are going down in.

Easy. As per Pnelson: Take the easiest thing you've fallen off of in the past (year?) or so. Now subtract two grades. That is the grade you climb. That's a good way to keep yourself honest and humble. You can put the hardest grade you've redpointed, but do you consistently climb that grade? Or do you consistently work that grade? Depends on how you define "climb" I suppose. For me, if I say I can climb a certain grade, it means I can reasonably expect to flash it. It's something different for everyone I guess.

don'tchuffonme wrote:For me, if I say I can climb a certain grade, it means I can reasonably expect to flash it. It's something different for everyone I guess.

This is how I determine how to answer the question, "how hard do you [sport/trad/boulder] climb?" It's the difficulty I feel I can flash or onsight at my current fitness level.

The grade that I can onsite 90% of the time, no beta, falls, or hanging on gear.

Alex CV wrote:what to put as their climbing grade in their profiles? The sport climbing lies thread got me wondering. Do people put their hardest ever route? Or what they can currently climb? For trad grade, is it your onsight grade that is relevant, or what you can reasonably get up without a major epic? Etc. Since I am listed in Partner Finder I have listed "realistic" grades rather than career best performances. Anyone curious enough can look through my ticklist. I climb mainly at the Gunks where I think a lot of people think of their leading ability as the same as their onsight level, but since I mostly work on projects now rather than onsighting, my listing reflects that style. Let the games begin. - Alex

I had to look at what grades I even have listed, but it looks like I have for my "lead" grade, the grade that I can usually onsight, and my "follow" grade, the grade that I like to project.

I feel like the sport climbing grades would be better represented if it were "onsight grade" and "redpoint grade". To me following grade on sport climbing seems irrelevant. Just my 2 cents, for whatever thats worth

For bouldering I just put what the hardest thing I have climbed.

For trad / sport lead I put what I can responsibly climb probably without falling, I may fall a few times but don't really question what I can get up without spending hours working on it.

For trad / sport follow I put what I could probably get up without overly to much falling.

I look at this more from if we were doing a multi-pitch climb, can I lead it for my partner if they couldn't lead anything. And for following could I follow up the entire climb without being a massive burden if I didn't have to lead anything.

It is always a big question though if you do a 5+ pitch 5.13a climb with a single 20ft 5.13 section that can also be aided and the rest is 5.8 climbing I would still feel fine jumping on it and still try to free climb it, but if I fail I can just aid.

don'tchuffonme wrote:Easy. As per Pnelson: Take the easiest thing you've fallen off of in the past (year?) or so. Now subtract two grades. That is the grade you climb. That's a good way to keep yourself honest and humble.

I used your formula and got 4.13b. Shit! (Tripped while hiking. Better watch where I am going.)

Seriously, though, for trad, it is what I am comfortable on-sighting most of the time, and for sport, it is the grade where I can reasonably expect to get to the anchors, with some dogging. But I don't know why I bother having this in my profile, since I (used to) keep my own tick list on an Excel spreadsheet, and I don't use the partner finder.

don'tchuffonme wrote:Easy. As per Pnelson: Take the easiest thing you've fallen off of in the past (year?) or so. Now subtract two grades. That is the grade you climb. That's a good way to keep yourself honest and humble.

You guys obviously don't climb at the New.

Chad Miller is spot on. 90% on sight should be the grade you list. Sport or trad. Single pitch routes or multi pitch should make no difference. As a matter of fact I need to adjust my grades a little since I don't climb as much as I used to.

Posting onsight grade is much more needed if you are looking for using MP as a partner finder, especially if doing long multi pitch. Exaggerating or listing red point grades could conceivabley cause problems if you struggle to follow or lead pitches way off the deck.

However, I'd post redpoint/realistic project grades if I were looking for sport or single pitch trad partners. these would be the grades I'd want to focus on and would dictate the specific areas that I'd want to visit on an given single pitch trip. An ideal partner would also want to focus on the same grade range and areas.

Since my local crag is the NRG, I post the grade that I have redpointed more than once and wish to focus on developing further during climbing trips.