By Rick Thompson From: Mount Nebbiolo, CO Apr 1, 2002
| Montay - with all due respect for your opinion, the consensus grade for this route is 10d. Since the American grading system is rather vague in many regards (i.e. - variables such as body size and reach, level of fitness, experience, etc.) it at best serves as an approximation of difficulty. That is why a consensus grade, which is defined as the grade generally agreed upon by the majority of climbers, is so important when characterizing the difficulty of any particular route. While we will always see debate in the climbing community about the respective grade of a given route, particularly new test pieces (which this certainly isn't), a trade route such as this one becomes recognized by local climbers as a particular grade, and generally that grade becomes published consensus grade. In this case, the subject route has been repeated hundreds of times, and from those ascents the consensus grade of 10d has emerged.
When one compares the difficulty of this routes to other routes of its grade it seems to measure up quite respectably. For example, it is noticeably more difficult than its companion route, Love Pump (10b/c), and compares quite favorably to Turbo Charged, Inter-cooled, Meat Machine (10c/d), Menses (10d), and Slender Fungus (10d). I suspect that is why people call it 10d. |