Mountain Project: Forum: v-scale vs. climbing scale

By Nelson Day
From Victorville, CA
May 25, 2012

Check out this link:

bouldering vs yds scales

Chart at the bottom. Seems reasonable to me, but I don't boulder much/very well. Published by Rock and Ice magazine.

Cheers,
Nelson

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By boulderbum
From NY
Jul 13, 2012

the major difference being, v-hard stuff looks fun, while 5.14+ just looks miserable

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By Jeremy Jennings
Sep 19, 2012

My question is this: What do you do if you climb a V8 drop off boulder problem that ends on a jug, and then you link up to a low crux 5.10d? With that link up grading by hardest move, you have to call it 5.13b. It is obviously way easier than any other 5.13b, or even some 5.12's possibly, but do you grade it 5.13b with a disclaimer that it is super soft? Or do you just call it V8 and say you topped out on a rope...? If anyone has a suggestion that would be great because I have a particular climb in mind...

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By Will S
From Joshua Tree
Sep 19, 2012

Jeremy Jennings wrote:

It is obviously way easier than any other 5.13b, or even some 5.12's possibly

Uh, what? Nothing obvious about that, and I'd disagree completely with the statement. If it's got a V8 crux, it is at least 13b. If it is easier than some 5.12s then the boulder problem is wildly inflated or your 5.12 benchmark is horribly sandbagged.

I'd also add that that R&I grade chart Nelson links above is completely wacked. Inflated on the low end (V3 = 5.12? WTF?), and sandbagged on the high end (V10 = 14a during early years of adoption of the v-scale). As the scale was developed and for the first probably 15 years after pads appeared, the standard comparison was something like this:
V0 = 10
V1 = 11-
V2 = 11
V3 = 11+
V4 = 12-
V5 = 12
V6 = 12+
V7 = 13-
V8 = 13
v9 = 13+
v10 = 14a
v11 = 14b
v12 = 14c

That's about where it stopped, because that was about the top of the scale at the time. Hardest route in the US in those days was still Necessary Evil or Just Do It.

Now maybe that doesn't quite apply anymore because people rated problems softly and as the bouldering boom took off and more areas and problems were developed there was ratings creep requiring realignment. But even through the heavy development period in Bishop in the late 90s, what I've written above was the widely accepted conversion.

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By Rajiv Ayyangar
From Portland, ME
Sep 19, 2012

Jeremy Jennings wrote:

Stone Monkey gets 13b, and it's a V8 to an 11-/10+.
www.mountainproject.com/v/stone-monkey/106159725

It's certainly harder than a V7 into a 2-bolt 5.9/10 (Bottom Feeder, 13a):
www.mountainproject.com/v/bottom-feeder/105869028

Based on the few 13b's I've been on at the Red and Rumney, I'd disagree that V8+10d is "way easier" than other 13b's. Given that V7=5.13a, your route certainly is not in the 12 range.

If it seems soft to you, maybe you're a really strong boulderer with more power than endurance. But just because it's easier for you doesn't mean it's easier for everyone.

I made a graph of a bunch of routes that I'm familiar with or that are documented in various climbing media. I posted it earlier in this thread, but since people don't read earlier pages...

Rajiv Ayyangar wrote:

I summarized my thoughts in this blog post: The Landscape: a new look at route grades There are clearly a lot of limitations as to what one can claim of such a correspondence. I'm not trying to comment on how routes should be graded. I'm trying to show a pattern in how they are graded.

V to YDS correspondence
Submitted By: Rajiv Ayyangar on Jul 15, 2011

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