The correlation between "Moving to CO" and "Finally getting strong"

Community, 

I think it's time to finally address a VERY fishy positive correlation between people who move to Colorado and who suddenly "got strong" after moving there. After one of my friends, who lives just down the road in Mexican Hat, made a trip to the front range and commented how he had sent several routes 2 letter grades above his lead high, I decided it was time to investigate. My first stop was Rifle Colorado, after spending a nice afternoon On Sighting in the Ruckman cave I noted that these grades seemed fair if not MAYBE just a tad soft, but mostly fair. From there I headed to clear creek canyon, a very popular sporting location. After spending a day waiting in long lines and several nice On Sights later, I came to the conclusion that they are literally GIVING GRADES AWAY in the front range, This stuff is 10-ply-baby-bottom-soft!. There is no possible way one actually "gets stronger" by moving to Colorado, the lines are out the door at both the gym and the crag one does not even hardly get the opportunity to get on a route or plastic. 

Fair enough.  I don't know about the sport grading but I can tell you Eldorado Canyon is not sugar coated for trad leading.

Eldo, Lumpy, RMNP, and Turkey rocks all seemed spot on to me. 

Everything I have climbed on the west coast seems light to me from my experience, given i have only been out there climbing on 5 trips.

As for onsighting in Ruckman, "Pellet Gun" doesn't count.

Jon W,

All I see is a list of thought provoking topics.

Instead of an ad hominem, I implore you to provide some substance to this topic, I see you are from Longmont.

Jon W,

I see that you are taking offense to my topic likely because you are from Colorado. I just want you to know, it is not your fault, the same goes for you Dr. Price. 

Vas Deferens,

You are partially correct but we need to flesh out the matter a little.

For the grades that I'm certain you climbed, 11d and below, you are pretty close to correct. The softest areas tend to be Devils Head, CCC, and BC. Shelf is more of a hit or miss matter entirely, it can go from puffball softness to rather bagged on the same cliffline.

Above grades of 12c-d or into the 13's, there is a much more honed and experienced grading collective, and these routes don't tend to be soft for the grade at all. 

I assume that you live in Utah? Is Saint George a bastion of hardman grades? Or Maple (if you have endurance, is there actually any climbing there?), or Indian Creek (exact same parenthetical plus cams). We ColoRADguys are far from the only ones guilty of padding our egos.

One thing I think you should keep in mind. It might be soft on the front range but why is it that front range climbers successfully travel and send, not just all over the country but all over the world? Look at the list of CO hardmen, it's almost like they can take skills and strength they've learned here and apply it everywhere. Weird, it's almost like there's something to this place.

Who cares honestly. If you live and die by grades like most noob climbers then you are going to let yourself down eventually. There are 99 good reasons to climb and grades aren't one of them. Rhetorically speaking, no one but you gives a shit about your 5.12 send. Climb for yourself and dont worry about something like a soft grade. 

s.price wrote:

Once again a pathetic grab for attention by Vas. Weak as well.

How did your day in the ruckman go?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vjmBQZNG8L0

Julius Grisette wrote:

How did your day in the ruckman go?

Please respond.