New rating system. The DCCC-Scale

DCCC Scale

When bouldering was first conceived as a sport unto itself by the late great John Gill, he developed the “B” grades, which ranged from B1 to B3.
A B1 was the easiest within the B grades, but it still represented a move more difficult than one would encounter on the hardest fifth-class, Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) scale.
A B3 would immediately be down-rated to B2 if it was ever repeated by anyone, even the first ascentionist.
Later, John Sherman established the Vermin, or “V” scale, an open ended scale that rates the difficulty of a boulder problem with greater definition i.e V0-V16 and beyond.
Verm’s rating system has been widely adopted and the antiquated B-scale has fallen out of use.
However, even the V-scale has its limitations. It does a good job of depicting the gymnastic difficulty of any single move or problem, but aside from providing a sense of difficulty, it falls short by leaving out other important factors that determine a problems character, such as quality, length, etc.
To fill this vacuous void, I propose the DCCC-scale. The DCCC scale is meant to supplement, not replace, the V-scale. Adding a DCCC rating suffix to a V-scale prefix will give a climber a more accurate representation of a particular boulder problem.
This new DCCC-scale is still in its infancy and the following suffixes are still pending DCCC review and sanction. The suffixes listed below are the first of what will hopefully be many at some point in the not too distant future.
Additional suggestions are welcome prior to submittal to the DCCC sanctioning review board.

HB Highball. Death, serious disfigurement or soiled undergarments possible

LB Lowball. One move wonder or low traverse. Something you wouldn’t tell others about or add to your tick list.

PILE Loose decomposed rock Complete Choss. Applied to Castlewood problems to keep outsiders away.

0U812 Contrived sequences not designed for human anatomical structure

BLAH Interesting sequences, but totally lacking aesthetic qualities. i.e: roadcuts, buildings, climbing gyms or Morrison, CO

XMEN Body type dependant. i.e: can’t be done unless you have an ape index of +12” or telescoping titanium prosthetic legs.

SB Sandbag. Originally and intentionally down-rated by the first ascentionist, after spending weeks getting it wired, so they can tell others, “You think it’s V8? I thought it was only about V6, cuz I’m such a honemaster.”

SLOP Sloping hell. No further description needed.

OUCH1 Crimpfest. “I never really needed those tendons anyway.”

OUCH2 Razor sharp holds. Must be done first try, as it will take weeks to heal before another attempt can be made.

DCCC A line that was once within your abilty, but is now too difficult due to other commitments infringing on climbing time. Best avoided by over the hill has beens.

FIRE - The force at which your body must let one rip due to the strenuous nature inherent in the moves.

PFFT - A little less difficult and allows the user to hide the action.

5150 - a route that is more important to others than to you.
5051 - a route that you FA and must be important to all.

BINK - a route that requires your spotter to throw rocks at your noggin to get you moving along.

BONK - a route that requires energy bar ingestion for a proud send.

UTM - a route that no-one can figure out where/what the heck it is. Could be an unknown boulder or a known boulder with an unknown sequence. (Most notably the latter, wherein others commit then conclude the FA was a complete moron and got lost while on the boulder)

As a Horsetooth regular back in the mid/late 80's the B scale was the defacto bouldering standard. As a closed system (i.e. B3 was the upper boundary) the basic premise was that over time as equipment, training and general knowledge evolved today's B grade would be down graded in due time. In reality, climbers desperately clung to problem grades that had clearly out lived reality.

By the start of the 90's most serious boulders had become feed up and often spoke in YDS to clearly articulate grade at the Reservoir.

I was out of bouldering by the mid 90's when the V system swept in. Its open nature seems to bolster grade consistency over time and provide an easy avenue forward grade wise.

Hello Mark,
Now this is exactly what I was asking, and hoping, for.
Your suggestions will make excellent additions to the DCCC-scale.

We developed a different D scale some 25 years ago while on an extended climbing trip in the Winds. It doesn't have anything to do with bouldering per se (except for the especially nervous), but rather for an important activity that everyone occasionally must perform while alpine climbing or doing anything else in the backcountry.

D1: non-private, complete absence of a view, no wiping material (i.e., smooth rocks, large leaves, etc.)
D2: non-private, moderate view, wiping material available, but not the best
D3: semi-private, decent view, a few smooth rocks and lots of sharp pointy ones
D4: semi-private, pretty good view, unlimited good smooth rocks
D5: completely private, spectacular panoramic view, snow bank within arm's reach

Tom Hanson wrote:When bouldering was first conceived as a sport unto itself by the late great John Gill...

Unless you know something that I don't, the esteemed John Gill (b. 1937) is still very much alive:

John Gill's website: johngill.net/
Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_…(climber)

How about the FAA-Q, applied to problems where its described as: "Start here, go to there; but you can't use this, that, or that."

I was bouldering once at that rock near Berkeley (sic?), I think it was called Indian Rock or something like that; anyway the locals had a gazillion FAA-Q problems like "you can only use your left big toe" and "this one you face away from the boulder."

Another FAA-Q I remember was some thing Alan Nelson put us on in Clear Creek; there was a desperate-reach monodoight (sic again?) with a frikkin crystal tooth in it that deeply punctured the finger, causing significant blood flow. He was really proud of that one.

I sent D6 a few months ago in the Winds. The sweet Wildlife siting allowed me to break into this elusive new grade.