8a.nu volume down

[Anonymous]

Regarding the new madness with the 8a.nu rankings, i believe that climbkalymnos.com should not advocate them so much because their scope is somewhat outside rock climbing.

First of all, the truth is that in order to be a (young) top climber the most important factor is to be rich enough so that you can devote all of your time climbing and consequently what the 8a.nu rankings actually show is not so much talent but rather ability to spend 100% of your time climbing. I know a lot of people with talent who can afford to go to a crag 1-2 times per week and maybe another 2-3 times to the gym (but usually tired after work). Those people are permanently stuck at the 6a-6b grades. On the other hand, some big names who managed to reach 7b “quickly” were those with the luxury (and commitment) to do nothing else but climbing. So “in order to climb 8a, you

must be wealthy” is the motto.

Secondly as mammals, humans for million years used climbing to survive from predators and in that sense climbing was about “not falling”. Now, falling is acceptable with the proper gear but when one does 100 attempts to “free” a route this kind of loses the essence of climbing and instead displays a factor of “commitment” and “desire to be on the top”. When you see a video of Alain Robert free soloing a 7b multi-pitch you are watching true climbing which also requires strength preservation because getting pumped equals death. On the other hand, when you see someone like Sharma freeing a route after 50 attempts, that looks more like circus: the climber has been killed 50 times before completing the stunt.

Thirdly, the route grades are highly subjective depending on the size of the climbers body. A route that is 6a may seem as 6b+ to one who is too short or too tall, and we all know that. When however it comes to routes above 8c grade this subjectiveness makes any kind of comparison pointless. When one frees a 9a, that route might seem as 9b+, or in other words impossible to a climber of different size. In fact, the main reason for the existence of the grades is to “know what to expect more or less” and not something to brag about doing.

Finally, there are many good climbers (we all know some) who because they do not believe in what 8a.nu does, do not post their progress there and I believe climbkalymnos.com should respect their decision by not placing so much emphasis on those rankings. It gives a false perception about who are the best.

The counter-argument seems to be “you can’t do it, that’s why you say 8a.nu is crap”. Whatever…

Rock climbers are hungry for information about climbing from the internet, on their rest days but because usually there is not much “to talk about”, this is why 8a.nu is popular. You can get an overdose of information, statistics and comparisons that are about climbing which you love so much and think about all the time, and then go to sleep motivated. Even though those statistics do not actually mean anything.

I believe however climbkalymnos.com should rise above that, be more serious and be a website that represents the entire climbing community equally, accepting that there are many (majority?) great rock climbers who are not interested in 8a.nu rankings because they believe that this is not at all what rock climbing is about. It’s perfectly OK to reference 8a.nu but make climbkalymnos.com a place of wisdom which does not mislead people to inappropriate goals and knows the true spirit of rock climbing.

Let the flamewar begin!

[Author]

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