The grade debate: Katla Cave

Often climbers stand up against grades, calling them irrelevant. Every once in while I do it too, coincidently often when grades make me feel like I'm not progressing. Simultaneously, most climbers find it incredibly important to climb hard. Now that's awkward! We don't like grades (unless of course our most recent ascent had a high grade attached to it), but we do want to measure how hard exactly we climb... Here's a inconvenient truth: grades are our best (if not only) way to measure our ability and to keep track of our progress. And due to their subjective nature, we simply can't avoid to end up having that tedious grade debate every once in a while, to keep the scale from sliding and reach grades based on consensus measured against benchmarks rather than the whims and fancies and bruised egos of individual climbers.

Recently many of the hard boulders in the Katla Cave (Avalonia, Ruhrtal) have been downgraded in the StoneVibes database. It seems to be the conclusion of a debate that has been going on for at least a year: visitors - including me - felt that the boulders were on average overgraded by half a grade. It is slighty painful to downgrade what may have been my first 7C boulder, but in all honesty I have to support the grade corrections. I've gratefully accepted the grades as they were, but deep down I've always known that some of the highest grades I've bouldered might have been too generous. And that stains my feeling of achievement. So let me comment on the downgraded boulders that I have climbed myself:

Layla Mammi in 'Black Smoke, White Wings', before the block came out. Photo by Simon Sticker.

Shelob (previously 7B, now soft 7A+) is the easiest line through the roof with big moves on good holds. With the right beta, it feels no harder than 7A to me, but as the style of climbing suits me well, it might be 7A+.

Kankra (previously 7B, now hard 7A+) is a quasi direct version of Shelob and is in my opinion half a grade harder, making it upper end 7A+. The extension adding most of 'Frau Malzahns Lippenritt' (6C+) makes it 7B for me.

Black Smoke, White Wings (previously 7B+, now soft 7B) has a bit of a grading history. It was opened by Daniel Jung in 2008, who suggested 7B. In 2011 a big block in the roof of the cave didn't survive an act of vandalism and fell down. The crux of Black Smoke changed significantly and the boulder received an upgrade to 7B+. But later an easier sequence involving a very useful footjam was found. With this, Black Smoke isn't much harder than Shelob, just a bit longer and more sustained. 7B is still generous...

Drachenrachen (still 7B+) has a history very similar to that of Black Smoke, White Wings. Opened by Daniel Jung as well in 2008, it got harder when the big block came out of the roof. It did not affect the crux, but made the exit a bit harder. An upgrade to 7C followed. In 2013 after my repeat I discussed the grade with Daniel (Pohl). Within days, it was readjusted to 7B+ on StoneVibes. Coincidence? As a result, Drachenrachen survived the downgrade wave of last week.

Schattenläufer (from 7C+ to 7C to 7B+) was opened last year as a 7C+ by Jonas Winter. When a completely new hold appeared (it literaly shifted down a bit from the roof), the crux sequence got easier and Schattenläufer had to hand in the plus. To me, it was easier then Drachenrachen though. I never bouldered 7C before, but climbed Schattenläufer within 20 minutes... The original sequence should at least be 7C though and that sounds like a nice new goal to me.

Now also on paper Drachenrachen is one of my biggest accomplishments, something I already knew but never fully embraced. It took me three sessions to climb it. Schattenläufer might not be 7C, but even at 7B+ I should be more than happy with the extremely quick ascent I made. But it hurts to admit that I have to restore my goal of bouldering 7C. I guess deep down I already knew this would happen, why else did I refrain from narcissistically boasting the 7C grade in the video I made of my ascent? From the bright side: I have a realistic goal again and I am even more motivated now to go out and try as hard as I can!