http://bigupproductions.blogspot.com/2008/03/meltdown.html

“Ron Kauk placed anchor bolts on the line about 10 years ago, but other than some efforts by him it was completely virgin – no other fixed gear, no pin scars, no evidence of ever having been aided.”

“After about 10 sessions of working it on top-rope Tommy was never able to figure out the moves. I would say that means it’s nasty.”

Can anybody confirm/deny??

i smell a poll…..

speculation on grades doesn’t bother me much. i tend to speculate on the difficulty of lines i haven’t completed: “v4 start to v6 traverse and then the crux ‘feels’ like v8″ . in fact, i think my speculative grades tend to be closer to the ‘real’ (lol) grade because most problems feel substantially easier when everything clicks and you find yourself on top of the boulder. and if we’re honest about how grades get cemented, quite a bit of it is the sum total of multiple speculations. by that i mean it’s hard for me to grade a problem (especially a project) without considering prior speculation. in fact, MY opinion (after having sent) is a sort of ex-post-facto speculation in and of itself.

in the case of the climbing media, they almost HAVE to speculate on the grade lest their content lack the ‘OMFG NO WAY!-ishness’ required to sell their rag. plus, tracking pro spray without numbers is…well… not tracking pro-spray.