Comments on: Dave MacLeod Repeats “Walk Of Life”

By: 1philip Evans

1philip Evans — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 06:11:00 +0000

Old gritter: Grading has always been always been subjective and this is the first (and certainly not the last) to be wildly over-graded. What is important here is the FA – the effort and commitment involved, not the ‘I made it easier’ SAs. Knowing that the route has been done in the first place gives a massive psychological advantage to followers. In my humble pie opinion, if pressing routes gives you a buzz, stay on bolts and clips.

By: Friday News & Notes – 1/16/09 | Climbing Narcissist

Friday News & Notes – 1/16/09 | Climbing Narcissist — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:20:02 +0000

[...] Pearson responded with a non-response to the recent internet controversy over Dave MacLeod’s repeat and subsequent downgrade of Walk Of [...]

By: neadamthal

neadamthal — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:43:24 +0000

seems strange that dave found so much gear where james did not. maybe james is too used to climbing grit lol…

but more strange is the fact that james felt the route was above and beyond ANYTHING else that had been climbed before and yet dave feels it is well below.

that’s grading for you, but i wonder if james’ impression of his FAs will start to come under check now that his two hardest have been severly downgraded.

By: peter b

peter b — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:50:18 +0000

Bjorn Pohl’s comments are right on the edge of nasty, in my view. He is insinuating things about Pearson’s motivations and abilities that are inappropriate. More on my blog.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:26:45 +0000

Tough thing being an FA. It’s always easier to repeat something when you either see or know someone else has done it, esp if you have a little beta.

By: Narc

Narc — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:21:43 +0000

Valid point. I think that a lot of times the experience one has doing an FA can bias them into thinking it was harder with subsequent repeaters always finding things easier once they know things are possible. I would imagine this is only magnified with bold lead climbing.

By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:22:17 +0000

My thought is that James graded it (Walk of Life) so high since when he first tried to lead it he took a wicked long whipper, 60 – 80 feet or so. Possibly proof to him that it was desperate.

I think a similar thing happened with MacLeod and Rhapsody. Dave took crazy whippers off the last move and repeatedly hurt himself. Sonnie figured out a safer way to take the same fall and thus it was less scary.

With The Promise James did not believe the ball nut would hold and choose not to use crash pads. All subsequent attempts believed and tested the ball nut (it did not fail) and used pads.

The whole “Experience” part of E-Grades seems to have this flaw in regard to the danger aspect of the climb. I’m all for a two part grade but they should be independent, American style.