America! F**k Yeah!

Team America (consisting of Alex Honnold, Kevin Jorgeson and Matt Segal) have been tearing things up on the famous Gritstone in England.  Their quick ascents of several grit testpieces along with corresponding suggestions for some downgrading has caused quite a stir on UK climbing message boards.  

Other than UKClimbing.com and Jorgeson’s and Segal’s blogs, here are a couple more links for further reading:

• The ne2c blog (RSS feed) has a cool interview with Kevin Jorgeson covering his thoughts on his Gritstone experience (Via TK)
• Check out this preview of an interview with Alex Honnold that will appear in the 2009 8a.nu yearbook.  In it he offers his thoughts on the British E scale when compared with America’s YDS:

Obviously I’m still learning E grades since I’ve only been here for a month [and spent much of the time in the rain]. I think the concept of E grades is really good, they do convey a lot of information. But I don’t really know all that well. I still mentally convert everything here back to YDS. R and X wouldn’t really work at all over here [on Grit at least] since virtually every route would be considered R. They work well in the US though because routes are generally taller and better protected. Basically, a route is a route, it doesn’t matter that much how you number it. Ultimately you still just have to look at the route and decide if it looks like something you can do.

Below is an unofficial list of some of the more notable ascents by the “Team America” crew during their visit to England:

• Ulysses – (E6, Honnold flash)
• Balance it is – (E7, Honnold)
• Symba’s Pride – (E8, Honnold)
• The New Statesman – (E8 7a, Jorgeson)
• Parthian Shot – (E9 6c, Jorgeson first ground up E9)
• The Promise – (E10 7a, 2nd at 3rd ascent by Jorgeson & Honnold)
• Gaia – (E8 6c, Honnold flash, Jorgeson and Mat Segal)
• Meshuga – (E9 6c, soloed by Honnold and Jorgeson)
• End of the Affair – (E8, Honnold flash, Jorgeson & Segal)
• Master’s Edge – (E7, Alex Honnold onsight)
• The Groove – (E10 7b, 2nd ascent Jorgeson using a variation on the finish)
• Knocking on Heaven’s Door – (E8, Honnold)
• London Wall – (E5, Honnold onsight solo)