Ratings & Why Older Routes Have Lower Grades

A short essay about ratings of climbs and why routes of a similar difficulty today would get a higher grad than the same route 20 years ago. He believes a higher rating on a new route makes it more popular to climb because people feel better if they make it and, likewise, feel better if they don’t make it; they’d rather fail on a 5.13 than fail on a 5.12.

(I found his writing confusing. So that’s my short version of what he’s saying. He could be saying the reverse but I think I get his point.)  Here’s a quote about why the old timers wanted to sandbag their routes:

“This is a strange turnaround from 20 years ago…when routes were intentionally underrated to burn you off and make you feel angry and low, and, ideally, quit the sport.”