Who Is The Best Climber in the World?

By Ian Parnell.   Originally published on

We seem to live in a world of increasing specialisation. Not only do we define ourselves as climbers but further many of us are specifically boulderers, sport climbers or alpinists. And then there are the real specialists: headpointers who focus exclusively on grit or winter climbers who only climb bolted M routes. For the really dedicated there are even those who concentrate on one crag polishing their skills and the holds to a high sheen such as the Pex Hill gnarler, while at it's most perverse this obsession has led some to devote large sections of their life hanging on the 4th bolt of Mecca. To devotees of a particular aspect of climbing 5 years spent finessing their next micron grade advance will mark out the true disciples but to most of us I have a feeling it is the big so what?

Instead I believe that most climbers really respect the all rounder, the climbers climber who can turn up at any crag and lead their grade, who can crank on the bolts but not crumble in the face of a runout. John Dunne is admired because he took his Malham sport honed power to the big trad challenges from grit to limestone to the mountain crags. Or can you remember how impressed we parochial Brits were when French sport climbing star Jean Minh Trinh came to grit and showed he can hold his own and even take the lobs with the best of us.

A while back during a storm bound base camp discussion I cobbled together a table listing and rating the key aspects of climbing. Through a mixture of spray, rumour and outright bullshit we rated ourselves and friends and the storm passed by unnoticed. Since then I've tested the table on all sorts of climbers and everyone seemed intrigued, so it seems worth "going public" on planetFear. The table presented here is a refined version of my expedition scribbles but we welcome feedback towards mark 2. Of course talking about grades there is plenty of room for disagreement but please try and keep things in perspective, it's only meant to be a bit of fun. Whether you score 4 or 150 your boss is unlikely to double your wages and you'll still just be the badly dressed outdoor geek to the opposite sex!

One of the main issues for a table like this is what represents an all-round climber; in Britain for example the big diversity is between sport and trad climbing, in America an all rounder would have to be very competent on cracks whereas on the continent a true all rounder would also be expected to ski superbly. For our table the bias of disciplines is weighted towards the core activity of rock climbing but includes a substantial mountaineering/winter climbing element. I have tried to design it so whatever grade you climb you can gather a score. I have also tried to make it not too Brit-centric and so what ever country you come from you can still participate.

Rules and Regs

Scoring
Simply locate your best effort under each category and read across horizontally to get a score, add up a score from each of the categories and hey presto you have your all rounder total score. If you have never taken part in a particular activity you will obviously register a zero.

Grades

All grades should be climbing community consensus grades. However any Planetfear forum regulars will know that where grades are concerned consensus is a very tricky thing to find. Guidebooks offer a good starting point, however there are some well known anomalies such as the inflated current guidebook grade given to the boulder problem Brad Pit. In the end it is largely down to personal honesty, most people know when they have stumbled onto a gift, don't rob yourself of the true feeling of success when you finally do make that breakthrough climb. Any disputes will be resolved by the great adjudicator in cyber space (Adrian).

Perhaps the most contentious area is the equivilance of performance on this table. How do you compare say Himalayan high altitude climbing and bouldering? I've done this by a combination of factors such as the number of climbers who operate at certain levels (taking into account the amount of climbers involved in that particular branch of climbing), personal research such as onsight to redpoint comparison on the Planetfear training holidays plus a big dose of guess work.

Rock

Trad

The British system is used here which might confuse some oversees readers. Usually a two part grading system comprising an overall grade and then a technical grade describing the hardest individual move on the route. Here only the overall grade counts.

Surprise, surprise onsight means exactly that, a clean lead (placing all gear on lead) or solo with no prior practice or knowledge apart from standard guidebook info. Repeated viewing of the Hard Grit video, running hold for hold beta from your mate or that failed top rope attempt 10 years ago on Masters Edge when you were just learning to climb all invalidate an onsight. A practised ascent or headpoint allows any amount of practice, prior inspection or beta as long as the final ascent is a clean lead placing all gear on lead (apart of course from solo ascents). Taking into account the fact that many people have never headpointed for those whose onsight grade is HVS or less it is acceptable that routes cleanly seconded are allowed to be registered as practised ascents (note however that the rope must be kept slack no hauled top rope cheating). The use of pre placed gear, side runners or the use of mats not used on consensus ascents will decrease the grade.

Sport

We've used the widely accepted French Sport grading system. Again onsight ascents are beta free (please don't confuse with flash ascents after watching your mate work out all the moves). Practised or redpoint ascents can range from first go flashes following running beta from a friend to mammoth multi-visit sieges as long as on the eventual ascent none of the gear is weighted. Stick clipping of gear is out, pre clipping of gear is only acceptable if the leader has clipped the said gear on a clean attempt and then down climbed to the ground without weighting the gear. Again for those not used to redpointing anyone onsighting 5+ or below can claim a clean second as their redpoint.

Bouldering

We've used the "V" grading system invented by the Australian climber John Sherman and widely used in the UK (don't confuse with "B" grades) and the US. Your hardest ever boulder problem counts whether onsight or following extensive working. The use of unlimited mats is now widely accepted. All ascents of course must be unassisted so no "super close" spotting or "bouncing" sit starts.

Winter climbing

3 branches of winter climbing are listed on the chart, in order to make the table open to oversees climbers only 2 of the 3 count towards your final score.

UK Mixed

The Scottish grading system is used here with again the overall route grade (roman numerals) all important. In winter climbing conditions can vary enormously and care should be taken with grades which are often moderated for exceptionally good conditions i.e. the Shroud on Ben Nevis which is grade VII as a free hanging icicle but in recent years has formed as a solid pillar rating a more realistic VI. For anyone who has dabbled in modern Scottish mixed climbing they will be aware of the complex web of ethical issues surrounding the ascent of all rock routes. Hopefully readers consciences will dictate that a route is well hoared up and wintery for the full tick. The grade is given for an onsight ascent, a worked ascent with hoar cleaned from the rock is a significantly easier effort.

Ice

This uses the French and Canadian WI waterfall ice grade. Again conditions can wary on a day to day or even hourly basis. Most icefalls get their grade for first ascent conditions, repeated ascents will clean much of the ice and create hooks vastly easing further repeats. To give an example Nuit Blanche in Chamonix was originally climbed as a WI7 it has since formed much fatter as a WI5+. Perhaps more than any other category an honest personal assessment of the difficulties encountered is needed. Again the grade is for an onsight ascent as for example a worked ascent where ice screws are left in place will be significantly easier.

M Climbs

This refers to "dry tooling" winter climbs which may or may not have ice on them, most are sport climbs protected by bolts. The grading system is the American M grade system with the grade for either onsight or worked ascent.

Mountains

Alpine

The French alpine grading system is used. Note this refers to proper alpine routes. The French often use this grading system on big multipitch routes in the valleys or pre Alps, these are not alpine routes. Similarly be wary of the alpine grades given to modern alpine sport rock routes, it is highly questionable that an easily escapable bolted route should be given an ED grade but if it is to be used then usually an all free ascent is essential to earn the full tick.

Altitude

This is my own judgment on difficulty. Unless where stipulated reaching the summit is not necessary only to reach or surpass the required altitude. Descent must also then be made unassisted from that height. Needless to say the use of supplementary oxygen is cheating. If bottled oxygen is used at any time whether for climbing or not then the legitimate height is up to where bottled oxygen is first used. The use of supplementary oxygen on the descent invalidates the height claim.

Long Routes

I've included this category as I feel multi-pitch routes are a big step up in commitment from single pitch cragging. This is particularly evident when you first start climbing. However it is a little bit perverse to reward the length of time spent on routes particularly as speed is one of the more revered attributes in climbing. Unfortunately judging speed seems impossible unless we choose one route and have a column for times on El Cap's Nose. As a result I haven't continued the scoring beyond the equivilant of climbing E6.

Competitions

Just stepping up to put your climbing talent on the line in competition is a big challenge even if it is your local bouldering ladder. Points are awarded for just taking part in a local competition, winning a local event, taking part in one of the national competitions (BICC or BBC), making a national final, winning one of the National titles and finally wining a world title.

Aid

It may seem strange to Brits to include something done only on wet winter days or while cheating on a free route but in many countries aid climbing is an integral skill in all round climbing. The American aid grading system is used. These are "New Wave" grades where A5 involves full rope length (50-60m) pitches of body weight only placements, any fall will strip the whole pitch with potential for 100m+ falls. I only know of 2 Brits who have led this type of terrain (Kevin Thaw and Andy Kirkpatrick). Lower down the scale bear in mind that modern aid grades tend to be very conservative so in Yosemite the Nose is A1+, Zodiac A2, PO Wall A3. To further complicate matters grades rapidly change following the first ascent, so if you made the first or second ascent of PO Wall then you can afford yourself a full A4+ tick. The flipside of this is the terrible state of the situ gear on some British aid climbs; the Scoop on Strone Ulladale for example is now in a very serious state and probably rates at least A3+.

Gnarl Factor

I've thrown this category in for fun. We need characters in climbing and their colour amongst the grey should be rewarded. The scoring system is my own very subjective system but consists of several "levels" as follows:

True Hero
The real heros are those that put their lives on line for others. The ultimate in climbing must be a rescue of a "life threatened" climber in a situation of extreme risk to the rescuer, I'm thinking of the likes of Valerie Babanov who managed to rescue 2 dying climbers on Everest in storm conditions.

Gnarler
The real hard men and women. Those who climb their leading grade in the rain, drink 10 pints and still go for Right Wall the next day or if they can't get a lift cycle to North Wales for the weekend.

Character
Your general rock loon, whether it's a penchant for climbing in fancy dress, say Zukator in winkle pickers or an inability to remember their harness but comfortable in going for it with an improvised 8ft sling. Or maybe it's 10 consecutive winter weekends in Scotland from London or hitching to Font to pull down for the weekend. Someone who stands out from the crowd.

All Rounder sample profiles

To give an example of how the table works here are a few scoring profiles of some top climbers. Each climber throws up instances of where a table like this misses out much of the subtlety of climbing performance. In the end this table can only give a rough snapshot of performance but if you looking for absolute pecking order I think you're perhaps missing the point and taking this little table a little too seriously.

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