Disclaimer: Before reading this rant, please understand that I understand that you don’t care about 5.14, or sport climbing, or hearing about “whiny pro climbers who complain about not making enough money.” I understand that some of you won’t relate to this. I understand that you would rather read about “positive things,” like helping others out, using your partner’s helmet as a foothold, and the Black Canyon. I understand all of these things, yet I wrote the following rant anyway. Because I wanted to. Because I think it’s an important observation. Because it’s the only thing coming to mind this Tuesday Night. And because IDWIFW.

Something has changed in the world of elite sport climbing. The people who do it are no longer the stereotypical early-‘90s, hyper-competitive, jaundiced megalomaniacs who downgrade everything. Instead, they are now hyper-competitive megalomaniacs who inflate and upgrade everything.

New school grades are getting out of control. These days there’s a noticeable dearth of jerks, jackasses and numb-nuts in sport climbing. Most people are nice and fun to be around. Encouraging, even. That, of course, is a welcome and happy change that makes every situation better … except for when it comes to honesty with grades.

No one is any longer willing to be the cocky doomsayer that says, “Dude, your project is my warm-up.” It’s less likely for a hard route to get downgraded after a quick female ascent (though likely nonetheless). People think that just because they have climbed one 5.14, the next one should be way easier. As a result, the entire spectrum of new-school 5.14 has become soft mush.

The day I climbed my first 5.13d last year (which was really only a 5.13b), I remember one top climber taking me aside, like he was about to reveal the secret of life.

“From now on,” he whispered, “routes get easier. Do you understand me? They get easier.” It felt like dirty knowledge. It was a jarring comment that knocked me on my ass since I had assumed I reached a point when routes got harder.

In the early 1990s, the Golden Age of bolted development, so few people were willing to suggest that their new route might be 5.14a, or b, or c. And if they did, then others would quickly downgrade them. That no longer happens these days. Why?

What today’s climbers do is post the route with its inflated grade to their 8a.nu scorecards, and then write in the comment field, “Soft for the grade.” Or they upgrade a route that doesn’t suit their strengths and say, “5.14c for me.” But very few people go the extra step and actually take the lower letter since that sets you back in this wild underground rat race for sponsorship dollars that is currently afoot.

In essence, my beef is that people are giving themselves more credit than they deserve. I was raised to believe that it’s correct for a person to act oppositely—to give yourself less credit than you deserve. This is one reason I usually tell people I am only 5’11”. There’s too much prestige and pressure that goes along with calling it a cool 6’

People—who, by all means, are truly strong and talented climbers—are just getting a little carried away. That’s all. If a route takes you four or five tries, that does not automatically make it 5.14b. Maybe the style didn’t suit you. Maybe you were having an off day. Maybe you didn’t do the right beta. Maybe you’re just not as fit as you think you are.

You can see this is true because many old-school routes are now being upgraded. Boone Speed’s benchmark 5.14a Route of All Evil is now called 5.14b. Maybe it really is that hard. Or maybe people just no longer have the humility to get repeatedly booted off the now “ordinary” grade of 5.14a.

From my vantage, the new school lacks the willingness to put in the work that the sport’s forefathers put in. Plus, no one is calling them out. And instead of raising their own abilities, they upgrade old-school routes to the level where they think they ought to be. This is hubris, plain and simple.

To add insult to injury is the scope of advantage that the new school benefits from: 20 years of super-refined beta, the discovery of new holds, advanced knee-bar technology and a myriad of other more subtle aspects (more routes to climb on, better trails, more areas, gyms, better and more partners, etc.) I’m all for these things, of course, but it must be understood that routes should technically be easier for us now than they were. Yet this consistent pattern of upgrading suggests otherwise.

I see this as a form of laziness, hubris, entitlement and even disrespect. But, ultimately, I can’t climb 5.14 and so therefore I just can’t relate and don’t really care if people just want to feel good about themselves. Who am I to take away the fun of a few lying whores?