There are two types of climbers: those who take grades seriously and those who pretend not to care. Most climbers would admit that grades are subjective (“of course!”)… but push them on that point just a little, and you’ll also find that this subjectivity has some reasonable limits. We might quibble over whether something is 5.11d or 5.12a, or whether a route may be harder for taller/shorter people, but no one is going to mistake a 5.11 for a 5.13—unless you’re doing FAs of obscure “R-rated” desert off-widths … but that’s a whole other rant (or podcast). Most climbers believe there are a set of inarguable characteristics to each and every rock climb—the size of the holds, the steepness and length of the wall, the nature of rest points, etc.—that add up to some kind of objective measurement of difficulty. This calculus may not always be perfect or universal, but […]