International grades?
|
Perhaps this discussion has come up before (and if it has, please would somebody redirect me to the appropriate thread?)
I know that these can be added to the description (and that's what I'll continue to do for now), but that doesn't allow for a consensus after the route is initially added. Thoughts? |
|
I posted a few routes in NZ a couple years back. It wasn't difficult to translate Ewbank to YDS roughly accurately. I just used a comparison I found online and sort of roughly averaged with what I thought it would be in YDS. And included the Ewbank grade in parentheses as the first note in the description. |
|
Hey Nick and Joseph -- |
|
Great idea! |
|
Good to hear that some others agree about this! |
|
Still hoping we can get some traction here. Being able to see the local grade will make the site more useful as it grows outside the US. |
|
I've decided for areas I add, I will do the effective but unelegant solution (suggested by another mp'er): add the local grade directly in the route name. |
|
A problem is that grade conversion is inconsistent among places and conversion tables. I climbed in Switzerland and found that the grading was all over the place depending on area (just like here) and whether it was UIAA or French grades. And the various grade conversion tables found on the web don't agree on the conversion. Some significantly differ. |
|
hey Brian-- |
|
I agree the MP has the best route database and I'd like to see more international route infomation. I think that the option you suggested of putting the local grade in the route title works well. That way climbers who do the route can still input what they think the YDS grade is and you get a consensus grade conversion. Dan Flynn wrote:hey Brian-- I completely agree. All the more reason to have routes listed in their original grade, which will be the relevant one for the region. Definitely, the scales do not directly translate; sometimes compressed (5c being surprisingly hard, 6a+ being almost the same but tiny bit harder) and others more stretched out (6a+ notably easier than 6b). And I don't feel like 6c is identical to .11a, for sure. Conversion to YDS will be necessary for the MP database, but right now I have two problems with relying only on YDS for this site: 1. Visiting US climbers will have to convert what they see on these pages and what they see in books or talk about with locals, just a minor annoyance 2. Local climbers will never contribute to or use MP. This is a shame, because I think the MP platform is the best of all the climbing databases out there. I know we would have more users in Switzerland with some support for local grades. |
|
Dan Flynn wrote: Definitely, the scales do not directly translate; sometimes compressed (5c being surprisingly hard, 6a+ being almost the same but tiny bit harder) and others more stretched out (6a+ notably easier than 6b). And I don't feel like 6c is identical to .11a, for sure. Conversion to YDS will be necessary for the MP database, but right now I have two problems with relying only on YDS for this site: 1. Visiting US climbers will have to convert what they see on these pages and what they see in books or talk about with locals, just a minor annoyance 2. Local climbers will never contribute to or use MP. This is a shame, because I think the MP platform is the best of all the climbing databases out there. I know we would have more users in Switzerland with some support for local grades.First off, 6c is generally considered 5.11b which might be why it does not seem like .11a. Grades, weather here in the US or abroad vary a bunch through out the country and even at individual areas. I would also like to see a way to add international grades if applicable. |
|
So far I see 3 administrators broadly supporting this proposal, and it's been raised again on a different thread here (motivated again by the obscure British grading system). |
|
I'll bring this thread to the attention of the site landlords and try to get some discussion going. |
|
John McNamee wrote:I'll bring this thread to the attention of the site landlords and try to get some discussion going.Great, thanks John! |