Moonboard Grade vs Outdoor Grade

I'm a sport climber with a one year old and one year old Moonboard in my garage. Since my little bundle of joy came along I have had very little outdoor time but I've managed to use my other larger bundle of joy to keep my fitness and climbing. Prior to building my own, I never climbed on a Moonboard and I very rarely bouldered. 

For me, I think I'm getting pretty strong on the Moonboard and maybe stronger than I've ever been but I'm dying to know how that translates to real rock. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to properly gauge my real fitness, so I'm left with estimating from my Moonboard grade. 

My question is, what grade do you Moonboard and what grade do you climb and/or boulder? And what's the correlation between Moonboard grading and real climbing?

The Moonboard is a specific kind of bouldering: short, steep and fingery. If your outdoor projects don’t have those characteristics you might struggle (Fontainebleau).
I find the benchmarks to be 1-2 grades harder than outdoor benchmarks of a similar style. 
Without knowing your 4x4 grade on the Moonboard it’s useless to speculate on a route equivalent. 

Not only is the moonboard really specific to a certain strength that is usually not found outside, but that strength is really climbing style dependent. Also, I find moonboard grades have major discrepancies in climbs of the same difficulty. Some benchmark V4s are way harder than others, like to the point where I would believe some of the harder V4s could be an easy V6 or harder. The grades just aren’t super consistent. 

Brendan N wrote:

The Moonboard is a specific kind of bouldering: short, steep and fingery. If your outdoor projects don’t have those characteristics you might struggle (Fontainebleau).
I find the benchmarks to be 1-2 grades harder than outdoor benchmarks of a similar style.
Without knowing your 4x4 grade on the Moonboard it’s useless to speculate on a route equivalent. 

you think a 4x4 grade ie how many of a given grade can you do 4 sets of 4 of is a more accurate indicator than a single redpoint?

I think it is safe to say that whatever grade you climb on the moonboard, you would be able to do at least that grade (and probably one higher) on outdoor boulders of similar style.

For me the grades of moonboard are wildly variable (just like the grades on kilterboard, or tension board, or outside, lol). “Benchmark” V4 can be anything from flash to “I can’t even see myself making most of these moves”. If there are people who find the grades consistent, I’m definitely not one of them.

Zach L wrote:

you think a 4x4 grade ie how many of a given grade can you do 4 sets of 4 of is a more accurate indicator than a single redpoint?

For routes— yes, definitely. 

Lena chita wrote:

For routes— yes, definitely. 

interesting. So let's say you find 4 benchmark V5s that are relatively consistent in difficulty, and can rip through 4 in a row, rest then again for 3 more sets... what do you think the outside route grade would translate as?

Vhy kant ve chust climb?

Zach L wrote:

interesting. So let's say you find 4 benchmark V5s that are relatively consistent in difficulty, and can rip through 4 in a row, rest then again for 3 more sets... what do you think the outside route grade would translate as?

Harder than I can climb.

Zach L wrote:

interesting. So let's say you find 4 benchmark V5s that are relatively consistent in difficulty, and can rip through 4 in a row, rest then again for 3 more sets... what do you think the outside route grade would translate as?

At the red? Mid/high 5.13, at least. Maybe 14-

Edited to add: assuming the person regularly climbs on the rope and doesn’t have any hang ups about rope climbing.

I certainly know boulderers who send v8 on boards, and can’t climb 12a to save their life

edit 2: (they COULD, but they don’t onsight it, because they never climb on ropes. and don’t want to/don’t know how to work it.)

I think I have maybe sent one v5 on the moonboard and like 30 v4s. I send v5 outside pretty consistently and mid 5.12.

James Frost wrote:

Vhy kant ve chust climb?

vekaus ze huz cuild und kno tym phur ootsyd klymb

Lena chita wrote:

At the red? Mid/high 5.13, at least. Maybe 14-

Edited to add: assuming the person regularly climbs on the rope and doesn’t have any hang ups about rope climbing.

I certainly know boulderers who send v8 on boards, and can’t climb 12a to save their life

edit 2: (they COULD, but they don’t onsight it, because they never climb on ropes. and don’t want to/don’t know how to work it.)

curious what your 4x4 structure looks like. ie 4 climbs of a given grade that you have wired or not. drop off, chalk and back on with minimal delay? how much rest between sets? 

John Clark wrote:

vekaus ze huz cuild und kno tym phur ootsyd klymb

I don't mind that OP is climbing on the moonboard. More power to him if that's what he's stoked on. I was referring to everyone treating route grades like its frickin calculus.

Zach L wrote:

curious what your 4x4 structure looks like. ie 4 climbs of a given grade that you have wired or not. drop off, chalk and back on with minimal delay? how much rest between sets? 

You can tune them to what you want to do on a rope. Onsight the boulders if you want to practice onsight of the route. Wire them if you want the harder movement of a peak wired redpoint.
You can also tune it to the length of the route. 4 x 5-move problems for a 20 move route or 6 x 12-move problems for a 72 move route.
The original standard from The Self-Coached Climber is 4 problems without rest, 4 times, with 4 minutes rest in between sets. 

John Clark wrote:

vekaus ze huz cuild und kno tym phur ootsyd klymb

Google translate did not yield any translation...

Yes, I don't have time to climb outside but I'm dying to have an idea how Moonboard grades correlate to outdoor climbing.

I am very aware that the Moonboard is very specific and that route climbing is different to bouldering - and Moonboarding even moreso. But a well rounded climber who improves at the Moonboard is going to improve their outdoor grade on hard sport routes. 

I'm not doing a scientific study, there is no equation and I'm not publishing a paper. I am just interested what grade you climb on the Moonboard and what grade you climb outdoor. This will give me some idea if I am indeed strong or just better at the Moonboard than I was. 

And yes, I won't know until I actually get outdoors and do old projects and climb higher grades (or not). 

Before I started Moonboarding, I was able to do a couple of 13b routes. Now I am Moonboarding I've done a bunch of V8s and a single V9 benchmark and some 4x4s on V4s. I feel like the moves I do on a Moonboard are way harder than anything I've done on rock.

Which MB layout? 2017 benchmark is more sandbagged than the original (2016) & tend to have longer moves (it's like when they lowes the start grade to V3 they just made it as hard as the old V4). I feel like the 2019 is similarly graded to the 2017 is is way way more fun.

reboot wrote:

Which MB layout? 2017 benchmark is more sandbagged than the original (2016) & tend to have longer moves (it's like when they lowes the start grade to V3 they just made it as hard as the old V4). I feel like the 2019 is similarly graded to the 2017 is is way way more fun.

That's a funny combo - easier holds but more sandbagged. 

I have the 2016 setup and think it feels sandbagged enough...

Olbert wrote:

Moonboarding I've done a bunch of V8s and a single V9 benchmark and some 4x4s on V4s. 

The Self-Coached Climber has a Performance Guidelines table consisting of 4 metrics:

1.) Local Aerobic Level

2.) Local Anaerobic Level

3.) Strength 

4.) Stamina

You:

1.) ? (5.11c-5.12b needed)

2.) V4-V7

3.) V8-9

4.) ? (V5/6 needed)

If you fill in the needed slots you should be able to quickly do 5.13d

reboot wrote:

Which MB layout? 2017 benchmark is more sandbagged than the original (2016) & tend to have longer moves (it's like when they lowes the start grade to V3 they just made it as hard as the old V4). I feel like the 2019 is similarly graded to the 2017 is is way way more fun.

Interesting. I’ve only climbed on the 2017. I just have the 2016 holds but I set it to 2017 to have problems with the foot jibs and the 25 degree layout. Plus I was worried I wouldn’t be able to climb anything on the 2016 so I wanted to wait until I was 4x4ing the 2017 V4 benchmarks. Planning to just switch to to 2016 at some point. Maybe I’ll do it sooner than later. OP I’m in the same position as you. I feel your pain. I too long for any semblance of and connection to outdoor climbing I can get during this phase of life.