Onsight vs hardest redpoint?

I’m curious what the difference of the grades are of your hardest onsight vs redpoint?

Edit to add: How many tries for your hardest redpoint?

About a number grade for routes, and 2 V grades

Two 11b onsights versus one 11d redpoint. I don’t project enough #weekendwarriorproblems 

Onsight 11a, redpoint 12a

Onsight 5.11a, redpoint 5.11c. Projecting has never been an interest though I’m hoping to tackle some harder projects this summer.

2-3 letter grades. 

Same grade or 1/2 a V grade for boulders - and 2 letter grades for pitches. But I'm an outlier who tends to shop around and try variety rather than focusing on long term goals.

onsight trad 11, redpoint 12a, one of those 12a’s was a flash, grades are all fake :D

4 letter grades of spread for sport. 12c OS (>10 of these), 12d flash (a couple of these), 13c redpoint (6 of these, all took ~ 10-25 tries).

Exact same spread for trad, but shifted down. 11d OS, 12a flash, 12d redpoint.

Boulders it's closer, only 2 V grades of spread. V6 flash, V8 redpoint. But I've never long term projected a boulder,so this narrower spread makes sense.

All these were a while ago. Weaker these last few years.

I think that 4 letter grades of spread is considered the general standard for a climber with reasonably balanced competence in both OS and redpoint.

5.13b onsight (only once, BOHICA)

5.13a onsights, 10+

5.14a redpoint (only once, 50 tries)

Lots of V7 flashes, no V8

Handful of V10, 1 V11

Sport - 5.11a onsight / 5.11c flash / 5.12a redpoint (sent my 3rd go)

Trad - 5.10c onsight // yet to redpoint anything higher. Two 11b routes will hopefully go down this season though! 

Pebble Wrestling - V4 onsight // v7 redpoint (about 4-5 attempts)

Don't spend enough time projecting stuff. I was just talking to a friend this weekend about how I'm an all-or-nothing type of guy, which may be why onsight trad seems to be so much more appealing. I'd rather nail the moves on a 10 or 11 first go than spend days/weeks working on a hard sport route.

For sport: We will just say 3 12+ redpoints, the hardest one taking 20 tries.

I think I might have 5 12a flashes and 2 debatable 12b flashes (one yesterday in sicily 7b/7b+) and one in 45 mph gusts that was extremely reachy and not consensus at all.

For trad lol.

For bouldering: a few v5 flashes and probably 10 v6 sends with a soft v7.

It’s all about that scale of instant gratification. If I can’t see a send in a month no thanks!

3 letter grades on routes, 3V grades for boulders. 

This is an interesting thread since posters are actually talking openly about grades they climb, with the full details provided.

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We can also look at the grades spreads of top climbers. These seem to fit into the same general range as us schmucks, but just shifted upward. We can see there is a pretty wide variance in this grade spread, from redpoint specialists to "balanced" to strong comp crushers than haven't pushed their redpoint potential. Source for all this info (and links below) are from 8a.nu scorecards. 

An example of a "balanced" climber (balanced in terms of onsight vs. redpoint competence) is the grand muppet himself, Adam Ondra. 14d OS, 15a flash, 15d redpoint. This is the expected spread of 4 letter grades from top OS to top RP.  Interesting that this same spread is seen in the world's best climber as in your typical mildly-serious weekend warrior. A somewhat lesser known top climber with this "balanced" 4-letter spread is Jorge Diaz-Rullo, with 14b OS and 15b RP.

A lot of top sport climbers are redpoint specialists, putting the vast majority of their energy into hard redpoints, rather than mileage and OS attempts. Joe Kinder is a good example, with a 6 letter grade spread from top OS (13c) to top RP (15a). But I could have named many other top sport climbers since this is fairly common. Siegrist and Ghisolfi both have a 5 letter grade spread from top OS to top RP.   Seb Bouin doesn't even bother logging OS ascents.

Top climbers with narrow spreads of OS to RP also exist. One place we see this mostly commonly is the comp crusher. Janja is the ultimate example of this, with 14b OS and 14d RP. Clearly capable of higher RP, but hasn't put in the time (yet). Among the older generation, Patxi and Ramon Julian are much more experienced outdoor climbers, but still have a 2 letter grade spread with 14c OS and 15a RP. Part of this is, again, the comp climbing focus during their prime climbing years, but also being from Spain probably plays a role also. Since they have a huge volume of climbing available, they can do a lot of hard OS mileage and lots of quick 9a redpoints, rather than spending an entire season on one max-difficulty project.

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So how is all this nerdy analysis useful to the rest of us? It probably is most informative as a diagnostic tool, to determine where you have untapped potential to improve.  If you have a 6 letter grade spread (lets say 12a OS and 13c RP), this probably means that you have the potential to bring up your OS level pretty quickly with a bit of practice. If you have a 2 letter grade spread (lets say 12a OS and 12c RP), this probably means that you have the potential to RP harder if you put in the time - find some 12d's and 13a's that look appealing and see how they feel.

Nice Breakdown, JCM!

I'm the stereotypical "could project harder" climber. I've onsighted 12a a handful of times (although, if they're in Chulilla or Ten Sleep do they really count??) and I've flashed solid 12a. But my hardest redpoints are 12c, probably in max 12 tries. My issue is that I rarely make it to the same crag several times in a row when I'm reasonably rested with a partner who is interested in projecting. So I don't often get to put in the work it would take for me to climb harder. 

Sort of the opposite for me.  Hardest sport climb OS and flash is 12d, redpoint is 14a (once).  Trad OS is 12a and redpoint is 13a.  Bouldering flash several V7s and sent one V10.  I live in Lander and don't really travel much so I have sort of run out of climbs to try to onsite.  I know I need to travel more, but I have a lot of local projects and I'm not getting any younger.

I think I am one of those people with a big spread. I think either 11c or 11d OS (can't remember) and 13a RP.

sport: 5-10 12a onsight, and projecting is also 12a (7 tries for the longest). I don't project much. I'm getting around to working on a 13a at a local-ish crag. For trad, I'm at 11a onsight and 11a projecting as well. Though I am working on a 12 a/b trad that I think will go.

That probably doesn't mean too much, as I don't project much, and I don't (well didn't) have projects that start out as obviously too hard, the kind of project you're not sure would go in your current form. I'm starting to change that, but I just prefer climbing onsight more than projecting.

I think that the spread would typically be much bigger for trad, because of all the mental aspects of leading on gear and all the work required for gear beta (at least on some routes). Plus the weight saving of knowing exactly the gear you'll need, versus bringing along enough gear for an onsight at your limit, is quite significant.

I fall in to the classic spread.  

4 letters grades for sport climbing;13a/14a (12 tries), 

3 letter grades for gear/crack routes; 13a/13+ (approx 50 tries for hardest route and could be 14-) 

2 numbers on boulders; v8/v10.  (less than 10 tries)

For sport, I tend to on-sight up to about 10a, and red-point up to about 10c.  I find working a route over and over to be boring, so don't do it.  For trad, I rarely climb trad above 5.9, and usually OS the trad that I do, as taking falls on trad at the lower grades tends to be riskier than I like.

Same grade. I've onsighted a number of 11b (sport), and have never redpointed anything harder... although I don't think I've ever worked an 11c-12a more than 1-2 tries. I obviously don't project much, and I spend most of my time climbing trad 5.10 or under.