Tom Randall Instagram – So the grade of Walk of Life…. 🧐
Going to have to put this out there as grades are a consensus and I don’t keep an online logbook or post on forums etc. My view, having climbed both WOL and Once Upon is that James’s effort was most definitely E10 and the E9 downgrade was one of those things that was not quite right… maybe James had got too big for his boots, maybe Scottish Dave’s grades are (way) too harsh… maybe it’s just men being men and throwing egos around!? Not that’s some kind of evil that we should be terrified of… it’s somewhat the nature of the game at the top.
What I do think (and obvs it’s just my opinion) is that Once Upon has to be E8 if WOL E9 or we accept that maybe things got too compressed. I’d gladly lead one of the lines any day of the week, the other, deffo not 😅😅. My view after quite a bit of time on that wall is top end E8 for OUATITSW and bottom end E10 for WOL.
But…… it gets more complicated 😅. The WOL has gained & lost holds since James did it (easy to spot from the old video footage) and I’d say in current state it IS a solid E9. So I guess that’s the ever changing state of chossy sea cliffs? No ascent is quite the same?
Anyway, just wanted to put that out there as I think the FA and debacle with downgrade deserves a rethink.
Also….. let’s see if we can have a grade debate/discussion without people totally insane. It’s really not that big of an issue! 😄
Photos by: @mike_hutton_images | Posted on 13/Feb/2023 20:53:13
