British Trad Grades E Is For Extremely Stupid

So British Trad Grades WTF. Everyone thinks they are pretty stupid (aren't all climbing grades stupid its a piece of rock) but we love them because they are traditional the same way we love Christmas cake even though its not that great. It all started because we graded our climbs with words not numbers, it wasn't until the late 60's early 70s there got to be more than one E grade and then they started adding technical grades as well. But most of these don't make any sense as basically every e9 is 6c and they can't all be the same difficulty, add that to the fact there are hardly any routes harder than British 7a and its been 20 years since the first one, something is wrong. But it is in the average climbing grade of Britain where things are really stupid and sandbagging often occurs. This is because there was only one extreme grade for a long time a lot of routes put up by top climber like Joe Brown, Don Whillans and Arthur Dolphin were left at E1 or HVS because that is what was said at the time. This has left the UK with an amazingly broad grade that makes you think twice about calling yourself a HVS climber. I have included the conversion table courtesy of rock fax at the bottom which theoretically works and should help you compare it to your local grading system.

When I had lead my first HVS this time last year I was feeling strong and I was feeling stoked to try all of the HVS's. Then on a club trip we had the chance to climb at Tremadog an amazing collection of roadside bastions of rhyolite hidden beneath the trees where many great routes have been forged. Because I now considered myself a HVS leader I wanted to do the fang it is given HVS 5a and was first done by Joe Brown. I lead the first pitch it was a very burly pitch that was probably the hardest pitch I'd lead up to that point and I took one minor fall as I was trying to avoid jamming. I got to the supposed belay ledge and realised how inexperienced I was, this ledge was no wider than a skirting board so I had to build a hanging belay with slightly dodgy nuts as I didn't have any cams small enough. I slowly weighted the anchor to try and start belaying, but I hadn't adjusted my knots enough so I was half hanging half crouching being to scared to adjust in case my gear fell out. Cindy wanted to try it so feeling kind but still uncomfortable I said fine all the while in my own bubble of pain and fear. After a good 20 minutes of trying Cindy declared it too hard(she could definitely have done it)and Freddie rampaged up to the ledge. Upon seeing my dishevelled state he just started laughing and said we are totally out of our depth. We were we didn't have anywhere near enough experience to be trying this, but the best place to learn to swim is when you are drowning. Anyway Freddie started up the delicate second pitch thinking the crux was just getting off the belay ledge once he was around the corner he thought it was easy not placing much gear, he then charged for the top only to find out the top was very slabby and exposed and ultimately terrifying. I only know this from his account as when seconding I slipped(maybe down to the 1 hours sleep) and fell under the overhanging with no way of getting back on the rock(prussick next time) I had to be lowered back to the ground through a ridiculous amount of thorn bushes. We were late for the group meal but came away with a burn to our ego and a fear of Joe Brown HVS's.

Me on Desperation Crack only HVS but feels pretty tough Photo by Rob Kempster

Anyway back to the point HVS is a messed up grade, but a lot of the best routes in the UK are HVS as they often follow the king lines and obvious weakness's in the rock. E1 is very similar to HVS as the ones I've climbed sometimes feel similar to HVS but they are often more scary and bolder although the line is very blurry. In British grades you get a number which tells you the difficulty of the hardest move on the climb but these can span across the word based grade so a HVS 5a is pretty safe with a 5a technical move on it, whereas an E1 5a is quite bold with a 5a technical move on it also be a little more sustained. What we have tried to create here is a grading system that describes the whole experience but it just gets confusing. I like the American system where everything gets a numerical grade to describe the route then a film style rating to tell you how dangerous it is, this good because it gets you to think about the technical aspect and does not put you off by intimidating you with scary words like extreme. But it still is flawed. At the end of the day we are trying to grade how hard getting up a piece of rock is and it'll be different for each climber depending on style height strength boldness so the best way to get to know it is to get out and do it get used to it and in no time you'll be speaking fluent HVS.

Best Routes Of Each Grade I've Done So Far

Mod-Afterthought Arete, Stag Rocks, Scotland
Diff-Tower Ridge, Ben Nevis. Scotland
VDiff-Heaven Crack, Stanage, England
HVDiff-Helfensteins Struggle, Stanage, England
Severe-Sphinx Nose Traverse, Wainstones, England
HS-Twin Cracks, Park Nab, England
VS-Nozag, Castle Naze, England
HVS-Todys Wall, Froggat, England
E1-3 Pebble Slab, Froggat, England(It is argued its HVS which I agree with)

The list of routes I want to do is 10 times longer than this and I may find a better one of each grade next week who knows.

https://www.rockfax.com/publications/grades/

Disclaimer-Don't take my word for the grades its all relative to my experience sport climbing wise I climb french 6a+/6b. In other words don't blame me if a Severe feels hard welcome to British grades they are stupid