4 ms·

Outdoor. I live near one of the top climbing destinations in North America, and grading here is well established.

• starpilot 8y ago
  Congrats on being a quickly progressing climber. I met woman climbs 100+ days per year and has been doing so for 8 years, and she's in the moderates (10a-10c's). I also met a guy who's been climbing 6 months leading 11b outdoors. Everything I've about grades says that climbing 12 and above is rarefied territory for most people: https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/106352022/number-of-climbers-currently-at-each-grade https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/106352022/number... though there are outliers. Chris Sharma was climbing for a year before he was doing the hardest sport routes in the world, but that isn't most people.
  • PierceJoy 8y ago
    All the comments except for one in that thread were just people making up numbers out of thin air. The one comment that had some data is from 2009. They couldn't even name the source, but even if we assume the data is good, there's been an explosion of climbing gyms since 2009. The number of good amateur climbers has increased massively because of that, and the average grade people are able to climb has risen because of the training opportunities gyms provide. > Chris Sharma was climbing for a year before he was doing the hardest sport routes in the world, but that isn't most people. That's true, but 5.12s are not even close to the hardest routes. They're hard, but totally manageable for a dedicated climber.