...Measuring how "hard" things are purely based on repeats is nonsense. There are plenty of unrepeated easy climbs, and things won't be repeated if no one capable really cares enough to try (cf. the Holloway problems Curt is always on about).

the easiest way to quantify a bp's difficulty would be to get the 50 or so of the world's burliest boulderers, and have them try the hard lines. the fewer who can do it, the harder it is. this is a simple and effective way to quantify difficulty. "grades", such as they are, are irrelevent, subjective and meaningless when compared to the "how many repeats?" scale.

Except that those problems: AHR, Meathook, Slapshot and Sasquatch have all been attempted by many great boulderers and climbers--and they are still unrepeated. So, it's pretty safe to assume they are each of high difficulty.

I am about as far from a traddie as you can get, but this is s---!

*Crack (trad) climbing has been around a lot longer than sport, so it has been evolving for a much longer time
*The talent pool is smaller because fewer people are physically able to pull down on hard cracks
*Look at people like Beth Rodden and Lynn Hill, who are accomplished at both trad and sport style climbs - their hardest trad and sport climbs are both around 5.14a/b
*Lynn Hill's free route up the nose has thrown off the best sport climbers for decades
*Tommy caldwell, who has climbed some of the hardest, scariest trad lines in the world has climbed unconfirmed 5.15 sport

Assuming they are of high difficulty is significantly different from assuming they are the hardest problems in the world/country/etc.

Do you know if Fred Nichole or Klem Loskot (et al) have tried the Holloway problems?

Hale-Bopp is a one move wonder. Hardly a masterpiece of bouldering history.

What best sport climber's have been on it? Patxi, Graham, Puigblanque, Piccolo, Bereziartu, Simpson, Sharma, Moon, Mrazek, Bindhammer? Yea, the grades of Lynn and Beth's hardest climbs are being onsighted, 6 in a year, 2 in a day.

Slapshot is a one move wonder. Hardly a masterpiece of bouldering history.

[HIJACK OF A HIJACK]

I have a friend who climbs 5.12 sport routes, last weekend he got slaughtered on a 5.9 handcrack that I routinely walk up. It made me happy. Face it, crack climbing is just harder, that's why you sissy 'sport-only' climbers suck at it.

[/HIJACK OF A HIJACK]

http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=59758

I love that picture.

i'll make you a nice 8.5 X 11 print if you blow me.

[HIJACK OF A HIJACK]

I have a friend who climbs 5.12 sport routes, last weekend he got slaughtered on a 5.9 handcrack that I routinely walk up. It made me happy. Face it, crack climbing is just harder, that's why you sissy 'sport-only' climbers suck at it.

[/HIJACK OF A HIJACK]

what is this a troll?

Slapshot=overhyped and probably V12 or V13 max (my understanding was that dave graham worked it but backed off because he was afraid he was going to pull off a key hold, could be wrong) which is really hard but not harder than some of the new stuff going up so it is not the hardest

I have sat underneath both the Mandala and Spectre and even fondled the holds and I have to say that the mandala looks doable (someday...) while I believe I will never have a solid chance at doing even the first move on Spectre.

um, let's just say that if you can't do the first move on spectre, that you will have no chance on the mandala...

In other words, Dave Graham didn't do the problem. Since nobody but Jim Holloway has done Slapshot, what gives you the ability to accurately rate it? Jesus, give me a break.

Curt