Climb at ET Golden and Flatirons? Ratings question for you

[jrblack]

I climb at Earth Treks in Golden (a gym I love!) and I strictly boulder and ARC there, no roped climbing.

After a few months I am usually onsighting V3 with difficulty and I can get most V4s if they're steep enough (slabs are my weakness).  In the old days, V4 was equivalent to about 5.12.

Last Saturday I got on Touch Monkey which is consensus 11b and I could not do the moves.  In other words, it felt like the crux (which is about the length of an ET boulder problem) would be V5 or V6 at ET.  Either that, or I just wasn't finding the right beta: it was my first time on the route, and outdoors is infinitely harder to suss than indoors.

For those of you who boulder at ET Golden and have done Touch Monkey, how would you compare the grades?

Disclaimer: I'm not obsessing on grades nor am I here to spray (all of you warm up harder than I can climb anyway!).  I just want a reference point to measure how much of my difficulty is due to strength versus indoor/outdoor technique differences.

P.S. I would love to redpoint Touch Monkey this year.  I eventually did every move but one, but won't be linking any time soon. Keep training I guess! 

[scojo]

That's a really fun route! I haven't climbed at Earthtreks, but I don't think it's very useful to try to compare route/boulders in the Flatirons to gym grades.

Have you done any outside bouldering in the area? I think you could compare it to a long V1 in the Flatirons or Flagstaff.

I'm sure you'll find the moves easier once you work out the moves more and get more accustomed to the rock in the Flatirons.

[MarkAnderson]

How tall are you?

[jrblack]

Mar 19, 2018 17:05:58 GMT -7 scojo said:

That's a really fun route! I haven't climbed at Earthtreks, but I don't think it's very useful to try to compare route/boulders in the Flatirons to gym grades.

Have you done any outside bouldering in the area? I think you could compare it to a long V1 in the Flatirons or Flagstaff.

I'm sure you'll find the moves easier once you work out the moves more and get more accustomed to the rock in the Flatirons.

I've done the Monkey Traverse up to the (scary) exit... I've never had a spot, so I stop there.

But that's it for bouldering around here outside...

[jrblack]

Mar 19, 2018 17:28:16 GMT -7 MarkAnderson said:

How tall are you?

6' with +1 ape

[scojo]

Mar 19, 2018 17:32:14 GMT -7 jrblack said:

Mar 19, 2018 17:05:58 GMT -7 scojo said:

That's a really fun route! I haven't climbed at Earthtreks, but I don't think it's very useful to try to compare route/boulders in the Flatirons to gym grades.

Have you done any outside bouldering in the area? I think you could compare it to a long V1 in the Flatirons or Flagstaff.

I'm sure you'll find the moves easier once you work out the moves more and get more accustomed to the rock in the Flatirons.

I've done the Monkey Traverse up to the (scary) exit... I've never had a spot, so I stop there.

But that's it for bouldering around here outside...

For me the Monkey Traverse feels much harder (even without the exit). 

[climbnkev]

The lower grades at ET are soft, they start catching up to “reality” at about the V8-V10 range. ET V4 is equavelent to Yosemite V1-V2, ET V6 is Yos V3-V4. Compairing to YDS routes, ET V4 is .10+/.11-.

As others have said comparing plastic boulder problems to sandstone routes is pretty pointless. If you can climb ET 11+ toutes you should have no problem with the stamina required on a front range .11b sport route. That said Flatirons routes are hard to read so some adjustment time would be expected.

If you want to see better crossover to outside routes you need to focus on the mushroom boulder and vert walls. Try the white V5 arête on the mushroom facing the speed route or the yellow V5 traverse on the back wall right of the 45. Climbing the V4’s on the cave or 45 are going to have no practical application on most Front range sport routes.