Can Everyone Climb 5.14?

[climb2core]

I agree with heavy on this one....

go back to Ian's example....I do not believe for a second that when you have 50 committed gymnasts in a room all training equally that they all have the same odds of being the gold medalist. they are already the cream that has risen to the top. and from that cream, only a few will be chosen.

You have to define the "gold medal". I don't think we can call 5.14 the gold medal at this point. I am guessing it is not even the bronze medal or even on the "Rock climbing Olympic team" of the future. I think those 50 kids would all be be very average at 5.14 if there were 5000 gyms around the country doing the same thing.

[heavyc]

as for the "gold medal" I think piggy was right on it is currently about 5.15a, as for the grades continuing to blow up, I think there has already been a dramatic slow down in the progression of grades, I don't have the intervals available but I suspect the time frames it took the world's elite to go from 5.12 o 5.13, versus 5.13 to 5.14, and 5.14 to 5.15 have dramatically increased, in fact just from 5.15a to 5.15b probably took as long to develop as from 14a-14d, I do think we will continue to see progression but it is slowing down and I think will continue to be much slower than in the past,
I also think it is interesting (probably in some part because the grading is so subjective) that what seemed to me to push some of the male elite climbers to finally claim doing routes at 5.15b as opposed to 5.15a was one women who pushed her limit up to 14d/15a

[climb2core]

My understanding is that 5.15 is significantly harder than 5.14 and probably much more so than 5.13 to 5.14 and 5.12 to 5.13. 5.15 is the gold medal today, but lets take a guess what the benchmark will be in a decade from now. I would have my money on 5.16 b/c.

[toad857]

when Jesus returns, he will send the world's first 5.16

[Brentucky]

kafish, the vast majority of people in the gym I climb at can't climb V5, so there...

I'm not saying they couldn't because I believe they can with time and dedication, and I believe overall that something like V5 is actually about average for someone reasonably dedicated (that would equate to about 12c in my book). If they were crazy dedicated could they push it to V7? Yeah, probably, but how many people have that dedication? It's another partially genetic thing.

Once again though you are pretty much calling 5.14 "average" if you are saying that most everyone can do it. If your experience tells you that it is average (50% of people you know can do it) then you don't know very many people. I think climb2core is on to the right course of thinking. With time and more people doing it the grades will naturally move up, and as the max of human limits truly get reached it will be years before further advancements happen because the right person has to come along to do it. It seems that Ondra may do a 5.15c in the next couple years if he stays healthy, and it is too early to imagine what 5.15d might even look like (maybe do 3 V14's in a row with only a V5 rest crimp in the middle). Not even the best on the planet could touch that right now.

At some point physics takes over. Force and friction won't combine in even theoretically possible combinations to be enough to make something actually "harder," but it will become harder just by stacking lots and lots of hard shit together. It will become extremely body size to climb size dependent, and it will probably have to be fabricated in a gym.

[climb2core]

Historical perspective on progression of climbing...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rock_climbing

1952 5.10
1954 5.11
1955 5.12
1977 5.13
1985 5.14
2001 5.15a

[sendit]

All this talk is blasé.
I just got back from New York where I have been cultivating a bunch of kids from the Bronx, officially called the urban achievers but more accurately described as the plantation of little black ninjas. Similar to every professional support (except the really cold-ass ones), they will be dominating the pro climbing scene in 2012. Trips are already booked for Spain and France so my ninjas can crush all the 15's over there. Come January, the RRG will be our base where I predict swift repeats of all the "hard" climbs.
What you proles don't understand is that none of these kids had even climbed 5.10 a month ago, but stripped from their cozy little ghettos and given gear, cash and intense training regimens they will be the most dominate climbers this world has ever seen.
Some of you training buffs may remember Nike's Oregon Project where tons of $$ was dumped into helping elite white american boys try and catch up with the africans dominating the long distance running scene. Total and utter failure. The reason? Nike selected the wrong the breed of kids.
You'd be amazed how quick the multikulti of climbing sponsors that have already jumped on this. Prepare to see very different faces on the cover of your next climbing rag . . . .

[toad857]

I have been cultivating a bunch of kids from the Bronx, officially called the urban achievers

"Yes, and proud we are of all of them."

[toad857]

Seriously, though, this thread is dumb. No need to dissect such an arbitrary topic.

Can anyone here climb 5.14? 5.15? No? Okay then.

[climb2core]

Can anyone here climb 5.14? 5.15? No? Okay then.

All those people are not on the internet. They are out climbing.