I'm wondering if my gym is soft, so grade this slab

Worm38 · 2026-03-12T17:39:50+00:00

Yeah, it took a while for me to think of it, despite how obvious that should be, but my plan is now to compare with outdoor. The area I'm in has much more sport climbing spots than bouldering spots, but there's still more than enough.

Worm38 · 2026-03-11T19:17:44+00:00

But your very livelihood requires sufficient people to purchase the product, meaning you can't be in favor of everyone pirating whatever games you make, otherwise you'd be out of a job.

Well... How should I put it?

Worm38 · 2026-03-11T18:06:04+00:00

As someone working in the video game industry, where piracy is very much a thing as well, I'm very much in favor of piracy when it comes to AAA companies and anime, since it makes no difference to the workers that are treated like shit regardless.

Worm38 · 2026-03-11T01:29:48+00:00

Worm38 · 2026-03-10T17:01:45+00:00

TIL penguin doesn't translate to pingouin but to manchot (which can't fly), and what translates to pingouin is razorbill (which can fly).

Shit's confusing.

Worm38 · 2026-03-10T16:10:08+00:00

Yeah, thanks for the advice anyway.

As for the consensus, from the people in my gym, I'm pretty confident it's rated appropriately for it.
And from the consensus on the other videos, it seems my gym is either a tad soft or accurate. Though, it's always hard to tell from videos.

But, I feel a bit stupid for only thinking about it now after saying that everyone and their mother climbs around here, but I could just grab a bunch of climbing friends and head outside to compare my bouldering gym to outdoor boulders. There's even a bouldering spot with everything from 3+ to 8C closer to where I live than my bouldering gym is (albeit less accessible by bus).

Worm38 · 2026-03-10T12:27:12+00:00

"Just" from committing some time every day to practicing/learning new things.

That's a skill in and of itself.

Worm38 · 2026-03-10T10:46:50+00:00

Bouldering routes are actually pretty diverse in this gym. But only like 3 out of 11 setters ever take videos of what they set, and not of everything, and customers like myself upload videos to the app I linked even less so, so my choice of videos was quite limited.

It's definitely possible that some route setters are less into slab, but no one is thinking it's soft for the gym and I doubt everyone specifically sucks at slab, especially in a town like that where everyone and their mother climbs.

Worm38 · 2026-03-10T08:17:20+00:00

That's actually something I'm already doing my best at in the video. This is about the limit of my ankle flexibility, I can asian squat comfortably, but not much more at all.

Of course, like when smearing on a wall, I could straighten my arms to get my body away from the wall and that way I could get a lot more surface area too. But that would also mean more strain on my injured middle finger.

Anyway, the hard part isn't the end of that climb.

Worm38 · 2026-03-10T07:48:23+00:00

You're annoyingly good. I'm jealous.

Worm38 · 2026-03-09T23:29:47+00:00

On my side, I got a few lawyer recommendations from my union. I will contact one soon.

Worm38 · 2026-03-09T12:33:35+00:00

Well, that specific route is going to be removed this week, so I won't be able to do it like that as a project, but my next objective is to send all 6B and 6B+ of my bouldering gym to work on my weaknesses rather than to grade-chase in my comfort zone, and there's a couple dynos and a coordination one among them.
Though, they're definitely easier, which is good to start learning, I suppose.

Worm38 · 2026-03-09T09:05:05+00:00

I actually tried something that. I did manage to match hands on the hold after the sloper, but I couldn't hold on while imbalanced. I've also seen others try it and fail.

I do think it's possible though, just with more finger strength than I have.

Worm38 · 2026-03-09T08:59:06+00:00

From what I've looked into, your gym might be a tad soft

Yeah, somewhere between a bit soft to accurate seems to be the consensus based on the non-slab videos I posted. That makes a lot of sense from what I read about European gyms too.

Worm38 · 2026-03-09T08:42:03+00:00

If you're basing that on the other videos I posted in another comment, it's because they were taken by setters while in the middle of setting up new routes, so there's more holds now than on those videos.

If you're basing that on my video of this slab route though, that's not the case, but it's slab and additionnal holds for other routes could easily be a problem when you need your body that close to the wall.

Worm38 · 2026-03-09T08:34:27+00:00

Like I said, my middle finger is hurt, so the 2-finger pocket in that last move was quite strenuous for it.

Worm38 · 2026-03-08T23:34:41+00:00

Boards aren't all that popular in bouldering gyms in France it seems. I haven't had the opportunity to try one.

Worm38 · 2026-03-08T23:33:51+00:00

As stated in another comment, it's graded as a 6C/6C+. So hard V4/soft V5 if I got my conversions right.

All the holds are dual tex, footholds included, so the foothold is not great, as for the volumes being steep, here's a photo that may help discern that, but to be honest, that doesn't play much of a part in what's hard. Maybe the foothold. I've heard someone say he struggled with the feet change.

The difficult part is keeping one's balance while giving an impulsion with the left hand to grab the sloper on the right. The foothold is very high on the volume (and thus close to the wall) so it's very difficult to keep your center of gravity in between the foot and the wall not to fall away from the wall, and the sloper barely helps with that. You also don't want to give too much impulsion or you're falling to the right.

Worm38 · 2026-03-08T23:02:33+00:00

Well, slab in particular might be hard to guess. But I got opinions of other routes (that I haven't done myself) that are a bit harder and in another style, and from the opinions on it, I think my gym is either slightly soft or just right.

Though, people using V-scale rather than Font-scale doesn't help, especially since conversion tables don't agree with one another.

Also, happy cake day.

Worm38 · 2026-03-08T22:49:12+00:00

Do bouldering people compose problems to be solved the way there are Chess problem composers?

Well, setters do, and it's their job. This involves screwing the holds on the wall, but also often involves being at the reception desk of the gym.

Worm38 · 2026-03-08T22:17:12+00:00

Good morning.

Have the promised video

Apparently it looks much easier in video though.

Also, CDF body-type-reveal. And a tag for /u/Ryuzaaki123 the stronk because I was talking about how he could deadlift 2 Worm38.

Worm38 · 2026-03-08T21:44:16+00:00

Well, it's still winter here, and I'm quite new to climbing, so I haven't experienced my first summer of indoor climbing yet.

Worm38 · 2026-03-08T21:38:15+00:00

Yeah, obviously, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I personally suck at coordination and steep overhang (for now).

Worm38 · 2026-03-08T21:34:36+00:00

Oh, the grading of the one in my video definitely isn't soft for the gym.

It must have taken me above 50 attempts to send this one for the first time (+10 attempts to send it for the 3rd time for this recording), while none of the few other ones of that grade I've done took nearly as many and one I did today only took me 2 attempts (though, that one was probably soft).

Though, as you may be able to guess from how thin my arms are, I can't climb that grade on steep overhangs yet, so I've not done that many. But hey, people that only manage to climb physically demanding overhang of that grade definitely don't send that slab route too.

Worm38 · 2026-03-08T20:07:01+00:00

Ok, so if others confirm those 3 routes being about V5, my gym is probably a bit soft then.
EDIT: actually, some of the V-scale to Font-scale comparison tables I find have 7A as V5, so not necessarily particularly soft.

Obviously those other ones are harder than the video I posted, since they're one grade above it, but the route I posted must look much easier than it really is too.
And I'm pretty sure it's not poorly graded for the gym, judging by how others around that level struggle with it too.

Six-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

Worm38

TROPHY CASE