Still a good tick list

It's funny how standards/opinions change over the years. Down as a 'dismal tick list' on Colm Shannon's great blog post about his recent trips.

I always promised to keep a thought from a conversation I had on my first visit to Salt Lake City. It was a conversation I had with a very good American friend of mine who lived in Salt Lake City (a city that is home for many of the professional climbers in the USA, not to mention a long history of climbing so a long period of time for the standard to develop). She described herself as a 'not very good climber', essentially as she was benchmarking herself against others who were climbing at the top of the game. She'd have been one of the top climbers in Ireland if she was comparing herself to the Irish level of the time. Everything is relative. It's easy to lose sight of what's hard - I'd suspect many people would be happy with the list above as a lifetime ticklist of grade 7 boulder problems in Font! 

Just because standards are going up, doesn't mean what is now perceived as not that difficult still doesn't take a significant amount of time, effort and dedication to get to. I'd like to think that Irish climbers can stay out of the mindset where as standards increase, attitudes towards so-called-lower-grades still is respected, makes it fun for everyone and promotes everyone trying their best and focusing on their own development. Maybe it's a niaive, idealistic thought - I've seen it in most places I've traveled to......but here's hoping though!

Anyway, lastly and not taking away from it at all, fantastic to see Colm taking it to a  new level for himself on this trip - first 8a+, savage!