I appreciate anyone giving an honest take on a grade, even if the honest take tends to be a downgrade, which includes the context of "for me" and includes the idea the other person being honest is also not wrong.

Brooke's opinion is good enough for me. As I understand ratings V=velocity, 15 or 16 is the exponent you raise it to before multiplying it by my weight; to determine how deep of a crater I would leave when I fall off. Have I got it?

"how could someone be wrong?" best quote on grade opinions EVER (in my opinion)

The fact is, Box Therapy is WAY HARDER than what most people will EVER be able to climb. I appreciate Brooke's thoughtfulness on her explanation. Tons of respect! You are a legend woman!

In the tiniest way, I understand the feeling, all of the "hard" graded routes that I've sent in my gym always feel soft, and when you know how hard most routes of a grade usually feel, it's hard to feel good about claiming that what you sent really was that grade. She's a very humble gal for how insanely strong she is, and 99% of the people making comments and giving her backlash are never going to even be close to trying these routes. Great little clip.

Steven, thank you for always bringing the banger interviews. Brook seems super cool. Loved this.

GO BROOKE! 🤙🏽

I liked the phrasing "for me it was a V15", for me that's all anyone can say for a grade, particularly at the top end.

Brooke rocks.

She didn’t downgrade Katie. She downgraded Daniel… Which is one of the coolest and ballsiest things you could do in the climbing world. Way to go Brooke!

Honestly with how each climb can suit different builds better and it being a strength to weight ratio sport. Its not a surprise something can be one grade for one person and another grade to the next. Climbing grades are not accurate enough to have seperate weight/height classes for grades. Would take forever to do and change everything, but would make more sense.

Steven's in a house!

No mention of a V17 project in this clip, right?

7:30 shes basically saying if ur not sending it stfu about grades.

I wonder how Shawn graded it

Brooke's reasoning for suggesting V15 is well reasoned and honest. A suggested downgrade by a repeater in most any other case would not be so controversial. But since it was the "first V16" by a female (Katie Lamb), the downgrade from the Raboutous seemed kind of sus. Mainly because Box Therapy's grade of V16 was initially suggested by Daniel Woods, who is one of the most qualified boulderers to grade something at the top end. And subsequently it was repeated by Drew Ruana and Sean Bailey, neither of whom suggested a downgrade. But then a woman (Katie) does it and it gets downgraded almost immediately after. From an outsider's perspective that might seem fishy. If only Shawn Raboutou repeated it, but neither Brooke nor Katie did it, does he still downgrade it? Who knows. But I'm glad Brooke did this interview to clear things up a little. I think she is being honest, it's just unfortunate because it takes away from Katie's accomplishment a little. But climbing is a weird sport where things are subjective so something like this was bound to happen someday I suppose. I remember when the only V16 in the world was "Gioia", and seemingly everything else that even suggested the same grade was downgraded (The Game, Lucid Dreaming).

Brooke, my favourite lady misogynist climber.

Sandbag everything all the time.

This happens to all of us, no? We break into a new grade and doubt that it was real. “Oh that must have been soft. I’m not REALLY at Vx grade level yet.” I don’t think anyone ever has the gospel truth on grades. Even if you are at the top 1% of climbers, personal bias and perspective can and will skew your sense of grades. I think that’s fine. I prefer a humble climber that is surprised at breaking a grade over an elitist climber that grades everything they send as the “hardest climb in the world”

Steven needs to let his guests answer the questions as they stand. Instead he would do this thing where he inserts his own take at the end of his questions, and tries to corral them into answering in a particular sanitized way.

the term "downgrading" is thrown around way too much these days...It's used incorrectly in this video with the title and often by the interviewer. Historically, guidebooks say who has the FA, and the person with the FA not only named the climb but they also had the say on what the rating is. The first ascentionist and only...They may have asked a few others for their opinion for the grade before it made it to the guide book. The rating that the first ascentionist gave was rather set in stone unless it was completely wrong... As climbers have more of an understanding about grades and are now more open to the idea of personal opinions we are okay with their opinion...The term "downgrading" is not really a thing anymore unless a hold breaks or the person with the FA is completely wrong still. The whole outlook on ratings have changed, your opinion used to be kept only as personal and you could say its sandbagged or over rated but now your opinion matters now for the overall consensus..you aren't down grading anything when you have an opinion, you're simply stating how hard it felt to you.

it's v - single digit vs v- double digits and you can't talk about how hard a double digits boulder is unless you've done one (or hundreds)

The problem with this particular situation of downgrading or any downgrading for that matter, is sure it can be your opinion its not V16 or V17 or whatever you think it’s not but if you’ve never climbed grades above then how do you know. The routes grade shouldn’t be changed unless its by someone who can Flash it onsight or has climbed above grades multiple times. It takes away from the aura of the first hand experience when the route was set & the person who set it.

The Raboutou is a family of raccoons!

Sus

the timeline is disgusting