Matt Heason posted an interesting story on the planetfear website:
“f9a is without doubt nails, but it is no longer the absolute cutting edge - let’s face it Wolfgang established Action Directe way back in 1991 (and graded it f8c+ / 9a). Would we be reporting the 9th ascent of an E8 that was put up by Johnny Dawes in the late 80’s? Probably not. Action Directe is actually around 12 moves long, significantly shorter than many boulder problems. Dave MacLeod has established V13’s at Dumbarton with twice as many moves.”
“Somebody obviously thinks its worth while reporting so we better had too. Must keep up with the Joneses. Mustn’t be the one responsible for dropping the ball. And so it escalates. By lunch time a dozen sites are bigging it up to receive more attention than the first ascent! Such is the power of the Internet.”
read it here
I think it’s very newsworthy, number 9 stands for the highest grade(s) and the route is a classic.
What do you think? Throw some comments and vote in the new Poll.
I think that Action is still worth mentioning because it still is one of the hardest routes in the world and probably the 12(?) hardest moves so far. Maybe Matt tried it once and found out he couldn’t do it and now he’s pissed off with the route and tries to size it (and other people’s great achievement) down. ;) Also i think Action is still seen as a major achievement because there is still a lot of discussion about other 9a routes let alone higher graded routes.