UKC

Adam Ondra has established a new 9b in Vranja?a, Croatia.

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Why does he want to give everything slash grades these days? 

Am I the only one who prefers calling it hard or soft over the slash?

My feeling is that a slash grade indicates uncertainty in that it could easily be well into either grade, whereas adding hard or soft would suggest a higher level of confidence in the grading.

Curiously, the whole + in sport grades emerged out of slash grades. What once would have been given 7b/c may now be given 7b+. And yes, I'm aware that this example pretty much contradicts my earlier point about uncertainty, but I think we're now at the point where grade granularity can't sensibly be further reduced, so slash grades are a lot less likely to be retained after further ascents than might have been the case 30 years ago.

A different example for using slash grades is UIAA grades, where for example 8+ ranges from 7a+ to 7b, as 9- is 7b+, thus adding 8+/9- helps to stay consistent between the systems.

The grade 8a does not exist in UIAA without making a slash grade of 9+/10-.