Grades are one of the things about climbing that we can’t live with, but we can’t live without. They are inevitable to some extent, but we often use them badly, we ask too much of them, and we use them inappropriately. Granted, at best they are a noble attempt to form part of a theoretically democratic dialogue, to convey information usefully, and can give people some form of inspiration and maybe much need validation, provide a lot of talking points over post-climbing drinks in pubs and online.