Can the relative ease of a section of a route make the overall grade lower than the most difficult section?

[Kris]

I’m reading a potential paper for Season 2 of Breaking Beta, and came across this quote. Is this how routes are graded in the UK (where this paper is from)?

I vote no 100%.

• Yes, we take the average
• No, we take the sum
• Some other way

[bobtwosox]

I think the hardest move on the route helps to determine the absolute floor of the grade, but not necessarily the high end of the grade.

[Kris]

Agreed.

[andybfreeman]

That seems like a weird bastardisation of uk technical grading. On trad routes the second half of the grade, eg E2 5c, refers to the hardest move on a route

[Bswitze]

I don’t understand the uk system. Makes my brain hurt.