In reply to Misha:
> A V Diff is not exactly much harder than a Diff. And E6 is a lot harder than an E5.
I think Robert Durran's comment from earlier in the thread ("the biggest grade jump is the one that you aren't quite good enough for") generally stands true, however...
I genuinely think that the jump from E5 to E6 is larger than any other I have personally come across. HVS to E1 was undoubtedly a hurdle for me, as it is for many; E2 to E3 was similar, insofar as it took a while to consistently break through, but none of these compare to the gap between E5 and E6.
Obvioulsy there's anomalies regarding within each and every grade - there are some that are soft, some that are hard, and some that offer a benchmark - but overall the gap is larger than most. The problem is compounded by the fact that there are a lot, lot less people climbing E6 (and also that there are a lot less E6s).
Not only do the routes have the potential to be a lot harder, but they also can also be a lot bolder too. That said, the same could be said of every grade - so what makes E6s any different. Firstly, there's a lot less people doing them - hence a lot less information about the routes themselves. Whilst I've taken the onsight for a whole host of routes across the grades over the years, I - like many others - often know a lot about them before setting off: where they go, where the hard move is, what the gear is like etc... The same cannot be said for a great many of the E6s I've done, where there's a whole lot of doubt compared to almost each and every E5 I've ever set off on.
The next issue revolves around the prevailing ethic of when a great many of them were put up and the fact that the fixed gear that they formerly relied on is no longer reliable. Taking Pembroke as an example, I've climbed the vast majority of E5s within the Leap, but a none of the E6s as a result of the dubious (or none existent) state of the pegs that once adorned their walls. Souls, for instance, was once considered to be a reasonable, albeit run-out proposition at E6, with a 'superb' in-situ hex and a bomber peg higher up. In their current state it is an extremely serious proposition, yet it still gets E6 (which is an absolute joke given some of the big names who've failed on it in recent years).
Part of the reason I'd argue things are a little different between E6 and E7 is one of style, insofar as very few people to bother headpointing E6s, preferring instead to to focus on E7 and above. Whilst I'm aware this skews things somewhat, as it's far from a level playing field, it further adds to the challenge of climbing an E6 onsight.
Clearly all of the above is subjective, but then again our grading system is far from objective, so all we have is our opinions and the opinions of others. It's far from an exact science and not - rather ironically - set in stone.