By Simon Panton.

To 'V' or not to 'V' that perhaps is the question that lies at the centre of the ongoing bouldering grade debate. The international bouldering scene is deeply divided on this issue and with good reason, as there are strong, persuasive arguments for the wholesale adoption of either the old school Font. grades or the new(ish) bid on the block, the US originated V grade system.
The Font. system has a longer history, during which clear benchmark grades have been established through consensus. Furthermore, the small geographical scale of the area has ensured that with each new development quick and accurate comparisons with other 'benchmark' problems were easily made. Whilst the French don't seem as keen to 'travel to boulder', as other nations do, virtually all-high standard climbers the world over have visited Font. on a regular basis, particularly over the last ten years. Consequently, understanding and usage of this system has spread successfully to other countries.
Despite this, there are two main criticisms of the Font. system. Firstly, the exceptionally tricky climbing style common to the area leads to many misunderstandings, particularly with newcomers or those with bad footwork. Some people argue that Font. grades are only relevant to Font. style 'trick' problems, and that the system lacks relevance to the overtly physical bouldering style that is more common the world over. Secondly, there is much confusion and inconsistent grading of traverses. Also, at what point does a roof problem or a diagonal line becomes a traverse? In Font. problems seem to either go straight up, or straight sideways, but clearly this is not the case at the majority of crags around the world.
In contrast, the V grade system does not discriminate between the difficulty of a problem just because of the direction of travel. On the whole it seems to be more consistent and understandable in the lower grades and it appears to suit well the typical modern problem (i.e. power stamina orientated climbing).
The US is a very popular bouldering destination these days, indeed many of the benchmark grades have been established with the influence of globetrotting super stars such as Nicole, Loskott, Moffatt and Moon and as such have a good deal of credibility.
On the negative side, I could point out that not everyone (particularly in the UK) has bouldered in the US, however with the heavy promotion of areas such as Bishop, by expat Mick Ryan, this situation is likely to change. Some visitors to the US have reported huge variations/inconsistencies in grading from area to area. There may be some truth in this however to be fair to the Yanks, this probably just reflects the fact that different styles suit different climbers, rather than actual discrepancies. In my experience, climbers are incredibly blinkered when it comes to recognising the relevance of their own strengths and weaknesses to the appraisal of a crag.
The usage of either Font. grades or V grades is without doubt heavily entrenched at different locations around the world (within the UK alone it varies from area to area) and it seems obvious to me that support for both factions will remain stable for the foreseeable future.
I believe that instead of worrying about which is the better system, perhaps instead we should seek to establish purity between the two systems. At the moment there appears to be a general consensus that V6=7a and V7=7a+ at the lower end of the scale for serious boulder problems, and V10=7c+, V11=8a, V12=8a+ etc at the upper end of the scale. However, the main area of confusion seems to lie around V8/9 - Font.7b-7c. For years now, people have been trying to force three Font. grades into two V grades, and every time a new guidebook is produced a new interpretation appears, usually in the form of a confusing cross-reference table.
The V8 and V9 grades are over stacked with problems that are either competitively graded (such as 'Midnight Lightening'), or just plain overgraded because of a lack of understanding of how hard V9 actually is.
More and more people have visited the US and now realise that V9=Font.7c, very, very hard (unless you're a superstar, of course). It's hard to compare climbing standards when you've travelled half way round the world, but I climbed numerous V8's at Hueco before the partial ban was imposed, yet I did not feel that any warranted a Font. grade harder than 7b. So where does that leave 7b+ then?
Well, I believe we need a new grade, V8+. This way we can downgrade all the soft touch V9's (i.e. ones that are actually 7b+, rather than 7c) and upgrade the occasional stopper V8 that everyone argues about. I'm sure you can think of examples from your own area.