A first ascent (FA) is the pinnacle of climbing, for a climber and more so for a builder/climber. The 2nd ascent confirms or adjusts the grade. The rest of the ascents are really just setting benchmarks for where one is at in terms of difficulty.
Let's take Ben Moon and Wofgang Gullich as our historical examples. Ben built and FA'd Hubble back in 1991/1992, but he also FA'd many more, like Agincourt, The Maginot Line and many others. Wolfgang did many first of the grades from 8b+ to 9a with Action Directe, 1991. This duo was kind of like the Chris Sharma and Dani Andrada of the 1990s. Ben and Wolfgang had years of experience and thousands of routes for them to provide a grade to their routes, and to other routes they repeated. Without Wolfgang and Ben spending time and huge effort figuring out how these routes would go, and bolting them, where would sport climbing be?
Well, I am going to state that; the FA/builder is the pinnacle of rock climbing, as he or she have set/provided a route which others can climb. It is not a single climber that is at this pinnacle, but those who build, send and provide. I will note that many do not do this to gain any media hype, but they do this because they are driven to push themselves and often need new routes to do such. The fact that Hubble and Action Directe are where they are in the world of sport climbing, is because both climbers needed more than was already established and the benchmark routes 8c+ and 9a came out of his vision, dedication and experience. This in turn has set those climbers who have repeated these routes to be able to move beyond their difficulty. However, for repeaters of these routes and any routes, really pales in comparison to the builder/FA, unless it is the new top end benchmark routes, like today's Perfecto Mundo, Bibliographie or Silence.
To send a route that has already been confirmed, really is just a way to measure where you are in the world of sport climbing. The repeat is awesome for you, but way off the FA standard of importance. This is not to mean that every FA needs to be at the top end at all. However the FA creates something for others to do, and this is the vision part. Without the builder/FA we would have limited routes to climb.
Today's social media really goes against this aspect of climbing, and places the repeater above the FA/builder. So to bring this to my home area, the route that really put the climbing area Acephale on the world map was Scott Milton's FA/build (along with Richard Conover, the original bolter and builder of the route) Existence Mundane, 8c. Scott's efforts and vision to send the route provided the area with a new benchmark route, at the top end for North American routes, not just Canadian. Many of the repeats during the late 90's and early 2000's clearly set the grade. Now 2 decades later, with social media playing such role in what is perceived importance/relevance, Existence Mundane is either downgraded or upgraded, to suit the repeaters posts and followers. (as a side note, I would rather be a nobody than a follower, I no longer have Social Media accounts). Climbers love to downgrade a route. They seems to think that is places them in a "better than the builder/FA dood for sure mode", really it mostly places them in a "dumbass" place.
The grade of a FA is really not important, unless it's in that top tier level. So a builder/FA of a 6a to me is just as impressive and visionary as one in the 8's. Of course some routes are simply better than others. Some build/FA to get followers on their Social Media accounts. Others just build/FA and move on to the next line.
All of these builder/FA's combine to propel the sport of climbing. They provide routes to go and climb, and often they set new benchmarks for the whole community to grow beyond.
Social Media really does not do good things for our existence as a people and of course a builder/FA/Climber. It leads people to become online bullies and create bad vibes for our world.
There are a few good aspects of Social Media, like some amazing pics of crags and places to go.
However often people go down the "rabbit hole" of that climber is a loser and a tool, and knows nothing about what 7a+ is. It tends to then move us towards January 6, 2021, in Washington DC, and that is simply not good.
