| Rock climbers have spent two decades arguing | | | | harder, you fall off, lower down and walk away. |
| passionately whether bolts have been a good | | | | You've stopped learning. Actually that's not true. |
| thing or a bad thing for climbing in general. The | | | | You're learning to fail at your grade ceiling. |
| short answer is that, in some climbing areas, | | | | The top Yosemite rock climbers of the 1980s, |
| they've been a good thing; in others, they've been | | | | guys like Kauk and Cosgrove, were onsighting to |
| a bad thing. Most leading climbers do both sport | | | | 5.12b (about F7b or E6). These were brilliant |
| and trad - on the bolts and off them. | | | | climbers who were out on the crags most days. |
| Sport climbing can be used as 'convenience | | | | They were supremely fit in mind and body. But |
| climbing', 'fun in the sun'. And that's fine by me - | | | | they still had a 12b grade ceiling. It was only when |
| there's nothing wrong in that. Or sport climbing | | | | they embraced the notion of working routes |
| can be used to push your grade. Most people | | | | (previously dismissed in Yosemite as 'hangdogging', |
| pushing their climbing grade will have two grades - | | | | i.e. dodgy tactics) that they saw big |
| an onsight grade (ground-up, no information about | | | | improvements. They went to 5.14c (F8c) at |
| the route, no falls) and a worked grade. The | | | | worked climbing grades and 5.13a (F7c+) at |
| worked grade (a redpoint) involves prior | | | | onsight climbing grades. So, even if they'd just |
| knowledge of the route, for example, attempting | | | | wanted to improve their onsighting, they'd have |
| it on a top-rope, prior to a successful (no falls) | | | | gone up three whole grades. Not bad, eh? |
| lead. The climbing purist in me feels compelled to | | | | Working routes (in conditions of safety) gives you |
| mention, in passing, the third option - a flashed | | | | an appreciation of harder moves, more stern |
| ascent, where you led the route straight-off, with | | | | situations. It demystifies what lies just above your |
| no falls, but did have some information about it, | | | | onsight grade ceiling. And, very often, |
| for example seeing your climbing partner do it. | | | | mystification is the biggest thing that holds you |
| But, for now, let's forget about flashed ascents. | | | | back in climbing. I can remember doing ascents of |
| However praiseworthy, they're a kind of half-way | | | | Joe Brown routes in the UK when I was the only |
| house. | | | | person I knew going on them. The mental barriers |
| Even if you're the most die-hard trad climber on | | | | were huge. |
| the planet, who's never taken a leader fall in their | | | | So have two personal grades in rock climbing - an |
| life before, I want you to have two leading | | | | onsight grade and a worked grade. Even if you |
| grades - an onsight one and a worked (redpoint) | | | | couldn't give a hoot about working routes, per se, |
| one. Why? Because if you just have an onsight | | | | as a tactic, it can help your onsight grade to soar. |
| grade, it becomes almost impossible to break | | | | If Yosemite legends can improve their onsighting |
| through a grade ceiling. When you try to climb | | | | by three grades, then why can't you and I? |