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General Climbing Discussion

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The Eyrie, Mt Boyce retrobolted! Badly... 21-Apr-2017 At 1:14:53 PM ajfclark

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I read his blurb as only mentioning something in the route description if it's particularly exceptional for the grade, otherwise the number includes "technical difficulty, exposure, length, quality of rock, protection and other smaller factors".

From the Blue Mountain Guide, reproduced at the bottom of http://www.chockstone.org/guide.htm :

Australian Ewbank Grading System Push For The Summit
Courtesy of Ewbank himself...

STANDARDS:
The English grading system has been abused in Australia since 1951. Without discussing the why’s and wherefores, I shall try to explain the revolutionary system here. There is no “mild” or “hard” subdivisions. (e.g. “mild” severe, “hard” very difficult). No inferior or superior subdivisions (Dolomites system). e.g. 5 ‘Inf’. 6 ‘Sup’, No letters (S. Africa) e.g. El, E2, A, G. The 'Tarquitze Rock Decimal System' (U.S.A) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5.1 to 5.10, 6.1 to 6.6.

My head is spinning already.This system is the simplest used so far, to my knowledge, in the world, It also has a chance of working. None of the others are doing so too well at present. This system starts, it has no finish. There are no sub-divisions. Each grade has its own separate number.

Grading takes the following into consideration. Technical difficulty, exposure, length, quality of rock, protection and other smaller factors. As these are more or less all related to each other, I have rejected the idea of 3 or 4 grades, i.e. one for exposure, one for technical difficulty, one for protection etc. Instead the climb is given its one general grading, and if any of the other factors is outstanding, this is stated verbally in the short introduction to that climb, e.g.

'Freds Frolic’ 17. 302’-6” A fine climb, marred by poor rock at (crux) and poor protection on 4th pitch. etc, etc.

I feel that this system will soon be accepted, and the Americans seem to be thinking of something along similar lines.

As far as protection goes, the general terms “good”, “fair”, “poor” are used. However, it should be noted that I have taken the use of modern gear into account, and therefore this point will vary according to the individual, the amount of "silent aids" he carries and his ability to use them.