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General Climbing Discussion

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Testpieces at the grade 14-Jul-2003 At 8:32:31 PM A.K. Dancer

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i remember reading an old guide book way back when i first went to arapiles and it had a list of climbs that were supposed to be definitive at the grade. much later the guidebook to djurite came out and as i recall almost all the climbs on that definitve list were regraded (any guesses as to which direction?!). for a long time this book held some sway over people's idea over what grades were what, particularly during the time of the climbing explosion of the late nineties where a lot of beginners went to araps and learnt about the grading system. i reckon we are still suffering from the hangover of that horrible little book. victoria has a reputation for soft grading and a lot of people seem to have no idea of true grades, and are content to believe their guidebooks like george dubbya believes his bible!! what silliness!!

anyways, some climbs I think are somewhat definitive:

9 Conifer Crack (all the way to the top of the spire mind you)
10 Threadneedle
11 Mixed climb
12 Bard (the whole thing is great, what kind of drugs are you guys on?)
13 Muldoon
14 Trident
15 Debutante (cos i couldn't think of a real 15 and most people are now calling this 15)
16 Watchtower Crack (brolga is too slabby)
17 Diane (the way it normally gets done)
18 Simpleton (i've already included half of the skink experience)
19 Wall of the Afternoon Sun (an arbitrary choice after much deliberation)
20 Gollum (cos its not really that hard and the runout is above bomber cams and a clean fall)
21 Pathos (absolutely spot on the grade)
22 The Last Act (OMFG!)
23 Sandanista (cos i don't sport climb, anything pumpy is hard)

well thats my quick pick!!