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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Hardrock in the city at last 2-Feb-2008 At 10:21:16 AM dreamingof8a

Message

On 2/02/2008 ajfclark wrote:
>I remember one climb that used to be graded a 12 or 13. Over time 4 or
>5 holds spun to be upside down. When asked to fix the route they just
>tightened the holds a was and regraded it a 15 rather than restore the
>route. Last I saw it has something like 7 or 8 underclings in a row.
>It used to be a decent climb for beginners to warm up on or start teaching
>people about leading and clipping. Now it's just ugly.

I remember that climb, a black one? hehe, now it makes sense why this was a weird route.

>I've mentioned to the staff that I think they really need to get whoever
>set to route to make some notes so they can restore them to the original
>intent; there's a bunch of climbs that had difficult moves on them previously
>but due to movement of holds they're now significantly harder than they
>are graded. This problem seems to be ignored even more than the issue
>of the spinning holds itself is.

They should just use the holds in the direction they are supposed to be used according to the position in the route in the first place. So every routesetter has at least a rough idea of the original position.
And particularly easier routes don't need to be made awkward by putting a jug upside down so you can't hold it properly. Maybe occasionally in harder routes you want to turn a hold slightly otherwise it becomes boring, but a beginner shouldn't have to focus on out-of-balance moves on weirdly placed handholds and such things. That only leads to bad technique (like in the mentioned 15 with all the underclings, peole just throw ther feet onto the next foothold).