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Crag & Route Beta

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All NSW	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

Rings on 10-Aug-2012 At 4:22:08 PM tnd

Message

On 10/08/2012 uwhp510 wrote:
>On 10/08/2012 tnd wrote:
>>I'm all for leaving routes from, say, grade 22 upwards bold as hell.
>Why
>>not leave 21 and below for beginners/those working their way up? The
>so-called
>>hard men look down their noses at those grades anyway.
>
>So I'm guessing your onsight limit is round about....I don't know... 21?

Nope, higher than that. But that's nothing to do with it.

>The whole point is that safe routes are already ALMOST ubiquitous these
>days, especially in the Blue Mountains, so I'm sure that the "beginners"
>can manage to work their way up to grade 22 without EVER having to clip
>anything other than rings if that's their bag. The thing is that no-one
>having done their sub grade 22 apprenticeship on 100% safe stuff is ever
>going to get on anything bold. Working your way up to being a bad-arse,
>like any other worthwhile pursuit, is best started early on :)

I developed my skills mainly on safe low grade stuff and worked my way up the grades to the low 20s. That then gave me the confidence in my ability to push it out a bit on routes like those under discussion, when I felt like doing so. I would say there are plenty of people who learned the same way.

There's nothing bad-arse about doing these bold routes. Nobody does them intending to fall. They're confident in their ability. It's all about giving yourself a thrill with a bit of contrived danger. I'm as partial to that as anyone. Big deal.