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General Climbing Discussion

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Sport grades 'higher' than trad? 4-Nov-2011 At 3:38:20 PM armstp

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Interestingly I seem to have exactly the opposite experience to everyone on this thread. I have led hundreds of on sight trad routes in the 18-21 range over the past 30+ years but I haven’t been able to get up a single steep sport route harder than 18…even on a toprope I failed miserably to get up a 17 sport route recently. I figure that this is because many sport routes are overhanging hand strength tests and I am not very strong in the hands or forearms. Whereas there are many older trad routes up to grade 21 that can be climbed on technique rather than straight strength. Also I find many old trad climbs to be generally more comfortingly protected than sport routes – on old classic Arapiles 20s like Electric Warrior, Vanoise, Rosy Shy, Marmite you never have to make a hard move without gear above your head. Whereas on a sport route you might have to do a hard move with a bolt below your waist – that’s not protection in my book!!