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Let´s Harden UP!!!!!!!!!!! 3-Oct-2004 At 8:52:49 PM Onsight

Message

Thank you, BoaredOfTheRings, Robin and Rock Weasel - for showing your understanding here.

On 2/10/2004 BoaredOfTheRings wrote:
>It's actually 31 ground up, but nobody can dispute this grade because
>to my knowledge it still awaits a second ascent in this style.
>The thing that really shits me is these people who question the accuracy
>of HB's grading…
Couldn’t agree more.

On 2/10/2004 Rock Weasel wrote:
>…Chris? …. Considering that you did not (and hence can never) climb Serpentine like
>HB did, your input to the grading of that climb is more or less worthless.
And that’s so true too.
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This “let’s down-grade Serpentine then” campaign is a disgrace.
This thread is a disgrace. It’s an insult to HB at the very least.

There is no reason why HB should have graded the route for anything BUT the ethical style which he used for his ascent. So, unless you have climbed Serpentine in accordance with the (very high) ethical standards that HB used for his ascent, then you are simply NOT QUALIFIED to dispute his grading for his style of ascent (and that’s 31).

To my knowledge, there is not a SINGLE climber in this country who has qualified themselves to dispute his grading of his route (for the style in which he climbed it).

For the record, the ethics HB used are a whole lot more than simply “ground up”. He discusses the ethics he used in detail in his interview on this web site (“gear-in-in-a-day” and “no-placing-gear-from-the-dog”).

As far as the grade for red-pointing Serpentine on pre-placed gear is concerned (a style most climbers who do the route seem happy with these days), well, it’s given the grade of 29 in the guidebook for a very good reason – and that’s because it’s the clear consensus grade amongst those who have climbed the route (in that style). If anyone has climbed the route (in that style), and genuinely feels differently, then go and tell it the producers of the relevant guidebooks etc so they can take your opinion into consideration.
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A few climbers seem to have confused the ethics HB’s used and the ethics most other climbers have used on Serpentine (some even seem to be doing this deliberately).

I believe the extent of this confusion is somewhat indicative of the lack of understanding of ethical issues — and the extent of the problem we have — in this country at the moment.