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General Climbing Discussion

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Top Stupid Mistakes to Avoid 26-Aug-2003 At 8:11:04 AM oweng

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One mistake ive made in the past was to not be careful about making sure I was on the right climb! It was on holiday in Hobart at the Organ Pipes. We decided to do a grade 14 route (this grade seemed about right given the inexperience of my second and the very light "travel rack" that we had on the trip). We didnt consult the guide carefully enough, and spent the first two pitches wondering why the descriptions int he guide didnt seem to quiet match what was happening (it was all similar enough to make me think we were still on-route though).

The last couple of pitches were progessively harder, and being long pitches required creative use of everything on the dwindling rack (including placing of cams as high as possible before hard moves, doing the move, then reaching down and retreiving the cam for reuse.

It all ended well though, a successful lead that was all the more memorable because I was basically on-sighting a "new route" (new to me!), and did it in good style, and as safely as I could have.

Consultation of the guide from the bottom of the route showed the route was a 17. I shudder to think what might have happened if the route had ended up being a poorly protected 22 though.