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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Taking leading to the next level 10-Aug-2006 At 1:55:00 PM Fool in the Rain

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I'd agree with Simon that you can't really put a "protection" grade on climbs. You certainly can be objective about whether a climb can or cannot be adequately protected, but at the end of the day it's down to the skill of the individual climber to be able to make the most of the protection opportunities.

Try to do lots of climbing at a grade at which you're comfortable and you should develop the skills to take you further,

Try to work out the grade at which you feel rock solid. This is probably the grade at which you've done most climbs. By this I mean outdoor leads. I call this my benchmark grade. When I go to a new crag I look for a 3 star climb at my benchmark grade and climb that. I then use that to judge how I feel about the local grading, i.e. is it soft, hard?

Also read as many guidebooks as possible. There are still a few euphemisms out there such as "notorious", "interesting" and the classic "adequately protected". Note the latter generally doesn't mean "well protected"!