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General Climbing Discussion

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A modest proposal 28-Apr-2004 At 8:08:06 AM oweng

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As a badly bolted sports route? Good point Keiran, there are always going to be routes / situations that defy any attempt to categorise them.

I kind of like the idea of adding something to the Ewebank grade to indicate risk. I think in parts of the US they add a R (R-rated) to the grade to indicate a dangerous route, and add an X(X-rated) to indicate a 'death' route. I think a system like that could work quite well. Well bolted sport routes would not require any letter added to the Ewebank grade (or maybe a G-rating could be added for completeness). A well protected trad climb, or a sport route with a dodgy clip might be a PG. etc.

The obvious drawbacks of this would be its attack on history, and the fact that the grading system would start to resemble the English system (looks complex & untidy).