Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
All NSW	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

Classic 'no-star' routes at Point Perp 27-Oct-2014 At 10:00:10 AM nmonteith

Message

On 27/10/2014 simey wrote:
>I reckon previous Point Perp guides were shithouse when it came to allocating
>stars. They threw stars around like confetti on some pretty dubious routes.
>The current guide is infinitely better.

The old guidebook did not have a star rating system Simey! So, I'm not sure what you mean by they threw them around like confetti???

You had to read the route description to judge a route's quality - and it seems many of the routes with really positives descriptions in the old guidebook are now relegated to zero-star and the cobweb symbol. For example I made a long list of quality sounding routes I wanted to do when I was using the old guidebook, and I have slowly been working my way through these routes - but occasionally I discover in the new guidebook they are written off as zero stars.

>I am also aware that people's experience on a climb is highly influenced
>by their perception beforehand. Therefore when you jump on a route with
>no stars, it doesn't take much for you to be pleasantly surprised and think
>the climb is okay. But if you jumped on the same climb after reading it
>had three stars in the guidebook, you might top out thinking that the climb
>was pretty bloody average!

That's a good point. But in this case I had tried the routes before the new guidebook came out after hearing Duncan rave about them.

>I'm pretty dubious Neil that you suddenly reckon these no-star routes
>are three star mega-classics. I will be intrigued to hear what other people
>reckon.

Using thecrag.com as a judge it seems very experienced climbers also think they are pretty awesome routes. These particular routes are actually newer climbs - done around 2010. I just don't think the guidebook authors must have done them, because if they did they wouldn't have given them zero stars.

Maybe three stars is an exaggeration as their location isn't the jaw dropping exposure of other routes. But comparing them to other multi-starred routes at the same cliff they are equal - if not better for sure. Especially if you like sustained climbing rather than one move wonders after grade 19 jugfests which is typical of Point Perp hard routes.