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Another Arapiles Accident 11-Feb-2003 At 9:35:16 AM oweng

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I think the onus always has been, and always should be, on the individual climber to make their own assesments of a route. Guidebooks should be seen as just that, a guide, not gospel. In my opinion its important to recognise that even the best researched and edited guide will contain a certain degree of error, and a certain degree of subjectivity. In many cases error and subjectivity may not the responsibility of the authors, given that for large guides in particular it is impossible for the authors to have climbed every route. They would therefore be relying on the original route descriptions, from god knows how many years ago, and written by god knows who.

If I do rely on a guidebook description, if it mentions poor protection / boldness etc I try and make sure its well within my capabilities (difficulty wise). If no mention is made of protection, depending on what you can see from the ground, I have to assume that there may be some run-out sections. If the guide mentions the climb is well protected, I would be more likely to try and push the boundaries.

I guess what im saying is that the only time id be really pissed at a guidebook is if it said a climb had excellent protection, and I found this to clearly not be the case.

Every time I getmy hands on a new guidebook I give thanks that I didnt have to do all the work, yet still get to reap the benefits.