Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Your grading system is f#@ked 19-Sep-2004 At 4:16:49 PM Archangel in Oz

Message

Just an observation from a visiting Englishman, but....
your grading system really is f---ed. I went to the range wall in Melbourne today and after a recent comp the routes are graded e.g. 17-23. This means it is 17 at the start and 23 at the top. The idea being the better climber you are the higher up you fall off. I know it is only a wall but hellloooo. (What kind of comp has routes that only go up to 23 anyway?)

I am not saying the English system is best but we established a long time ago that sport routes and trad routes are two entirely different things and that one grading system does not work for both.

From my experience at the Melbourne wall it would appear that you Aussies can grade an individual move with a Ewbank grade. So you use the system to describe the difficulty of individual moves, sport climbs and multi pitch trad routes...... durrr that can't work. Sort it out.