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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Aid grades 17-Mar-2005 At 1:14:49 PM LittleMac

Message

In no way am I saying that a one off incident dictates the rewriting of history, I do however maintain that standardising the system is a sensible option.

Conversion tables have and continue to be confusing (none of them ever seem to be the same, I've currently got six different versions on my desk at the moment).

Some of the older Grampains guides use the A system and some use the M system, my mistake if I made the assumption that we had previously used the A sytem. In any case for future guides we should have one sytem for our own country at least.

Aid climbing is more easily definable than free climbing grades because we tend to talk about the nature of the protection etc versus the gymnastic difficulty of a climb (as in free grades). The A system is very clear about what each division enatils whereas the M system, depending on who you talk to is more vauge (and some have said open ended). If we are to persisit with the M system we need to more clearly define what each grade entails.

I may be completely wrong about the nature of the M system and if so I would appreciate being educated, I have however always found the M system to be somewhat lacking.

Cheers anyway