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General Climbing Discussion

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The greatest sandbags in Victoria 6-Aug-2003 At 11:30:22 AM (removed)

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On 6/08/2003 nmonteith wrote:
>I am confused. I don't beleive protection has ever been factored into the
>Australian grading system. Why have a death runout 24 and a safe sport
>24. Both have exactly the same hard moves.

Sorry Neil, I don't believe this to be true either. Consider a route like Auto Da Fe. If this were a bolted sport route, it would be lucky even to be as hard as 20. Bad Cheques (extremely serious and given 23 or 24 depending on the guide) I did on top rope and I considered it to be technically only 21 or 22. There's countless other examples I could provide too, but I believe the seriousness of the climb has been incorporated into the grade for years. It is really only at the sharp end of grades where seriousness isn't being considered. perhaps this is the oversight ?

For the record, I have also read a couple of times that the Ewbank system takes into account all factors affecting the overall difficulty of the climb, and it specifically listed protection and exposure. I've only heard the "hardest move" theory from a couple of people (well one before you, Neil).