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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

If its A5 where are the bodies? 5-Feb-2008 At 11:04:38 PM uwhp510

Message

The same problems apply in hard aid climbing as with hard trad climbing in assessing the quality of the gear that is placed, except that in hard aid climbing it is definitely tested (with body weight at least). So the point is that if LOTS of people are doing the same aid route, using basically the same placements and gear, and they're not falling, then the gear is obviously not as bad as all that. Its different to a hard trad route (many of which must get climbed on top rope a lot prior to being led) in that you know exactly how hard the climbing is, and so you have a pretty good idea of your chances of not falling. In aid climbing the only thing you know about your chances of falling is what you think you know about the quality of the gear which might be (and probably is considering the whole point of this argument is why don't more people fall on A5 and die) better than you think.

ps I don't want to come across as some weird anti-aid climbing zealot. I just think its an interesting argument about perception of risk, which has a neat parallel in white-water paddling, where you also can't divorce difficulty from danger (ie grade 5 rapids and above will always have some fairly substantial objective risks involved).

pps Holy shit you are hard Macciza. I bet you have Chuck Norris style abs and everything.

ppps The above is a joke. Don't hunt me down and round-house kick me into oblivion over it.