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General Climbing Discussion

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why are old routes so hard? e.g. Kingdom Come 29-Jan-2009 At 10:25:06 AM sticky

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On 29/01/2009 evanbb wrote:
>On 29/01/2009 albion wrote:
>>Thanks for that - Ewbank system makes sense to me, seems logical when
>presented
>>that way. I'd also assume from this that pre-bolted climbs would be (in
>>theory) slightly lower in grade than a trad climb, all things being equal,
>>given the effort required to place a piece. I don't mean this as sports
>>vs trad thing, just a general surmise.
>
>And yet I find it to be the other way around. I've mentioned more than
>once a couple of weekend in the Blueys; wrestle with a sub 15 trad classic
>on Saturday, onsight a sport 20 on Sunday. I've got another theory about
>this, but it's too complicated to bother with. Essentially the older the
>climb, the more accurate the grade; it was the original benchmark. Sport
>climbers only compare their routes to other sport climbs, and so the grades
>are progressive. It's not a good theory by any means...

I'd agree with what you posit, but also add that, in my completely unqualified opinion*, it seems that
the higher the difficulty, the smaller the difference between grades. I'd reckon that grade 21 has a
wider scope of difficulty than, say 33. Not sure if my point, id clear, but what the hell.

*bear in mind, I have never got my arse up anything harder than 25, and that was a dog, so I really
don't know what I'm talking about.