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General Climbing Discussion

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New climbing gym in Western Sydney 10-Feb-2010 At 12:59:16 PM Andrew_M

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Interesting to see that whatever change/ issue you pick, half of folks think that it is the best thing since sliced bread and the other half think it's diabolical.

Case in point: tape on climbs. It's great. As a colour blind climber (as about 10% of the male population), I can only jump on a fraction of the climbs at gyms because the hold colours are too similar. You can spot us colour blinders because we are always hanging off a crimp or mono and screaming down at our belayer to ask if holds are "in" or "not in" before we fall off. It's really aggravating. I mean really f---ing aggravating. The whiners who say that they can't see the taper underneath a hold get a tiny sense of what it's like. Taping generally solves the problem. Dunno why, but it's generally much easier to see the colours. Different patterns on the tape help too (had this at one gym overseas).

Slabs and walls?...keep em. They are good to mix it up with steeper stuff. Also, beginner/intermediate climbers can practice the moves...a rockover on plastic is no different to one on rock.

It's true that Peters has some niggling problems. Sticky ropes and the occasional spinner, and very time I go there it's way too crowded for a start, but there's a reason why it's full...it's popular because it's got the balance right better than any of the alternatives.