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General Climbing Discussion

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What is Sport and Trad? 17-Feb-2005 At 4:47:30 PM Ronny

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Aren't there really two things being debated at once here?? First, there is the question of the ethical worth of different types of ascents. Secondly there is the question of when a route is called a 'sport route'.
You don't 'sport climb' a route, nor could a route be called a 'pink point' route.
The terms 'sport climb', 'trad route' and probably also 'mixed route' (in both senses) discribe something about a route that is entirely independent from how it is climbed on a particular ascent.
So on the first question...
there's really no question is there that a ground-up-onsight-gear-in-hand ascent is closer to the ideal than a pink-point-rap-inspected-brushed-ticked ascent. But its horses for courses really. Draw the line where you please - everyone else will.

On the second issue...
I think Neil's list of features sums up sport climbs pretty well, but that doesn't mean that everything else is necessarily a 'trad route'. Surely a pure 'sport climb' is just one type of route amongst (possibly) many.

James