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General Climbing Discussion

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Hardest trad lead (E11) done by Scot Dave McLeod 12-Apr-2006 At 5:48:06 PM Nottobetaken

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On 12/04/2006 mousey wrote:
>fall factor of 20m??
Sorry - just a 'figure of speech' - I wasn't referring to real 'fall factor' measurements.

It's a standard misconception that the higher the E number - the more of a death route it is. The E number only works in correlation with the tech grade (e.g E11 7a). You can therefore have a 'mere' E3 that is a total death lead - or an E3 that is safe as houses. It depends on this correlation - and the guidebook description/look of the route. It's a system that basically rewards boldness as well as physical prowess. Thus you can have an E3 leader who can climb grade 22 (well protected) - or an E3 leader who can't climb 22 (physically) - yet can solo grade 20. Both efforts are worth E3. Simple as that! (Well - it would be if the English themselves understood it!)

McLeod's new route - if it were well protected all the way to the top - would be E9/10 (not E11) - but if it was total death (for a fall) - then it would probably get E12! The fact that you can fall 20m past a belay ledge and still not die means that the route is (and I use the term lightly) - 'relatively safe' - and therefore not worth E12.

Not so long ago - all English routes were graded using the E scale (even bolted routes). Yet the bolted routes were obviously all 'well protected' - yet some of them were still given E8/E9. The simple explanation for this is that with this system - difficulty and boldness were regarded as relative to each other. In this case though - a well protected 33 does equal E9 (or it used to on the old system!) Nowadays though a trad E9 could be anything from grade 28 to 33 - depending on the gear/the landing/the crux in relation to the gear/distance to the nearest hospital...

A complex system - no doubt!