In reply to Chris the Tall:
> So why bother leading at all ? Once you've started to work a route, and you've got your rope to the top, why the faff of pulling it down each time ? Why disrupt the flow of the climb with any distraction with gear ?
Even though it's sport climbing that tiny bit of spice adds to the experience (IMHO) unless you're at St Leger with it's ridiculous runouts.
> Obviously though there will be those occasions where you want to do a route first time, where you turn up at an empty crag and just spot a line you want to climb. You don't run round to the top and ab down putting the draws in, you just do it.
Many routes here we'll do an adjacent warm up or easier route then flick the draws across to the project on the way down.
> My point is that we do add artificial difficulties at times, and at other times our style of ascent will reflect what's practical. There's a clear distinction between led and top-roped, and between worked and flashed, but flashed and onsight is the difficult one.
> We all agree that onsight should be harder, and therefore more noteworthy. But when we try and draw a line we get contradictions.
To me it's just personal and I don't care a jot what anyone else thinks. There's a route I want to try at Malaucene this afternoon. If someone has the draws already in and I flash it I'll take the OS, even if I've watched them first. (I won't flash it though
I'm talking 7a's and 7b's here not 9b's to impress sponsors.
E