> Although I can imagine some of the reasons for this new RF policy of not giving heights for every route, personally I don't like it - I'd prefer to have the heights and accept that they are approximate.
> Would it not have sufficed to include a disclaimer, stating that these measurements are by their nature approximate, and pointing out that the information may be out-of-date (extensions, etc). After all, plenty of other information in guidebooks can be out-of-date - and potentially dangerously misleading.
Most guidebooks contain such disclaimers anyway by necessity since, as you point out, all the information can change, be slightly out or be wrong in the first place. In the reality of the El Chorro lower-offs though this disclaimer didn't stop people blindly trusting the route length information printed in the book, thankfully never with terminal consequences, but certainly a few near-misses.
This policy is a pro-active one to get people to make these key decision for themselves. We have done the same with quoting the number of quickdraws in descriptions. We don't do it any more since a wrong count is worse than no count.
Also, as pointed out already, this is hardly a new policy. We first did it in 2009 in the Haute Provence guide and currently have 21 guidebooks in print without route lengths, and only 6 old ones still in print with route lengths.
Alan
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