UKC

Dave MacLeod comments what James Pearson has been writing about the influence of crashpads on the E-grade. In short, Dave's opinion seems to be that we should use pads where they're useful, and that Gritstone isn't really the right place for dangerous climbing and soul searching. "If you are...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=54997

Some of these replies were posted on Björn's old blog website, and so won't be from registered UKC users

I agree that the debate is sounding ridiculous at this point but I wonder if it's the result of the climbing industry's publicizing and marketing of danger in marketing and media like video. How do you "measure" it?

Myself I would use pads all life, but I wouldn't make it so simple about their doubts.

James Pearson seems not to be the only one having this doubts on pads.

If really many grit short soutes would radically change with proper padding, well that is it : using pads is a radical change in the game.

and while this is likely to be totally irrelevant for an outsider, maybe it is not, for those who grew with it.

do you remember the movie "hard grit"? well some people I know got this myth in their head grit=danger=showing you are a climber with big balls.
If you tell them "let's go there and climb just safe stuff with bomber gear" they are already skeptical.
You tell them about the pad debate, they would be all life with Pearson.

it is not just a "grade" debate in the way we are used to in sport climbing, it touches the nature of an activity and of a place...