🚀 go-pugleaf

A couple of comments on the Yosemite rating system:

In his guide to the Winds, Joe Kelsey said he could never tell the
difference himself between a Class 2 and a Class 3 scramble - so in
that book, the distinction is that if his golden retrievers could make
it up the pitch it was Class 2, and if they couldn't it was Class 3!
That's one of the clearer distinctions I've heard...

In his book Wasatch Quartzite, John Gottman said that as a general rule,
the average beginner on his/her first outing could climb a 5.5, hang
on to a 5.6, and would fall off a 5.7.  I've found this to be pretty
consistently true.  He added that the same beginner would be amazed that
anyone would be willing to lead a 5.8, and would be totally uncomprehending
of 5.9 and 5.10.

I'll second (third? fourth?) the recommendation of /Learning to Rock Climb/
by Loughman.  That's the book I always recommend to everybody I teach to
climb.

Anybody interested in starting net.rec.climb?

Cheers  -- Walt Haas    ARPA: HAAS@UTAH-20.ARPA
			...{decvax ihnp4 seismo}!utah-cs!haas