Down climbing

I am trying to calculate the mileage that i made the other day while climbing at Tahquitz and I want to know If ya'll think that down climbing counts and if i should add it to my overall mileage for the day?

And i am not talking about, going off route and down climbing 20 feet to get back on route. I mean to get off the Lilly rock I down climbed the trough (a full route).

I think that is completely up to you. The rest of us don't care what your mileage the other day climbing at tahquitz was. (No offense intended)

no offense taken. That is fair enough. but my question still stands, WOuld count the down climbing

I'd have to say that from a traditional standpoint, down doesn't count.

I would think it would, if you were downclimbing a route. when Derek Hersey did 3 routes on the diamond in a day, he went up yellow wall, down casual, and then up pervertical. if it was 4th class to the base, i dont think that would count

Who cares? It's not about counting at all!!

AHHHHH! You can't possibly compare the OP's situation to Derek Hersey FREE SOLO DOWNCLIMBING THE DIAMOND!

Edit: Sorry for all the yelling, that comment struck a chord. I think the question you should ask yourself is whether or not you would have counted it if you were going the other way.

Vertical gain is what it's all about.

I say sure, what the heck, count them, especially if it's a different route. Down-climbing has different moves, it's new terrain, and most importantly, it's YOUR list. (Disclaimer: maybe 1/3 of my routes on the Flatirons were checked off in my book after down-climbing them.) You're just as tired as 2.

Robin like the bird wrote:I want to know If ya'll think that down climbing counts...

Who's counting? The only possible use of such a count is to train or to spray. If you're training it doesn't matter as long as you're consistent.

Dusty wrote:AHHHHH! You can't possibly compare the OP's situation to Derek Hersey FREE SOLO DOWNCLIMBING THE DIAMOND!

derek hersey didn't onsight the downclimb.

If you were down leading then it is a blue point and totally counts. If it was more like down tr'ing, then it has been soiled, ie, a brownpoint and only counts if you have video.

Umm, it counts if you count it. If you don't count it, then it doesn't count. You get to make the rules. Just don't break your own rules!

It's a personal thing so count it however you want to. Personally, I think of down climbing in a different catagory. For example, x number of climbs and Y number of down climbs. But whatever.

My vote - Nope. I can't name a sport where the down is counted when there is an up component.

When you ski you count the vertical (one direction - usually up)
The Wasatch 100 has +26K of vert (up) x 2 if you count the down. They don't count that.
When you do a pull up - up and down doesn't count as two.
If I climb the Grand Teton from Lupine meadows I get about 7K in vert not 14K.

Its your metric, just don't falsely lay it down to compare it to others unless you qualify it. Some folks down climb sport routes to add mileage to their arms because it is hard on their arms. You are just using it as an easy way to get down - a 5.4 is in your legs.

PT

paintrain wrote:My vote - Nope. I can't name a sport where the down is counted when there is an up component. When you ski you count the vertical (one direction - usually up) The Wasatch 100 has +26K of vert (up) x 2 if you count the down. They don't count that. When you do a pull up - up and down doesn't count as two. If I climb the Grand Teton from Lupine meadows I get about 7K in vert not 14K. Its your metric, just don't falsely lay it down to compare it to others unless you qualify it. Some folks down climb sport routes to add mileage to their arms because it is hard on their arms. You are just using it as an easy way to get down - a 5.4 is in your legs. PT

I'd have to completely agree here. The term "climb" denotes upward movement. When you are climbing you are doing work against the force of gravity, when you downclimb, you are mearly slowing down the work that gravity is doing on you. I'm not saying that you are doing no work when downclimbing, but it is certainly not as much work as climbing up (at least for less than vertical terain which I assume you were on). If you want to count it that's up to you, but I personally wouldn't.

I find down-climbing to be a completely different challenge and at times more difficult than up-climbing.

Perhaps you could make a separate count of both and track them.

Fifth class climbing has got to count (as vertical) in either direction. If you climb UP Hair City, and DOWN Bastille Crack, I don't see why you can't total it as 460'. But UP Hair City and down the trail only gets you 200'. By contrast, you could crank traverses all day and not get any vertical. Tabulate as you wish.

Up only IMHO> Down climbing adds tons of style points though.

Right. Only up counts. Which is why On the Lamb is two pitches of 5.0 and 5.4 climbing, respectively. The two rope-lengths of 5.9 traversing don't count. So when you climb this one, you can tick off a 5.4 climb.