Trends that have fallen out of style

Placing nuts on trad climbs, at least out west. Hell some times I've had to leave my own nut tool on the piece because my follower didn't even have one. Yes they're slower to place and clean than cams but I still find places where I can get at best a marginal cam or a totally bomber nut. Seems like a lot of new trad climbers don't think about nuts at all. 

FrankPSwrote:

50 meter ropes?

I miss those.... most of the areas I climb at were established with 50m or shorter ropes, so why are we carrying 60m or god forbid 70m ropes up there?

Base of boulder problems sans pads, with only a 1 sq ft of carpet remnant to clean one's shoes before going up.

Using nuts.  Most people I climb with don't even rack them anymore. 

Shoot sorry K Go!

Stagg54 Taggartwrote:

Belaying with anything other than a GriGri seems to have fallen out of style with the "Gym to Crag" crowd.

Big wall belays are hard without a grigri

Brad Johnsonwrote:

Using nuts.  Most people I climb with don't even rack them anymore. 

Thats cuz they have no idea how to use them. ‘I just got out of the gym, ferchrissakes…just give me something simple, like those springy-cammy things!’

See also: ATC’s, clove hitches

apogeewrote:

Thats cuz they have no idea how to use them. ‘I just got out of the gym, ferchrissakes…just give me something simple, like those springy-cammy things!’

See also: ATC’s, clove hitches

I would say it's more learning to trad climb and doing the vast majority of mileage at Indian Creek.

apogeewrote:

Thats cuz they have no idea how to use them. ‘I just got out of the gym, ferchrissakes…just give me something simple, like those springy-cammy things!’

See also: ATC’s, clove hitches

Honestly, used cloves for a long while and mocked those who didn’t anchor in with them, but a commercial PAS is pretty handy…

I am all for gatekeeping, but in the internet age this is kind of a silly position. For example, in the days of paper guidebooks, would you have insisted that the author develop every single route published in the book?  

So a guide book author should absolutely have permission to expose an unknown crag someone else showed them! 

And in my opinion less is more when it comes to routes in any guide book or site. Many routes should never be published at all, is my take.

The transition from climbing gyms being an industrial/commercial space repurposed for climbing to spaces built from the ground up to be a climbing gym.

Crown Royale chalk bags (homemade ones in general for that matter don't seem as common)

I also see way less krieg chalk bags as I did just a few years ago 

I see a lot less of the various static personal anchors in favor of the various dynamic options (think metolius PAS vs Petzl Connect Adjust). 

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

So a guide book author should absolutely have permission to expose an unknown crag someone else showed them! 

And in my opinion less is more when it comes to routes in any guide book or site. Many routes should never be published at all, is my take.

Take, for example, the guidebooks to Arco or the Frankenjura. Each contain about ten-thousand routes. Are you saying that the author should have developed every single one of those, or at the very least got permission for listing each, single route?

To be clear, I am absolutely not talking about unpublished areas. 

To be clear, I am absolutely not talking about unpublished areas.

We're good then.

But I'll add I know nothing specific about Frankenjura, how routes are opened there, how the public areas are managed nor the zeitgeist of the climbers there. 

Are you saying that the author should have developed every single one of those

Where did I write that?

I do know a guidebook author who keeps his word AND tries to lead every single route reported in his guidebook, though I'm pretty sure he concedes in writing that doing every route is likely impossible. What it shows to me is a commitment to integrity and I respect him and his work immensely.

Back in the day, top sport climbers had to find someone else to belay them for every single attempt. Crazy, right? This was before the Great LRS Revolution, obviously. Hard to believe, but back then Avant, Inc. (NYSE:AVNT 765.83) was just a little one-person startup. 

Eric Craig wrote:

Is this what you are referring to?

You know that's not safe Eric. You need to extend that with a few more ovals so you can add a third hand.

Eric Craig wrote:

Nobody's said anything about gear slings yet.

I for one don't understand why anyone would consider say, Twilight Zone?, with a half dozen big cams anchored to their harness? Ouch! Just the harness by itself can add to the challenge of climbing wide cracks. Or the tie in knot captured in front. 

Since I lost my hourglass figure a couple of decades ago whenever I have a double rack on my harness I swear I'm going to go back to a gear sling. 

Plus the ability to hand over the full rack when swinging leads.

I sure don't miss the bulk of a dozen 1" runners over my shoulder.

apogeewrote:

Hard to imagine anyone who started climbing in the last ten years owning even half that many oval ‘biners.

They're all holding nuts.

K Gowrote:

Placing nuts on trad climbs, at least out west. Hell some times I've had to leave my own nut tool on the piece because my follower didn't even have one. Yes they're slower to place and clean than cams but I still find places where I can get at best a marginal cam or a totally bomber nut. Seems like a lot of new trad climbers don't think about nuts at all. 

Speaking of trad climbing, Cow Bells have definitely fallen out of style. Used to be you could hear the trad climbers coming from a mile away.

Eric Craig wrote:

Is this what you are referring to?

That is a carabiner brake rappel. Which should never fall out of style because if one does not have their spiffy self-locking gismo one can use a carabiner brake rappel instead of calling for a rescue on their Garmin.

Stagg54 Taggartwrote:

Speaking of trad climbing, Cow Bells have definitely fallen out of style. Used to be you could hear the trad climbers coming from a mile away.

FTFY. At the time they were popular there was no such thing as sport or trad climbing - it was just climbing.