"S" gear rating?
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Not trying to sound like a complete gumby here, but being an east coast climber, I've never heard an "s" rating given to refer to the quality of gear on a route. I've only ever been exposed to the universal G, PG, PG-13, etc., however when browsing routes near Boulder, I found the former. |
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The old Adk guidebook used "s" for "satisfactory", as in adequate pro. "d" was for "difficult" or maybe dangerous, and I can't recall the other term. |
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I just found that too. The difference is, it seems "s" is being used to describe lines with runout or sketchy pro |
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The Bjornstad Desert Rock guides use an S to indicate serious climbs. Usually alongside an R or X rating. I'm still unsure exactly what the S means, however. |
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Dobson wrote:The Bjornstad Desert Rock guides use an S to indicate serious climbs. Usually alongside an R or X rating. I'm still unsure exactly what the S means, however.Dobson pretty much nailed it. S=Severe |
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My understanding is s (serious) and vs (very serious) comes from Rossiter. |
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Jay Harrison wrote:The old Adk guidebook used "s" for "satisfactory", as in adequate pro. "d" was for "difficult" or maybe dangerous, and I can't recall the other term. Old guidebooks for the Gunks used similar quixotic systems. All of these have become obsolete, in favor of the "movie" style ratings. And those are still questionable. Many PG rated climbs will hurt or kill you if you fall in the wrong place, for example.I'm going to throw some more confusion out.. I too remember Don Mellor's red covered ADK guidebook using the letter "s" as a protection rating. "S" meant satisfactory |
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From Ron Brunckhorst's Big Sky Ice book, "In rock climbing and other ice guides an R is used and reserved for climbs that are typically always run out and/or require a great skill to place reliable gear. For further details on some known routes an S represents a forced run out of 15-30 feet above gear that took considerable knowledge to place. A VS is for very serious and a very long run out on questionable protection that will be required to complete the pitch. An X means no gear at all and falling would most likely end in death!" |
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I don't know if I'm right but I look at it like this. |
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Did you try and lookup what the 's' means, in the front of the guide book you read it in. Seems like a logical thing to do. |
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S = serious = R |
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Jeff G. wrote:S = serious = R VS = very serious = XI used to think that too. I don't think you can draw that conclusion. S is often heads up G or PG climbing. Or it is G climbing with the right gear (rp's and shit) and the endurance to place it properly. R isn't that. R pretty much means no pro or bad pro for significant sections of the climb. I also think R is seriously overused. There used to be a PG-13 that pretty accurately described what people call R these days, I rarely hear that term anymore. |
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In Mellor's guidebooks, he uses these: |
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Bill Kirby wrote: I'm going to throw some more confusion out.. I too remember Don Mellor's red covered ADK guidebook using the letter "s" as a protection rating. "S" meant satisfactoryYup, page 45 in the maroon book. S was "satisfactory", but it was morelike "only satisfactory". S did NOT equate to the modern G rating. S = PG. Mellor (and others??) used E for "excellent", the equivalent of today's G. And R was D, and X was X. |
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Jeff G. wrote:S = serious = R VS = very serious = XJeff is correct for the Boulder area guidebooks. If you have any doubts, look in the front of the guidebook for the author's description! |
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Guy H. wrote: Jeff is correct for the Boulder area guidebooks. If you have any doubts, look in the front of the guidebook for the author's description!If that is the case, and I think you are probably right, then the standard of R or S in the Boulder area has slipped to the point of being meaningless. |
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See the post from Ron Olsen in this thread: |
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My buddies and I always used "s" to mean SNAKE ON ROUTE! |
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Yep, Mellor used the S rating. And Gunkie Mike covered it well. |
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S = serious |
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S = scary; then you can use it to rate climbs AND haunted houses during Halloween |