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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:22 pm
by Saxman
These threads just won't die. Sticky rubber and then cams were considered cheating. Just wait until someone invents liquid rubber to coat your hands for hand jams.

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:36 pm
by bcombs
I've never used a kneepad with rubber on it. I have used neoprene knee braces to make a sharp kneebar less painful. If the grade is determined by how high your threshold of pain is then it probably needs to be downgraded anyway. It's silly to chew your knee up to somehow keep the send "pure"...

Image

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:33 pm
by rhunt
Saxman wrote:These threads just won't die. Sticky rubber and then cams were considered cheating. Just wait until someone invents liquid rubber to coat your hands for hand jams.
.

You're kidding right?


http://www.mtntools.com/cat/rclimb/chal ... ammies.htm

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:46 pm
by pigsteak
saxman is a gumby rhunt..you'll have to forgive his ineptness towards cutting edge products...now where did I put my hand jammies?

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:09 pm
by rustyvasectomy
here is a thought. i would say that sticky rubber on one's knee helps with knee barring as much as sticky rubber on one's foot helps with stepping on small holds. so, if you say that knee pads dont change the grade, would you also agree that sending lucifer barefoot is not much harder than with shoes?

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:13 pm
by Brentucky
knee pads, huh? and just when i thought there was no way to make pigsteak any sexier!

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:27 pm
by Canuck
Sure, climbing barefoot is harder, for the person who chooses to climb that way. But it doesn't make the grade of the route harder, any more than, e.g., climbing with several fingers in a splint.

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:50 pm
by rustyvasectomy
yes, but say in the case of many classic routes the grades were established without knee pads. So, someone did the route and said it was for example 13b. then, if you come through and knee pad all over it, can you claim that you are climbing the same difficulty level as the first ascentionist? That is, if the only way you can do 13b is with knee pads, then can you call yourself a 13b climber?

There are many ways to make a route easier. for example, you can ask the belayer to not feed you slack on a big swing. if you do this, are you still climbing 13b?

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:05 pm
by SCIN
Not sure a knee pad is enough to take a route down a full letter grade. So what if the FA did it in shorts and you wear pants? Does that apply? This could get ridiculous.

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:11 pm
by Josephine
SCIN wrote:Not sure a knee pad is enough to take a route down a full letter grade. So what if the FA did it in shorts and you wear pants? Does that apply? This could get ridiculous.
especially when trying to copy some of the fashion styles from the early 90's! :shock: