For those new to the scene, or just new to the UK, the trad climbing on this Sceptred Isle can appear hemmed in by a baffling number of rules about what you should and shouldn’t do. In an effort to clear up and avoid any confusion, here is a handy guide.
We begin with some preliminaries, after which you will be able to follow the 10 Commandments of UK Trad Climbing
‘Ethics’
The first point of confusion is likely to be the term ‘trad ethics’ itself. Normally, ‘ethics’ is a synonym for ‘morality’, which makes it sound very important.
When UK trad climbers talk about ‘ethics’, what they really mean is what others would refer to as ‘conventions’, ‘rules of the game’, or ‘stuff a bunch of people made up years ago’. However, by calling it ethics, this makes everything sound very weighty and serious. In turn, when people violate ethics, it licenses the ethics police to adopt a posture of righteous indignation, condemning the guilty, and vowing to put a stop to them.
The Ethics Police
The ethics police is both a contingent of established UK trad climbers, and also a state of mind. You may already have it. (Indeed, if you have been trad climbing in the UK long enough, you should already have it.)
The ethics police springs into action whenever there has been an ethics violation (examples discussed below). The chief role of the ethics police is to frown upon behaviour that is deemed ‘against ethics’. The chief venue for such frowning was traditionally in pubs and outdoor gear shops, but in recent years it has shifted to the UKClimbing forums.
The UKClimbing Forums
Just as Jewish rabbi engage in lifelong discussions of the Talmud, Catholic monks retire into monasteries to debate the nature of the Trinity, and scholars of Islam gather in seminaries to interpret the Koran, so the learned of UK trad will congregate on UKC to ponder such eternal mysteries as ‘if you use a bouldering pad below a trad route does it negate the onsight?’, ‘are pegbolts pegs or bolts?’, and ‘is climbing chalk on established routes the same as a £15,000 per entry corporate ultra-marathon spray-painting hundreds of rocks on the Isle of Arran?’. Scholars dedicate entire lives to pondering profound questions such as these. We are grateful for their sacrifice.
Those matters of background established, the following Commandments should help to make everything clear about the do’s and don’ts of UK trad.
First Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Place Bolts
This is the most sacred rule of all UK trad ethics. It applies to all rock, across all of the UK, except when it doesn’t (see Second Commandment). Bolts are considered the ultimate affront to ethics, because bolts are for sport climbing. UK trad climbers are required to look down upon sport climbing, and to utter the words “sport climbing is neither” whenever it is mentioned. (It is sometimes OK to go sport climbing, but only when you are on holiday in Spain during the winter.)
Placing bolts is always frowned upon, but in some situations the penalty is more severe than others. Placing bolts in gritstone is the worst crime a climber can possibly commit, and is punishable by death.
Second Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Place Bolts Unless It Is In Slate
Bolts are sport climbing and therefore frowned upon. Unless the climb is on slate, in which case it is fine to place bolts. However, as few bolts as possible are to be placed, and not necessarily at places that would stop a climbing hitting the ground if they fell off. This is to ensure that the climbing is still ‘adventurous’, thus making it ‘still trad’.
Unless the person opening the route had decided to make it a sport climb, in which case as many bolts may be placed as are necessary to make the route safe.
Third Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Place Pegs at Belays for Convenience
Trad climbing is all about self-sufficiency and adventure – you’ve got to the top of the climb, but can you bring up your second safely? Sure, it might be easier and safer to do so if somebody had placed some discreet pegs to assist – but where’s the adventure in that?! Instead you should scratch around for 20 minutes to locate two marginal offset nut placements, then sit on them, hoping your partner isn’t fatter than you.
If pegs are placed merely for convenience, then trad ethics will be under threat. This is the slippery slope to sport climbing! And sport climbing is frowned upon. Upon discovery of belay pegs, the ethics violation must immediately be reported to the UKC forums (see: Rhoscolyn; Diabaig). The ethics police will immediately dispatch a contingent to remove said pegs ASAP (assuming it’s not more than a 45-minute drive and the pegs can be reached without any climbing harder that Severe).
Fourth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Place Pegs at Belays for Convenience Unless It’s In Order To Avoid a Really Rubbish Top Pitch
Belay pegs are the thin end of a wedge named sport climbing, and also a visual blight on the rock, and thus are not to be placed when any natural gear is available, no matter how questionable. The exception is when it would be really convenient to place pegs at the top of the first pitch of a classic route, the second pitch of which is rubbish and would be a pain in the bum to climb, and so everyone prefers to just quickly abseil off instead. (See: The Strand at Gogarth, and Original Route at High Tor.)
Whether there is a fundamental incoherence between the Third and Fourth Commandments is one of the great mysteries pondered on the UKC forums.
Fifth Commandment: Thou Shalt Leave No Trace
Unlike sport climbing (which is frowned upon), the trad climber aspires to leave no trace of his or her presence on the rock. Leaving nature as it was, communing with the environment in a peaceful symbiosis.
The exception to the leave no trace rule is that chalk may be used to aid ascents, and when abseil retreats are required, huge reams of old rope, tape, and slings may be piled up around boulders, flakes and (in particular) trees, to allow the trad climber to descend quickly. When climbing on chossy limestone without much natural protection, pegs may be placed – but only really far apart, and ideally they should be left for years at a time, and be in an indeterminate state of internal corrosion when the climber is forced to rely on them. This is to prevent a slide into sport climbing (which is etc. etc.) and more generally to keep up the spirit of adventure.
Sixth Commandment: Thou Shalt Declare That Gritstone is ‘God’s Own Rock’
It is mandatory for all UK trad climbers to insist that gritstone is the greatest rock in all the world. A 10-meter crack at Stanage is superior to the Salathé Wall in Yosemite, and anyone who disagrees clearly just hasn’t been out on The Grit on a crisp November morning.
As gritstone is actually very difficult, and often scary, to climb, some trad climbers secretly don’t like it. But they (rightly) keep this opinion to themselves because admitting to not liking gritstone is a sign of inexcusable weakness of character.
Seventh Commandment: Thou Shalt Declare that the UK Grading System is the Best in the World
All UK trad climbers must espouse the view that the trad grading system is the best and most versatile grading system in the world. Scorn shall be directed at those who think that the ‘E’ grades are a measure of pure seriousness and danger. Explaining what exactly an E grade denotes is beneath the trad climber, and any mumbling that happens to ensue is categorically not to be interpreted as a tacit confession of uncertainty.
All UK trad climbers know that grade conversion tables attempting to translate UK trad grades into e.g. French sport or American YSD grades are utterly misleading. However, it is funny to let foreigners and newbies think these tables are helpful.
Eighth Commandment: Thou Shalt Believe That Grades Don’t Matter But Also Grades Do Matter (A Lot)
Climbing is about having an adventure in nature and finding the beauty in moving freely over rock, trusting your own skills and being self-sufficient in a dangerous environment. A climbing grade is simply a rough indication of the challenge you can expect to face, and nothing more.
However it is of the utmost importance to debate the correct grade of any given route, and particularly of iconic routes, such as Three Pebble Slab and Dream of White Horses. UKC forums are the correct venue for such vital conversations.
Furthermore, it is essential to establish the hierarchy of which regions are ‘soft’ and which are ‘stiff’. Traditionally, Pembroke and Reiff are regarded as ‘soft touch’ and Northumberland and Dartmoor ‘stiff’. It is compulsory to pass judgement on such areas even if you have only ever climbed two VDiffs at one of them.
Ninth Commandment: Thou Shalt Put Safety First
Due to the fact trad climbing is dangerous, safety is the priority. In particular, that means you always wear your helmet at the crag (unlike those sport climbers). However, when you go to the local indoor wall, safety is not a priority because it’s indoors and nothing bad can happen there. Accordingly, resist the suggestion that it would be wise to use an assisted braking device – your regular old tube device is fine! You’ve never dropped anyone in thirty years of climbing!
You are a trad climber, and that means the only people you ever need to take advice from are a) other trad climbers who are b) older than you. Equally, you are entitled (some would say, required) to dispense unrequested advice to a) anyone who is not a trad climber and b) who is younger than you.
Tenth Commandment: Though Shalt Take Trad Climbing Incredibly Seriously and Anybody Who Pokes Fun At It Must Be Frowned Upon
The correct venue for this is the UKC Forums. You may shortly be able to find examples linking to here.
It could all be powered by commerce - just imagine what would happen to the sales of cams, chocks, double ropes etc !