Knee pad ethics and grades by Ondra

Adam Ondra has written a long article in regards knee pad ethics. (c) Pierre Delas

As always, he shares some well-written thoughts. In general, he is positive as it would otherwise be hard to draw the line what should be allowed when it comes to jeans or other textiles etc. The only questionable knee pad situation he points out are on routes like Hubble as FA Ben Moon was not aware of the technology in 1990. Here are two other interesting grading thoughts from Adam.

"It is true, unfortunately, that the kneepads might make the grading a little more inconsistent. While some kneebars might be impossible for people of short size, there might be the opposite problem as well."

"I believe professional climbers should try to reflect these facts (kneepad when it wasn’t used for the FA, new beta and others) into the grading even though they only repeat the routes and should not just take the guidebook grade for granted."