Pre-clipping ethics

In the 8a Practice and Ethics in Sportclimbing, first published in 2002, we have suggested, in regards to pre-clipping quickdraws, that it is ok to have one pre-clipped if it is for safety reasons. In the old days, pre-clipping was not allowed, and originally you were even supposed to place the quickdraws on lead, which is still the case in trad climbing.

Over time, the ethics gradually changed, and at one point you could see top climbers starting redpoint attempts with the rope pre-clipped on 10+ quickdraws. The rationale for this was that you could pre-clip as high as from which you could downclimb. The climbers pushing this the most actually first redpointed the route from let's say the fourth quickdraw and later started projecting the down climb or even jumped down to claim that they were allowed to have multiple quickdraws pre-clipped.

Today, it is a common practice to use one pre-clipped. Two, or even three, pre-clipped quickdraws you sometimes see on relatively hard starts with bolts far apart and on climbs with bad landings. The 8a ethics suggest that this practice is an "ethical dilemma", but anyhow OK if it is done for safety reasons. In practice, we have labelled such ascents as a "yellow card" to not have any fixed rules but rather recommendations. When it comes to three or more pre-clipped, we have said that "normally" such ascent should be called top-roping and that down-climbing, in order to get more pre-clipped, is ridiculous.

However, the 8a ethics are not set in stone and it is up to each climber and community to practice them or set up new guidelines. There are of course many unique situations where the 8a ethics are not applicable. One example is if the FA did it in a special way, surely the repeaters could do it in the same style or improve it. Another example is if the bolter put up one extra bolt in very steep starts in order to increase the safety for the belayer to not get hit by a pendulum swing by the climber. In any case, when you are pushing the yellow card area making it slightly reddish you are best off describing your practised ethics.