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Comment by tomn | Hacker News Reader

> weight your equipment

They mean the act of putting your weight on your equipment. If you're climbing up by pulling on the rock, and resting on ledges, that's fine, but taking a rest by sitting back in your harness, or pulling on the rope to gain height is not.

Climbing is an one of the more logical sports, but like all sports, arbitrary rules have to be set if you want to accurately compare achievements between two people. It's just a way to make sure everyone knows what you mean when you say you've 'done' a route.

That said, I recommend ignoring this aspect of climbing -- fulfilling personal goals is a lot more rewarding for everyone than trying to compare yourself to others.

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Very interesting indeed.

I would have never thought that the action of resting your own weigh in different surfaces would mean different things. Also, I'm sure there's a historical reason for that (whatever that may be), since even arbitrary rules as they may be, have to start somewhere, and it would be interesting to see where this one came from

I also agree that ignoring those rules and achieve personal fulfillment is more important. Nonetheless it's funny how different sports' rules compare to each other, i.e. "you can't rest your weigh on your equipment" vs "you can't touch the ball with your hands" or "you have to run to this mound first, and then this one, and then this one"

I think it's just a logical and clear place to set a benchmark -- you can use as much safety equipment as you like to keep yourself safe, as long as you don't use it to help you to get to the top.

Historically, climbing safety equipment was very basic compared to what is used today -- a rope tied around your waist held by your mate at the bottom of the pitch might stop you tumbling down the mountain, but you don't really want to find out.

In the UK, climbing culture is pretty conservative compared to other places (there's very little sport climbing here), so the (extremely sensible) attitude that your safety gear is for accidents not for helping you climb harder routes is quite prevalent.

You have to draw a line somewhere, or else someone will just find some way to ride a trolley to the top. As long as you're climbing for sport, you need some rules, and if you're not climbing for sport, a trolley should be preferable.

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