UKH

Inspired by the stick clipping thread. What are views on pads Vs top ropes. I am thinking about distant highball boulders where carrying pads is a real ball ache.

So consider these bounding cases,6 climbers walk in each carrying 2 pads and spot each other on the tall boulder with the high crux Vs a pair of Climbers working on a top rope then climbing on a slack rope.

Rights and wrongs?

How many pads and spotters equal a rope?

I read an interesting opinion piece in [Rock and Ice] a couple of years ago on this topic, albeit from a different angle. The argument was that in areas with plant life, particularly rare plant life, throwing pads down could have a much greater impact that projecting on a top rope. And thus both should be considered depending on the situation. 

I don't think there's an answer to this.

Nothing wrong with setting up a top rope in my view.

Do what you need to feel comfortable and have fun.

Just be aware of who else is around so you're not hogging it.

I think one of the important aspects of the highball bouldering experience is the fall risk, regardless of how well you pad it out big airtime is risky and emotional. A top rope removes this risk entirely so changes the experience.

No reasonable amount of pads equates to a toprope.

If a top boulderer climbed a highball V13 with 2 pads instead of 6 I don't think that would be reported as any more of an achievement. a footnote maybe. 

Maybe you could reintroduce that risk element to the top roping by using an old washing line rather than a proper climbing rope. I'd equate one washing line with 2 pads and a spotter, extra Kudos if you can claim you "borrowed" it from either your mum or at least someone else's mum.

This method has historical precedent

The consequences of this historical precedent have nothing to do with your choice of username, I'm guessing...?

Probably true but we haven't considered stipulating that the top rope be only active when the halfway point is reached, or that only your reefer freak non climbing best mate is allowed to belay.

Who's having fun?

The top rope pics won't make the mags/blogs but who gives a toss.

Jk

To me highballing, is soloing a climbing route.

Once you get over a perceived height of what is considered a boulder you are entering the classification of climbing.

Its like what's the difference between a shrub and a tree. A shrub does not grow higher than six meters.

Maybe we should have a demarcation line of when a boulder becomes a rock face in height rather than volume.

It’s an interesting question, and something that, as a boulderer, I’ve occasionally thought about. If bouldering was just about making the hardest moves in relative safety it wouldn’t really matter…. But bouldering, like the other games is about more than that. The Alliance (f7A). Easy moves but above a backbreaking fall if you get it wrong. West Side Story (f7B+) Hard moves into an easy but high topout. Practice on a top rope by all means, but you didn’t get the ‘true’ bouldering experience of climbing that specific problem/route as it has been experienced for decades if you climb it on a rope. The risk is part of it. Then again, look at video of Jerry climbing it above a beer towel decades ago and you’re definitely having a different experience doing it above your four pads…. So back to square one I guess. Do what though wilt. But if head game is part of the tick then you need to engage it on that level. How deep you want to go is up to you. Again there’s a difference between on your own with one pad that’s in the wrong place when you top out on something…, and six pads, two spotters… etc. I think there’s a difference in respect I’d give to those, but if you top out the problem then they both ‘cross the finish line’ as far as I’m concerned. In the same way that Alex Honnold and various others have free climbed Freerider…… they all count, but we think about his ascent differently. That’s all. 
man, I need to get to bed. 

I saw a video with Jonny Dawes in and he said the future of trad climbing was loose top ropes as all the other hard problems had been done.  I think he might have been referring to the grit. 

I agree with those comments.

I find it difficult to see much of a difference between a loose top rope and a stack of mats with a large team of spotters.

A short rope certainly makes getting to distant boulders easier.

No, it's my general ineptitude. Unfortunately I have no great story to excuse my scrabbling and flailing