without some sort of star rating this climber may find it difficult to decide where to go. maybe just a ‘one day only, best the lake offers’ notation would be useful.

Anywho, as to my comments on this guidebook, I like the fact that there are no star ratings. No one telling me what’s good and what’s bad. Nobody’s OPINION fucking with my perception (or assumption) of the route. I’ve been on 4-star routes that have sucked ass and one of the best trad routes I’ve ever climbed was a 3-star route. Even if someone says, “just ignore the stars and climb”, you’re still affected somehow.

To make a reductio ad absurdum, it’s like a sport climber who just bolted a perfectly protectable (is that a word? I’m God; I should know) and saying, “well, you don’t have to clip the bolts if you want to trad it.” It’s a bad argument because now, there’s a voice inside the back of your head telling you that there’s always the option to clipping a bolt if a big/bad fall might happen. It kinda changes the mind game. Uh-oh. Did I just start a sport v. trad war? Hehe.