The next Peak (and Yorkshire, as Bubba says) guide really does need to weed out all these bullshit rules. I don't mind 'Traverse the wall below the break', or 'The wall left of the crack' , or 'can be done as a harder eliminate if you avoid the large foot block on the left'.
but eliminating individual holds is strictly a game for locals and these type of problems should not make it into a guide.
Very occasionally an eliminate dyno, or classic historical eliminate justifies a description, but this rule should be bent sparingly.
Maybe an online topo is the best place for these sort of things, or maybe we should just do what we've always done; ask the shifty looking local if he's got any 'special' variations to show the visitors. He can then lead us casually (like lambs to the slaughter) around his desperate circuit of ego crushing test pieces.
I remember years ago being told that I hadn't done Powerband because my arms are long enough to reach across to the pocket on the pillar at the end (still pretty hard though), thus avoiding the crux drop down.
And then there's Jerry's Traverse at the Plantation, where you are supposed to avoid the finger jug on the left at the end. Obviously this is a great problem, but the finish should be described as a harder eliminate option.
I find it hard to get psyched about doing eliminates, because it feels like I'm wasting skin and power on something that doesn't really matter. Sure it can be fun messing about with a group of mates at a crag where you've done everything you can, but I'm always thinking about that 'pure line' just across the way that I haven't quite done yet.
Whatever happened to the 'line of least resistance' as a climbing concept?
