g wrote:The Knife Edge is class 3 (or class 2 for tight-ropers), which is very easy climbing (scrambling, actually). Class 4 is easy climbing. There you have it. Totally clinical and objective, just like letter grades in school. Now where it gets subjective is how much somebody is freaked out by exposure, which may or may not be an irrational mental disorder like acrophobia. So, guide books usually note exposure. Much more challenging climbing can be found at the local elementary playground than on the Knife Edge, but on the latter the consequences are infinitely more severe, for those that aren't paying attention to what they're doing. Has anybody ever actually ever fallen off The Knife Edge? I don't think I've ever heard of it, though there have definitely been accidents before and after it.
August 9, 1992
Ronald Palmer, 55 years old, from Santa Fe fell a fatal 1,000 down the West Face while traversing the Knife Edge.
