Trade routes

What makes a route be considered a trade route or what is a trade route. I tried to look it up and haven’t had much luck finding a real answer.

Zack Ostendorf wrote: What makes a route be considered a trade route or what is a trade route. I tried to look it up and haven’t had much luck finding a real answer.

like in the age of exploration?

petzl logic wrote:

like in the age of exploration?

Close. They are named Trade routes in honor of Sir Francis Trade, who discovered and pioneered the rock formations.

It’s a pretty loose term, but if the chances that you are going to run into a camel train are greater than or equal to 50% you can safely assume that you are on a trade route

Popular routes, or the go-to route for an area.

Trad/Gear route as opposed to a bolted sport route. Traditional Gear. It is Traditional anytime you must use gear-cams and passive protection. I have never heard anyone refer to a bolted route as Traditional. But go ahead, because essentially sport routes can be over bolted where as if it is gear and bolts it could still be considered Traditional

Kellen Miller wrote: Trad/Gear route as opposed to a bolted sport route. Traditional Gear. It is Traditional anytime you must use gear-cams and passive protection. I have never heard anyone refer to a bolted route as Traditional. But go ahead, because essentially sport routes can be over bolted where as if it is gear and bolts it could still be considered Traditional

OP is asking about "Trade" routes, not "Trad" routes. Trade routes is a term that refers to heavily-trafficked routes, i.e. routes that havea line of parties at the base waiting for their turn to climb, or multipitch routes that frequently have multiple parties on them at the same time.

I'm not sure who coined the term, but I assume it's based on the the "trade routes" in the age of sail; sailing routes that tended to have favorable winds, and therefore had a significant amount of traffic.

Thank for the ones who gave legit answers. Makes sense seen the term thrown around but always felt to dumb to ask.

Easy/moderate, good movement, superior position....

Rewritten, Wind Ridge, Bastille Crack in Eldo
Double Cross & Dogleg in JTree
Corrugation Corner at Lover's Leap
After 6/7 in Yosemite (maybe Nutcracker too)
Durrance Route on Devils Tower

The list goes on. The way to tell if you are on a trade route it to look for polished holds. They only get polished if they see a lot of traffic. 

EDIT:  I don't think sport routes can be categorized as "Trade" routes.

At many areas, 20% of routes get 80% of the traffic. Or sometimes in more severe cases it is more like 10% of routes get 90% of the traffic. Those heavily trafficked routes...trade routes.

I hear the term usually applied to long multipitch routes, and especially so for big wall / aid routes. For instance, you would describe Spaceshot and Moonlight Buttress as Zion trade routes. I'm not sure I've ever heard the term applied to popular single pitch sport climbs.

Trade route = it's in the Supertopo book.

If:
-The ledges all smell like pee
-You see gear falling out of the sky
-The rock makes squeaking noises when you place your feet
It's probably a trade route

it's one you're allowed to swap with another one, provided the climber on the other route is willing to trade.

JCM wrote: At many areas, 20% of routes get 80% of the traffic. Or sometimes in more severe cases it is more like 10% of routes get 90% of the traffic. Those heavily trafficked routes...trade routes.

I hear the term usually applied to long multipitch routes, and especially so for big wall / aid routes. For instance, you would describe Spaceshot and Moonlight Buttress as Zion trade routes. I'm not sure I've ever heard the term applied to popular single pitch sport climbs.

This. To me it seems like 15 years ago it was in reference to wall routes. e.g. The Nose, The Salathe, Zodiac are trade routes on El Cap. But it has since come to mean popular multipitch routes that get a lot of traffic. In another 10 years it will probably apply to popular sport climbs.

This thread fell apart rather quickly even for MP

Kevin DeWeese wrote: This thread fell apart rather quickly even for MP

Maybe it could be combined with the sewing thread.

Glowering wrote:

Maybe it could be combined with the sewing thread.

This thread is much too thick for most of the sewing machines on that thread, best to wrap it up and ship it to Luke so he can frankenstein this thread into something worthwhile.