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rockclimbr
Nov 5, 2003, 10:25 PM
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Hey everyone...a few days ago a kid came up to me and asked, what are you going to do with your life? I responded with, I want to live out of a truck, and see every place in the world, and climb were I can. This got me wondering...what kind of lifestyles do most of you live?? Are the climbers out there more hippies or day job junkies who love to get away on the weekends...?
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rvega
Nov 5, 2003, 10:31 PM
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Registered: Jul 28, 2003
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Day job weekend warrior! :lol: But I dig my job, think I'd get bored without it.
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wc
Nov 5, 2003, 10:32 PM
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In reply to: I responded with, I want to live out of a truck, and see every place in the world, and climb were I can.
I used to want to do that. Then I found out that most of the people who do that are pretty fuked up. Sure you meet some really cool people but I would have to say that 80% of them are egotestical, immature, arrogant, wankers who reek of cigs, BO, and tuna....
Good luck.
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climbingbum
Nov 5, 2003, 10:34 PM
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Registered: Jun 17, 2003
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This time last year I was standing head deep in a dumpster looking for both food and cans. Right now i'm sitting in my office getting ready to meet with a millionaire client. Kinda funny how sh!t works out. I'm quite sure i'll return to my preferred style of living once I have accumulated enough :)....
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pdoidy
Nov 5, 2003, 10:46 PM
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How do I get one of these "Millionaire Clients"? Did you find yours in the dumpster? :)
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rockclimbr
Nov 5, 2003, 10:53 PM
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i didnt mean to be arrogant or anything...i would like to accumulate some cash and then hit the roads. and hey..Drugs are bad and tuna is nasty :)
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brutusofwyde
Nov 5, 2003, 11:16 PM
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Here at the Old Climbers' Home we call it "Retirement in Place"
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el_borracho_guapo
Nov 5, 2003, 11:38 PM
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You have a lifestyle? Lucky bastard. Most of us have to be satisfied with an attitude, aspire to a look at most. But a lifestyle...
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freudian
Nov 5, 2003, 11:52 PM
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My lifestyle...
I work 9-5 at my first real job after having graduated from college. I try to do my best at work to keep everyone happy and also to keep my job so that I can participate in the few but expensive activities I enjoy. During the summer, I rush from work to my local crag 45mins away plus a 30minute hike to the cliffs uphill about 2 times during the weekdays and then at least once but hopefully twice during the weekend I also hit the local crag.
In the winter, I hit the gym 3 times a week (its only open 3x a week) from 5pm-9pm. I live at home with my dad until I find a job that pays enough to support myself, a car and climbing.
That's some of my lifestyle.
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texansherpa
Nov 6, 2003, 12:04 AM
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i'm still 17, not old enough to go out camping on my own, nearest decent climbing is far away, so i live at the gym during the week and make ritual weekend pilgrimages out to the real thing. thats life for another year...
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organic
Nov 6, 2003, 12:21 AM
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Registered: Jul 16, 2003
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College student, work to pay for school and whatever little money left over I spend on my girlfriend and climbing gear/trips. I still have not figured out the point of school yet... Anyways wish i could just go someplace warm and climb and read books for about a month, then it would get boring and pointless but a month might be nice.
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neutralcypruss
Nov 6, 2003, 12:25 AM
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:D hey i am a heating tek during the day but climb at night in the gym and at the crags on the week ends die hard trad junkie hahahaha
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boulderqt
Nov 6, 2003, 12:26 AM
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I work go to school and in my free time i ride my horses and go climbing!
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scallywag
Nov 6, 2003, 12:43 AM
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Me? - i am not a Hippie and don't have a day job.
I graduated University two years ago, worked as a freelance outdoor instructor for two years, and now am 5 months into a 2 year travel plan that has so far taken me to 24 states, 12 of which i have climbed in. Actually, I have climbed on 32 days out of the past 62. And i am only 22. :D
i work at a summer camp in NH to earn my travel money, have a round the world ticket with 14 stops on it all paid for from my savings, and have friends in most places i go (due to summer camp connections) to give my self a base to find climbing partners from. So living is cheap and i get to see the best America has to offer by going climbing, which costs next to nothing, and i get to meet more great people.
Sounds like a great life, but it is not one i would ever wish to make permanent. i make the best of my time now, knowing that one day i will be a weary traveller that just wants my own home address and a bed that i am in long enough to feel used to.
There's a fine line between dreams and reality - so many people just never step across it. :wink:
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stevo
Nov 6, 2003, 12:43 AM
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I just quit my first real job after university. I couldn't handle the structure, work all week, climb on weekends. Go back to my concrete box with a view after work, check out my hand me down furniture and then head to the gym. Whatever, that life wasn't for me. So i got rid of my apartment, gave everything away i owned, well except my climbing gear and books, am living in my car and on peoples couches, ice climbing, alpine climbing and skiing is what i do with my time. Soon I am off to korea to make the world a monolingual society and save up some coin. With that I will come back and change my career.
Living in a car is ok, life is free, there is no structure. But it gets boring, waiting for my breath to thaw from the windows so i can see before i drive. Telling chicks at the bar that they are welcome back at my station wagon just doesn't work my friend. But whatever, sometimes they invite me to there place, yeah. So ok, maybe its fun.
I don't know what lifestyle it is, but it sure isn't hollywood.
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zachres
Nov 6, 2003, 12:45 AM
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Registered: Apr 25, 2003
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I too am a corporate ass-kisser/weekend warrior, and it sucks.
Ultimately, my wife and I are looking to have our own business, so I can pursue long-term climbing goals, and set my own schedule.
I've been asking around, though, about becoming a fire-fighter... Any fire fighters out there?
Is it possible to sustain a fire-fighting career, while occasionally taking 3 month climbing trips?
Zach
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pancaketom
Nov 6, 2003, 1:26 AM
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I am a climbing bum, I smell more of BO than anything else though.
One advantage of not having a place is that when it gets too cold, you head south. unfortunately I really want to send my project and it keeps snowing. luckily my years on the road have found me lots of friends including one who lives nearby and doesn't mind me crashing out in the gear room.
Definitely some people can't take it, but I have become fairly adept at doing nothing from time to time. Still, it would be nice to have a bed somewhere that I wanted to live, but 'til then as long as I can park my truck where I want to live, I'll live with the compromise.
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gatorclimber
Nov 6, 2003, 1:53 AM
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Registered: Oct 8, 2002
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I am a junior in college majoring in management. I choose that major mostly because I had to choose something, and I had no idea what I wanted to do. Now that I am almost finished with college and taking the upper level classes I am starting to realize that I am really going to hate that sort of job. I am just not the kind of person who enjoys following dress codes and grooming guidelines, who likes sharing ideas and socializing with others, who is concerned mainly with making a lot of money for a company and myself. I am more of a: alone in the woods with myself, the mountains, and maybe a dog kinda person. unfortunately my scholarship is good for 4 years and it is too late to start over again. I will graduate but probably won't get a job utilizing my degree. I can't be a "climbing bum". I feel that if a person lives in society and reaps the benefits of it, they owe society something in return. Face it, climbing is a selfish activity, focusing on ones personal pleasure rather than others. I wouldn't want to live like that. At the same time, I very strongly believe that life is about making others and yourself happy rather than the pursuit of money and material things (this may be because I don't come from a poverty level family). This in mind, this is my idea of what I want my "post-college/real life climbing lifestyle" to be like.
I would like to move someplace with access to both surf/beach and crags. probably somewhere in california. I would like to live in a small town (not too small) and get a job that lets me live comfortably and simply (15-20K). Something outdoors where I am using my body as well as my mind (unlike the past 15 years of constant school). Climbing at a gym 2-3 days during the week after work, and trips to great climbing places like Bishop, or Yosemite on the weekends. I wouldn't mind living in a trailer park situation if it meant I would not be a slave to my job. Most of the weekend off, no big debts looming over my head, good simple living. I would definitely want to live in the country. All my life I have lived in big cities and I am REALLY ready for a change of scenery. unfortunately this utopia will most likely just be a dream, and not reality.
Sorry for the long post but this has been on my mind now for some time and climbers in general seem to understand where I'm coming from better than most others.
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millie4690
Nov 6, 2003, 2:13 AM
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Registered: Sep 29, 2002
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Here's what I'm up to right now: I work 7-5-ish, my job is totally flexible and everyone I work with knows that if I have an opportunity for climbing, drumming, or anything else that sounds like fun, as long as the work is done I will go participate in said fun activity. I usually climb 3 times a week, once at a local gym, one night on my hang board (pseudo-climbing) and on non-trip weekends, I drive about two hours to another gym to climb with my friends. I lift 2-3 times a week, knit quite a bit while enjoying fine wine and not so fine tele. My job is a good one, I'm a co-op, but work pretty much full time. I have my own office, and while I do have a boss, I pretty much run the lab I work in. I'm preparing to leave this job to either work at a climbing gym or to go work a seasonal job at a ski resort. I just got back from a month on the road, where I lived out of my car, tent, and at rare times other peoples couches. Granted, it was only a month, but it was the best time of my life. I have honestly never been happier than when I was able to go and be and do what ever I wanted. I can not wait for the day that I have a dependable vehicle that is more condusive to sleeping passangers, a few bucks saved up and a new destination.
I have and always will believe that the sole purpose of living is to enjoy as much as possible. As long as a person maintains her/his integrity, is happy and is not adversely affecting the happiness or well being of anyone else, rock on my friends. If living in a car and being a climbing/ski/whatever bum is what makes you happy, live it up. If working 9-5 and being a weekend warrior is what gives you pleasure, you can have my cubicle space. If standing on your head from sun up to sun down makes you as happy as you can be, you have some crazy plumbing going on to allow that to happen, but enjoy yourself. My point: do what you love, and you can't help but love what you do. If people give you grief, show them how happy you are and can be.
I now relinquish the soap box. Thank you.
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arkansasclimber
Nov 6, 2003, 3:32 AM
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Registered: Sep 23, 2003
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I have get to go to school 5 days a week but still climb gymn or outside 3 or 4 times a week. i have a friend who frequently would go on long road trips and lived out of his volvo.
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alpinerockfiend
Nov 6, 2003, 4:45 AM
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Registered: Feb 3, 2003
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I go to school part time at Montana State University in Bozeman. I guess I'm a full-time student (acording to the number of credits I'm taking), but I scheduled classes til only 11 every day... so all my afternoons I'm free to climb. Climbed rock until last week and now I've made the transformation to ice. My parents seem to be financing a very expensive vacation right now, and sometimes I'm overridden with an unshakable sense of guilt, but then I go climbing and those feelings are forgotten :). In all seriousness, I think that I'm getting a world-class education while getting to climb world-class ice and psuedo-world-class rock. I've been here for 67 days, climbed outside 56 of them, and managed to ascend 112 new rock and ice routes. I guess that's a lifestyle....
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jookyhead
Nov 6, 2003, 4:46 AM
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Registered: Jun 2, 2003
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Broke teenage high school student. Nuff said.
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lunchbox
Nov 6, 2003, 1:49 PM
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Registered: Feb 9, 2003
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Great question, its interesting most of the people I meet in the Arizona Mountaineering club (AMC) are weekend warriors like myself. We leave Fri. night right after work for some climbing destination. Tahquitz is 4 1/2 hours away, Indiand Creek is 6+ hours... climb Sat. Sun. , zoom back late Sunday night in time to get a few hours of sleep before Monday starts it all over again. I like my job I get flex time which means I can tack a day or two onto my weekend adventure When ever the I'm getting a little squirrelly. Thanks to the AMC for providing an outlet, for teaching me how to ascend and descend safely, taking me to the best crags in Az, S. CA, NM, Utah and Colorado. Life is a highway.
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gblauer
Moderator
Nov 6, 2003, 2:08 PM
Post #24 of 33
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Registered: Oct 4, 2002
Posts: 2824
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exec by day, warrior by night (and weekend). If I could do it all over again, I would be a climbing urchin. Too late now. Next life.
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gat
Nov 6, 2003, 5:50 PM
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Registered: Oct 3, 2003
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Now:
I work 8-5, have a wife and two children - the oldest turned 4 yesterday. I commute to work (26 mi roundtrip), so I get to ride 5 days a wk. Built a pretty decent indoor wall at home that I use a couple times a wk. Time only permits a couple 3 day road trips to Seneca pr year. I get out once a wk after work whatever activity we happen to choose. Also, I get out every Sunday morning for a few hours of whatever I feel like.
Future lifestyle goal:
Our savings will allow us to purchase a cozy place in a cool mountain town. We will move into it full-time when both kids graduate highschool, about 17 years from now. Financially, we work part-time jobs for spending money. Climb/bike/ski constantly.
It's basically the reverse of what I see others do - they work little and play a lot, then they get jobs and play less and less as the years go on.
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