I like trad because I can be honest with myself. It is like a mirror where you see your default and quality. Minimizing the risk is a chess game for me and trying harder and harder thing just for the pleasure of being proud of what we can accomplished without competition is relaxing. climbing trad with a partner just to go to the summit with all our skill and stress, laught and critic, without telling to any one what we did.

You missed the option: Because i live in England and they think using bolts is for pussys = everybody has little to no choice and must risk their life to send hard in trad.

you left out "i have onsighted 12c sport, but the hardest 5.10 i ever climbed was a 5.8 at the gunks".

I didn't like trad climbing when I first started so I stuck to sport climbing for 10 years. Then I got bored and I wanted to be a more well rounded climber so I started going out to the Creek with a buddy. Now I enjoy both types of climbing.

Because I know that every time I place a slung hex in a 20 foot 5.4 gully in Pennsylvania, I AM the next logical step in a tradition of boldness paved by Roman gladiators, long-distance Polynesian fishermen, Christian martyrs, Vinland Vikings, Spanish conquistadors, Lakota coup counters, and Japanese kamikaze pilots.

Because I know that every time I place a slung hex in a 20 foot 5.4 gully in Pennsylvania, I AM the next logical step in a tradition of boldness paved by Roman gladiators, long-distance Polynesian fishermen, Christian martyrs, Vinland Vikings, Spanish conquistadors, Lakota coup counters, and Japanese kamikaze pilots.

also, i can practically hear everyone in here masturbating

Like cows pulling their hooves out of mud?
5.4 with hexes is serious stuff dude

leading .10 sport is something most beginners do their first day out.

In 20 years of being outside at least twice a month, i have never seen this.

...and by this logic a bolted crack would be the 'coolest' thing to do. a few at jacks come to mind, and yes, they are cool.

does IC really count as trad climbing? it's not like you have to think to place teh gearz there....

also, i can practically hear everyone in here masturbating.

In 20 years of being outside at least twice a month, i have never seen this.

to me, 'cool' involves low stress, so a scary trad climb might be fulfilling on some level, but not by it's nature 'cool'

... so, a bolted crack would be the 'coolest' thing to do. a few at jacks come to mind, and yes, they are cool.

You need an option for, when I started climbing it was just climbing.

Whether roped or not, clipping bolts of placing gear, it's just climbing.

I like trad because leading .10 trad is still kind of cool, while leading .10 sport is something most beginners do their first day out.

Really? I've seen a handful of people come out to a sport crag after a year or two in the gym and do a 10 their first day.