I boulder because it gets straight down to the dirty hard moves. I also sport climb, and do almost any other outdoor activity. Bouldering is also a good social function for me, I can get friends involved without them having to buy gear or have any experience.
Your poll misses the most important reason to boulder:
There is no better way to improve your ability to climb roped then bouldering. You get to work out every possible move right off the ground and concentrate on technique. When you're off the deck on a rope you have to contend with a variety of things that make working a move or sequence much more difficult than right off the ground.
There is not an either or of bouldering vs roped climbing (though some people specialized) Roped climbing is merely multilple boulder sequences linked together over longer terrain, with the additional effort required to protect the climb with a rope and often times additional risks and dangers.
Because I am a trad climber who understands that each discipline of climbing has its own emphasis that makes me a more rounded climber.
Bouldering provides training in maximal contractions for short periods such as may be found at the crux of a hard route.
Trad climbing is often about expending only just enough strength to stay on the rock - spending a lot of time trying not to pull hard (fingers, hands, arms, legs, core)
But getting into this frame of mind and forgetting about pulling super-hard at a crux can result in self-talk resulting in not giving it a shot due to lack of confidence in strength.
Bouldering allows working a type of move repeatedly to learn a new engram with good form due to not being tired from continually having to climb back to the move - really important for skill acquisition.
Finally, it also provides opportunities to go for long or desperate moves in which a fall is likely and through exposure to repeated falls and successes on limit moves increase confidence in sticking those moves which, on trad, may be quite thought provoking and result in tightening up right at the crucial moment.
it's closest to my house, plus i enjoy routinely burning off sport/trad climbing elitists on their projects when i warm up.
Really? Try following Dave Macleod for a day...
Ha ha!
Yeah, cuz Dave never boulders and is super elitist about sport/trad. *reading comprehension facepalm*
My bad, I think I read "elitist" as "elite" - big difference :)
*repeats facepalm*
Easily done. Actually since Dave MacLeod was the example you gave, the "incident" leaves you with an overall +ve change in my opinion of you. Not that my opinion of anything is worth a shit, but whatever ^^
Because I am a trad climber who understands that each discipline of climbing has its own emphasis that makes me a more rounded climber.
Bouldering provides training in maximal contractions for short periods such as may be found at the crux of a hard route.
Trad climbing is often about expending only just enough strength to stay on the rock - spending a lot of time trying not to pull hard (fingers, hands, arms, legs, core)
But getting into this frame of mind and forgetting about pulling super-hard at a crux can result in self-talk resulting in not giving it a shot due to lack of confidence in strength.
Bouldering allows working a type of move repeatedly to learn a new engram with good form due to not being tired from continually having to climb back to the move - really important for skill acquisition.
Finally, it also provides opportunities to go for long or desperate moves in which a fall is likely and through exposure to repeated falls and successes on limit moves increase confidence in sticking those moves which, on trad, may be quite thought provoking and result in tightening up right at the crucial moment.
If so, how? Your no help to anyone by saying that.
-bouldering is not safer than roped climbing -being "afraid of heights" is very relative. what's scarier: a sketchy 13 foot tall boulder topout with a bad landing or a 6 foot sport climbig fall at 50 feet up?
If so, how? Your no help to anyone by saying that.
-bouldering is not safer than roped climbing -being "afraid of heights" is very relative. what's scarier: a sketchy 13 foot tall boulder topout with a bad landing or a 6 foot sport climbig fall at 50 feet up?
Being that I'm afraid of heights, a 13 foot fall onto bad talus is less terrifying than a 6 foot sport climbing fall. I think what you're describing is fear of injury.
If so, how? Your no help to anyone by saying that.
-bouldering is not safer than roped climbing -being "afraid of heights" is very relative. what's scarier: a sketchy 13 foot tall boulder topout with a bad landing or a 6 foot sport climbig fall at 50 feet up?
Being that I'm afraid of heights, a 13 foot fall onto bad talus is less terrifying than a 6 foot sport climbing fall. I think what you're describing is fear of injury.
Im fairly new to climbing but it seems to me that bouldering is a lot more dangerous than climbing.
It also seems that bouldering lures people into a false sense of security.. "oh Im only bouldering, so climbing this high ball with no protection whatsover is perfectly safe.. that pad will catch my fall :-)"
Hell half the time those mats seem worse than hitting the dirt and do nothing but mash ankles.
I love bouldering.. its challenging, it forces me to learn technique and it greatly improves my climbing. But I cant imagine anyone doing it because its safer.. course Im a complete fucking noob so I could be doing all this shit wrong anyways LOL.
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