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truffalatree
Dec 3, 2004, 7:07 PM
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Christina, Tim - I give you guys much praise for being able to say it like you feel. I mean in reality... it's about passion -no? for me. it's passion. that's my goal in life - i want to find passion. I happen to find it when I'm high up off the ground, looking out and seeing fifteen foot trees that look like they belong in my cousin's lego set, feeling the wind blow like it only blows on a belay ledge, smiling while my insides are shaking, looking up at the next pitch with my veins pumping and my legs twitching... that's my passion. I don't feel it indoors. I don't feel it when i'm climbing on plastic. But who cares! that's me... not anyone else. I say that if you can find passion on little molds that are screwed into a mold - do it... or better yet if those little holds help you to get higher, to do higher climbs, better lines, tougher cracks... do it... find your passion and follow it - don't care what other people think - they can't get your blood going the way a good crack, or bolted line, or tough V8 or indoor 5.12 does... they just can't. I understand where you all are coming from. It's easy to think that what we do, how we do it is the best way - the truest way - the real way. But how can you honestly knock how other people get off... it doesn't make them less of a person, nor does it make them less of a climber. it just doesn't make them you and there's nothing wrong with that.
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allan_thomson
Dec 3, 2004, 8:09 PM
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Over here, we don't have any gyms, or sports climbs. Therefore the only ethic is trad (UK Ethics), and I've found because of learning outdoors, I didn't have any problems which many gym climbers have of getting outdoors and leading trad. That said I do sometimes wish there was indoor gyms over here so I could train, but when I've used them across, I've found them unsatisfying souless experiences, uncomparable to Trad outdoors. I don't think bolt clipping outdoors would hold much joy for me either, and I personally think the idea of low grade sports climbs is ridiculous - sports climbing should take over where trad leaves off - in producing routes which would be impossible to lead trad style. (That said there is a debate about where exactly it becomes unsafe to lead trad, and is there a case for bolting climbs which could be lead by cutting edge trad climbers, but not by the majority of them. The other comment, often used is "You have a choice not to clip a bolt" - maybe this is true, but if a whole generation grows up clipping bolts, they are unlikely to stop doing so, and will have problems trad leading. Certainly I do think to a certain extent, gym climbing does stifle, outdoor trad climbing, but it does encourage more people to climb. I think Trad should be the preferred style of ascent, as it makes less of a permanent impact on the landscape (now here comes the old erosion arguement re placements - what about the increased erosion from route use by sports climbers?), but then I would say that, being a dyed in the woll traddie wouldn't I?
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numbnut
Dec 3, 2004, 8:55 PM
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Back to the original topic. It sounds like your frustrated with a personality type not with the effect gym climbing has on the sport. Lotta great climbers stay fit climbing in the gym and then can go get it done outside on gear. :D
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allan_thomson
Dec 3, 2004, 9:00 PM
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Fair enough, but some seem to see a barrier between getting outdoors, and then from then to placing their own gear. The only barrier I had to overcome was feeling confident in my own placements. If I'd had the barrier of getting outdoors, and getting into trad, then I think I'd be a lot less further down the road than I am now.
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photon
Dec 3, 2004, 9:30 PM
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you know what really chaps my ass, people who think the way they view climbing is the way everyone should view climbing.
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jakedatc
Dec 3, 2004, 9:32 PM
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In reply to: I personally think the idea of low grade sports climbs is ridiculous - sports climbing should take over where trad leaves off - in producing routes which would be impossible to lead trad style. I think you have a very narrow view of the different types of rock around the world.. sure maybe all the rock in England can be protected trad.. but there is rock that is either too soft, formed differently etc that does not lend itself to safe trad placements.. there are even trad climbs that do not protect well enough for trad gear so they have bolts placed to make it safe
In reply to: now here comes the old erosion arguement re placements - what about the increased erosion from route use by sports climbers? Sport climbing will not cause more errosion than trad climbing.. how you would think that is beyond me. last time i checked the hands and shoes of trad climbers and sport climbers are about the same :sigh: people need to broaden their outlook and see what else there is to climb
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cgailey
Dec 3, 2004, 9:59 PM
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I view climbing like I view snowboarding. I started riding in 1988...well before the majority of the world knew what a snowboard was. I endured ridicule for years from my peers, as I chose to go down my own path and not to conform to what was "cool" (which happened to be skiing). I found myself laughing a few years later, in the mid 90's, when the first big snowboarding boom hit and all of the same people who made fun of me because of my passion for a less than popular sport started to ask me about it and treated me in a completely different light. What was the difference you ask? Snowboarding, like any other obscure sport, was becoming popular. It was all over MTV, and the punk rock "skiers suck" attitude prevailed among the posers and gapers. Did this chap my hide...you bet. The sport I loved was becoming "popular"! Did it really change much for me? You bet! Snowboarding technology improved leaps and bounds and it became a booming business for my family. It also created problems like area closures to snowboarders and a general dislike by those with two pieces of wood on their feet. I would dare to say that Climbing, albeit a much more established and older sport, has experienced the same type of attention. It's the "cool" thing to do, and you will be thought of as much more "extreme" if you participate. The unfortunate thing about this type of attention is that you get the same gapers and posers who have all the money and none of the true passion jumping in and "ruining" the sport. So what do we do about it? Relax and let it go. Your angst about the retards in this world who are into the next hip thing will by no means change anything other than your blood pressure. Is their presence going to ruin part of the experience? You bet! We all know about the access issues and grid bolting, retro bolting, and overall lack of ethics demonstrated by those who are lacking a clue. This is bound to cause issues for the rest of us, but all we can do is sit back and watch, and hopefully lead by example.
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akicebum
Dec 4, 2004, 5:01 AM
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My issue with gyms I guess has to do with grading. This is a valid point. There is a lot of attitude and posturing that goes on in the gym and I could care less. I can climb just as hard and often times harder than anyone else in the gym, but I don't have a posse of climbers that I sit around and talk crap about the other climbers that are there. That element is starting to show up and it is irritating. These guys climb hard inside and talk big but shrivel up on real rock. I want someone who boasts that they can climb 13 inside to go to Yosemite and hit up a classic 9 chimney or a 10 offwidth. I am humble because I have been humbled. I don't pretend to be some ethical madman, but I am tired of these gym born climbers running their mouths 24/7 then no backing any of it up. I could care less what you "call" yourself, I climb because I like it. I climb sport, I climb in the gym, I boulder, I climb ice, I climb mixed, I climb alpine, I climb at altitude, I climb buildings, and I could care less what you want out of climbing. If you need a partner hit me up, I am not the pompous a$$hole I probably sound like. But if you start talking a bunch of crap about how tough you are, and I go out climbing with you and you ruin my day because you want to play climber I will be extremely pissed. If you just want to hang out and pump routes in the gym its cool I do that. But don't think that because you are tough sh*t in the gym that it means you are the same out doors. If you simply want to go and work easier routes I am down for that as well I like helping people out, just don't lie to me. It pisses me off.
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tattooed_climber
Dec 4, 2004, 6:28 AM
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In reply to: I climb with a good group of guys, and this dude showed up and started climbing with us a couple of months ago. Strong sport climber, big shiny trad rack and an absolute refusal to use. Around here we don't really have any beta for routes, it is pretty much just adventure climbing. This guy is an overly experienced climber, that is too chickensh*t to try anything interesting. This has made me start looking at climbing as a whole. I am now convinced that gym climbing has torn the heart of climbing. What happened to climbing for the adventure, the rush of the unknown. On every piece of equipment we buy it says "climbing is inherently dangerous." Danger is adventure, adventure is why we climb. I have made a point of taking newbies trad climbing before sport climbing so they can feel the difference in freedom. To me it is mind altering. I just thought I would vent for a moment. Let me know if any of you have experience this phenomena. i'm with ya on that!!!!!!! as a whole, i TOTALLY skipped sport!....seconding and leading!....went right into trad....after seconding trad for a while, i seconded sport=yawn and after leading trad (still learning, then again we ALL are always learning something) i lead sport=meh sport is a total focus on climbing....but trad is physical (like sport) as well as mental (worry about safety/pro/etc)....besides, its way cooler...trad with the ability to do some aid; that makes you have no limits......that whats cool.... no worrying about bolts...
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clausti
Dec 4, 2004, 6:50 AM
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edit: delete.
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glyrocks
Dec 4, 2004, 8:38 AM
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jakedatc- i wasn't trying to discount types of climbing for other people. I said quite specifically for me, gym climbing isn't really climbing and would destroy the heart of climbing for me. Maybe I wasn't specific enough, but I never said I have a problem with other people who do it. I should have just left that second paragraph out anyway, I guess I got carried away with rhetoric. Those are the reasons I started climbing sport routes. I spent this afternoon clipping bolts and will probably boulder tomorrow; but for me, it's just training for the real stuff now that I know what that is. who gives a shit what we think anyway
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cliffmonkey2003
Dec 4, 2004, 8:50 AM
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No, but does lip balm work for it? A friend of mine wants to know.
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timstich
Dec 4, 2004, 2:30 PM
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In reply to: The desire to be an all-arounder, to be competent, is as old as the hills and certainly as old as the sport... And becoming an all-arounder takes years just to get yourself out onto different stone. But the real secret is to become an all-arounder before you get all round. Ha ha ha! After that, you have to restrict yourself to alpine. I still can't believe anyone seriously limits themselves to just one discipline of climbing, be it trad, bouldering, or sport, especially when they live in an area that offers a ton of options. That's like only eating sushi every day. Crazy talk! What of the blue cheese burgers?
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allan_thomson
Dec 4, 2004, 4:36 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: I personally think the idea of low grade sports climbs is ridiculous - sports climbing should take over where trad leaves off - in producing routes which would be impossible to lead trad style. "I think you have a very narrow view of the different types of rock around the world.. sure maybe all the rock in England can be protected trad.. but there is rock that is either too soft, formed differently etc that does not lend itself to safe trad placements.. there are even trad climbs that do not protect well enough for trad gear so they have bolts placed to make it safe" Rather missing the point in my statement about producing routes which would be impossible to lead trad style aren't you. Think a little more about what people are saying. We do have Sandstone (which isn't deemed necessary to be bolted either) as well as Slate, Limestone and Basalt over here. Quite a lot of rock types in an Island 39 miles by 10 wouldn't you agree? I've also climbed on Gritstone in the UK, and on Plastic. BTW I'm not in England. You have to get out of your head this American notion that everywhere in the British Isles is England. I actually live on an Island in the Irish sea, called the Isle of Man, which had its own government, laws, etc, but shares a common head of state with the UK (The Queen - the Lord of Man). The UK itself consists of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. So stop refering to England when you're talking about the British Isles.
In reply to: In reply to: now here comes the old erosion arguement re placements - what about the increased erosion from route use by sports climbers? ":Sport climbing will not cause more errosion than trad climbing.. how you would think that is beyond me. last time i checked the hands and shoes of trad climbers and sport climbers are about the same sigh: people need to broaden their outlook and see what else there is to climb" Wrong - sports climbing encourages greater traffic, + redpointing so therefore the erosion is much greater than a purely trad route + ethics. A lot more people feel able to climb on sports climbs (basically cos generally they've got these ideas into their heads that it's safer to climb on bolts than not. So the erosion arguement is valid. There may not be any difference in the hands and feet of Trad and sports climbers, but there is a difference in the amounts of people who climb sports and Trad. Plus Trad encourages a pure onsight ethic, whereas sports encourages greater numbers of punters to start scrabbling around slipping, and trying again numerous times all of which increases the wear on the rock. Question is, if you only feel safe climbing on bolts all the time, are unprepared to take the rock as it is, and not placing gear, then really you should be considering whether you should have left the gym? Point Taken?
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napoleon_in_rags
Dec 4, 2004, 6:09 PM
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Before I start, let me say this about myself. I am proud that I trad lead a 5.7 to 5.8, Sport lead a 5.9, and follow a 5.10. Just because you lead a 5.12c doesn't mean you have a bigger c##k. In fact, you brag about it as much as some of the people on this post probably means you are compensating for a small one. I break climbing into two parts: 1) The Physical Part, the pure art of moving yourself up a wall. In this I think Sport and Trad are the same, with the Gym and Bouldering being lower because of the difficulty of developing endurance. Bouldering in some ways is more pure; it's concentrated climbing for just a few moves. 2) The science of climbing, a science of knots and building anchors and hardware and evaluating your placements. In this Trad trumps all. How many critical, life effecting decisions do you have to make on a single Pitch? How many sport/ gym climber and boulderers could not properly tie off to an anchor using a clovehitch with a gun placed against their head? Or do something more important like escaping a belay and rescuing an incapacitated climber. To misquote Frank Herbert "The aim of all technology is to increase the number of things we can do without thinking. That's the real danger: doing things without thinking." For the record, I Sport Climb and Boulder and go to my local gym. But I do it to prepare myself for Trad.
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akicebum
Dec 4, 2004, 8:09 PM
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Holy hell this is a touchy subject. I climb in a gym, I climb a lot of sport, I am not saying that people suck for doing so. These are generally the only places where I have found this contingent. Alan Watts made Smith into an even better climbing area than it already was by bolting sport climbs. Look at Rifle, American Fork, Ceuse, these are all classic climbing areas, and yes all sport. I train in a gym, I pull more plastic than I do real rock because it rains 300 days a year here. I am in no way bashing all people that choose to climb sport or indoor. My issue is with people lying. You put a lot of trust in a person when you let them belay you for a first time, or when you follow their lead. You trust that they will catch a fall and set up a good anchor. On a less dramatic note, when you have time to go climbing you want to actually climb. This is my issue I hope that it is clear. After 4 posts it is not, do not rope up and lay off the wacky-tabaky for a day or two.
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jakedatc
Dec 5, 2004, 2:36 AM
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sorry.. the island you live on.. still there are rock types around the world that DO NOT take trad gear safely errosion of the rock due to working a route as opposed to everyone onsiting it (which if it's a harder trad route then people will have to work and fall off it) .. is a valid reason for everything to be trad
In reply to: Question is, if you only feel safe climbing on bolts all the time, are unprepared to take the rock as it is, and not placing gear, then really you should be considering whether you should have left the gym? Point Taken? I've led trad.. i enjoy sport better.. personally i prefer to push my physical limits rather than my mental limits Take some 10 year old kid that got shoes and a harness last year as a gift so that they could climb at the local gym. this year all he/she can save up with his paper route is 200 bucks to buy himself a new rope and 10 quickdraws and right now the only outdoor climbing is with their parents out to the the local crag which is sport bolted take ur trad rhetoric and BS I'll take all the people that cant afford trad gear, do no have the mentors around to take up trad climbing safely, or just plain like clipping bolts instead of effing around with a rack of gear will it ever go trad? http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=36457 i dont think so... think of how many routes would be eliminated if Sport didnt exist..
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allan_thomson
Dec 5, 2004, 2:39 PM
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In reply to: i dont think so... think of how many routes would be eliminated if Sport didnt exist.. Fair enough, about the routes which can't be done trad, I accept that, that's a different matter. I did actually say that earlier. I'd agree with bolting them, in order to open up new routes. But...... You don't know what future developments might bring. Just because you can't see it with what we have now, doesn't mean it won't happen in future. Gear is improving all the time, and there are new innovations all the time. What's to say there won't be a bit of trad gear invented in future won't make it possible to lead that route? Is someone actually going to be safer on that route, just cos there's bolts anyway? Also the question also comes, at what point should you start bolting? Do you start bolting over the top end trad routes currently E8/9 (USA -5.14c) or E10 (which is currently purely hypothetical)? Or do you start bolting when you reach the trad limit of Mr and Mrs/Miss average? How do you determine who they are? And should the opinions of the minority count for nothing, if they are cutting edge climbers? You accepted what I said about erosion from redpointing, this then begs the question, if this hypothetical cutting edge trad climber came to do the route, and parts had been worn off through redpointing on bolts, does that not then deny them the opportunity to do it trad? So there are problems with opening up new routes for everyone, if it damages those routes through overuse. I don't accept the cheapness arguement (though I can understand your logic). If this 10 year old kid has just come straight out of a gym, they should be looking to climb with someone who has a bit more experience. Generally that person has gear. That's how I started (skipping the gym bit, as there is non over here), only buying my rack + ropes when I decided I was committed to the sport. Are you honestly saying it is justified to run bolts up say for example a moderate (USA 5.2) crack, just because some kid can't afford a few nuts? Does the kid being able to afford little make it justified for them to throw a top-rope down, and climb that way (meaning they don't have to buy the QD's- I know a few sports climbers on UKC who would disagree with TR-ing)? As regards pushing your physical limits instead of your mental, surely having climbed trad yourself, you realise that trad not only pushes the mental, but the physical? It takes a heck of a lot to place good gear, while hanging on with one arm, totally pumped. Tell me now that is not pushing your physical limits. (Great picture BTW, you look like you were pushing it hard there).
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lockeyaaron
Dec 5, 2004, 4:44 PM
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I have been climbing now for 4 years. I have never been sport climbing, nor have I ever been to a climbing gym. I do believe that trad climbing is a more pure form of climbing, but I do not look down on people that soley sport or gym climb. I think that alot of the people that dont do trad would really like to but bc of reasons that are beyond their control they havnet been able to. We need to start a "Take a gym rat to the crag day" Everyone one of you out there go to your local gym, pick out a promising young climber and get to know them. After you have gotten to know them a little bit take them to the crag and show them the ropes so-to-speak. Maybe this will help with the lost heart in climbing.
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jakedatc
Dec 5, 2004, 4:59 PM
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haha thanks for the unintentional complement but the picture is Dave graham on Realization/Biographie' (tho people say i have the same body composition, i am far from being that good)
In reply to: hey should be looking to climb with someone who has a bit more experience. Generally that person has gear. that is not always the case.. "how i got started" "how i learned to climb" "where i live" you need to think outside your own experience to realize what i'm trying to get across.. (btw.. you said you do not have sport routes over there so obviously an experienced person will have gear, i consider myself experienced enough to take out new people to sport crags but i do not have gear to take them trad climbing) ive climbed bolted routes down to 5.2.. and no it wasnt a crack it was a blocky face that i dont recall there being many places for gear by your argument back when they first started climbing folks should not have climbed anything because they had to pound pitons which can now be protected by nuts and cams? and also caused rock damage
In reply to: if it damages those routes through overuse. i still dont see how *damaging* people climbing a route really is- comparing the 2 styles... if a flake is going to eventually peel off or a foot hold break.. it will do so eventually no matter how it is climbed. Routes are put up to be climbed.. if it is so popular that it gets tons of traffic.. then the FAist should be proud they put up a sweet line.. not worry that it will get smoothed down to nothing (which it wont). bottom line mother nature will do more damage to a route over the winter with ice and cracking than any sport climber just working the route Yes, trad is physical too, but not on the same terrain or same features that i like to climb on or the crag i usually climb at. If i took the time to learn how to place gear a) safely b) efficiently aka only have to reach for one piece instead of grabbing pieces that wont fit first then i believe i could climb gunks 5.10.. however when i climb sport routes i can find sweet overhanging aretes and roofs at 5.12 that inspire me much more and gives me that "i gotta climb that" feeling. Plus i do not see how sport climbing is not mental, when i'm totally pumped out.. hanging horizontal trying to make one hard clip (with the draw waving around and around like it always does when you need it not to be) the will to not let go is very important in sport climbing and bouldering and i've been working on that mental aspect and has improved my climbing whatever.. i'm done arguing with you.. you've never sport climbed so you will not understand the differences or i guess the reasoning behind bolted routes
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rockman_nh
Jan 28, 2005, 1:33 AM
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Go to Yosemite and climb one of the long climbs. When you are on the tenth or so pitch look down between your toes and behold. You will never get that thousand foot airy feeling in a gym. Or the long runout that cannot be avoided, the nerve checking fear that challenges your control of the knees and your pumped body parts are clinging and reaching for the next placement. Amen
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healyje
Jan 28, 2005, 11:01 AM
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In reply to: ... think of how many routes would be eliminated if Sport didnt exist.. I personally like to dream about how many climbers (and access issues) would be eliminated if Sport [and] didn't exist. My guess is if there was only trad climbing tomorrow there would be like an overnight 80% reduction in our ranks.
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clausti
Jan 28, 2005, 11:49 AM
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so the carcass of this was rotting for a *good* long while 'fore somebody kicked it to see if it stank. where we got so far [in no partilar order]-- 1] some climbers are cool all around. and some of them climb sport, and some trad, and some both. 2] some trad climbers are insecure, geocentric-model-ascribing assholes, and they refuse to concede variation in the persuit. They like to put down other people becuase they have never figgured out how all the rest of the little boys have so much fun with their cocks. 3] some sport climbers are idiots. and they bolt stupid shit, or they bolt shit stupidly. Lots of them started climbing in gyms, which, depite serious gumby-factory potential, are not catagorically horrible places. I *so* doubt this will get solved. I subscribe to the climbing, and all clipping assiociated therewith, of sport routes.
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johnkelley
Jan 29, 2005, 10:05 AM
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Ground up face climbing,hand drilling on lead,is a dying art.Most climbers nowdays don't have the slighest clue how to do this.It's just so much easier to take the sport climbing approach.Which is neither!Almost anything will go ground up with hooks,heads,and a hand drill.I never sport climb! I never climb rap(or retro) bolted routes out of protest. I chop if I feel like it.Why don't climbers police themselves anymore?HAHAHA anyways AKicebum I'm always looking for partners.Maybe up here or there?
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