Climbing's getting easier.

Post by **L Day** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:34 pm

512OW wrote:Heres my take on the "boldness" factor...

The ethics of that day demanded runouts. The ethics of today aren't afraid to toss a bolt in whenever you want...

Sport climbing=more climbing.

Back in the day, a very, very, very small percentage of rock in the Red was developed. The crazy thing is that the rock that was popular back then was some of the worst rock in the area. The things that have gone up in the past 10 years are SOOO good, that it'd be silly for people to go do lower quality climbs, even just for the adventure....

I'd also guess that there are at least as many bold, and more bold, climbers than there were yesteryear. Its just that now, that is a very tiny percentage of the full community.

I agree wholeheartedly with MOST of what you said above. But in the '70s nobody would be recognized as a "hard" climber unless they did bold routes. It was just part of the whole thing. And while minimizing bolts was definitely part of the "clean climbing" ethic, it was also a matter of style.

Post by **512OW** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:15 pm

Exactly. Thats what the thing was back then.

Now, the style has evolved to include harder moves. I seriously doubt that the difficulty of climbing could have evolved to this point with the old ethics.

Not better... just different. More "modern".

I 100% respect the bold ethic. I also believe in the new one. For me, Kauk gets the nod over Bachar because he was able to recognize that things were changing, and he embraced it.

Regardless, its all still out there. There are crazy bold routes, still waiting to be climbed.

Post by **Brentucky** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:09 pm

L Day wrote:Now, now odub. The only really dangerous thing I ever did in the red was take such a big hit off the hash pipe that I passed out, and pitched head first off Courthouse Rock. Now that was a stunt!

hahahahahah now that right there is funny, i don't care who you are!

Post by **L Day** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:50 pm

512OW wrote: Regardless, its all still out there. There are crazy bold routes, still waiting to be climbed.

True, true, true. And who knows, fashions change, someday, somebody will probably come along and rock the red with their bold onsights. One thing for sure, there is no way climbing would be where it is today, in terms of technical difficulty, without sport climbing..., no way.

Post by **Texas Pete** » Thu May 01, 2008 6:05 pm

Larry, Do you have a lot of relatives in the Red River area?

Post by **L Day** » Thu May 01, 2008 7:15 pm

None, I do have a lot of relatives in Lexington, not one of them a climber.