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I still like you Larry Day. Don't feel bad. It is pretty natural to feel this way. I bet you felt pretty strong back then. It would be hard for me to swallow too. That routes are really that much harder than yours. But here is the thing. They are. They are that much harder.

Oh, shit yeah! Today's climbers are climbing way harder than we were back in the day. No comparison, and today's climbers are unbelievably stronger than we were. The only thing that would make me feel bad would be if progress hadn't happened, and the Red had remained the unknown little backwater area it was when I climbed there. Really. The main reason I moved away was that nobody wanted to climb hard back then. It drove me crazy, that, and the fucking rain.

I just wanted to see how people would respond to the opening comment of this thread. Not that I'd troll, or anything. I really was curious about how people viewed the whole difficulty thing. What got me thinking about this was a statement that famed Colorado Springs climber Leonard Coyne (first free ascent NW face of Half Dome) once made. The quote was something along the lines of "The older I get, the harder I climb, mostly because the gear is getting better faster than I'm getting old and weak". I think this was mostly just Leonard's self-deprecating humor. But it was during the incredible gear explostion of the '80s, multiple sizes of Friends, brassies, sticky rubber, TCUs, etc.

I'm totally jazzed about what the Red has become, in terms of the climbing scene, and the routes that are being done. Still, I'm proud of the routes I got to put up back then, even if they're not hard. And yeah, I'm a little bit too proud of the fact that I had a fun, and relatively safe time back then putting up some lines that are too scarey for the majority, of today's climbers

Oh, and I'm glad you still like me, even if I do like to yank your chain.

LDay, I believe we owe you some thanks too for helping to make it what it is today. and yes, your routs are scary.

larry, wanna borrow my drill? it'd make those roots a bit less scarey. hell, I don't even mind drilling em for you..just a favor for a fellow neo con.

512OW wrote:

MSMITH wrote:Word. Small Children suck. Fatten up them fingers and gain 30 pounds.

Thats what everybody said about Sharma when he was 14 and weighed 85 lbs....

Then he got big and crushed harder.

fan boy

pigsteak wrote:larry, wanna borrow my drill? it'd make those roots a bit less scarey. hell, I don't even mind drilling em for you..just a favor for a fellow neo con.

Thanks, but naw, my routes so rarely needed a bolt that it was no problem to drill them by hand. But, if you wouldn't mind replacing that piece of crap bolt that I placed on Meteor Maker, that would be appreciated. Even better might be to leave it in place, just for laughs, and place a good one nearby.

Eh, I know I know. It kinda sucks to be shown up by eight year olds though.

MSMITH wrote:Eh, I know I know. It kinda sucks to be shown up by eight year olds though.

When you or any other eight year old start cruising the R and X test pieces of the late '70s and early 80's you'll have something to say. Until then you're just yapping.

And when you do them without sticky rubber, chalk or top rope, you'll be just as good, and almost as bold, a leader as the local hicks were twenty five years ago.

Psh, hiked em last week in the tennis shoes. hahaha, Just pullin your leg.