RRC Archives

My husband and various other members of Team Suck......

Beer and bong hits and Basic Rockcraft- thanks Royal

'Basic and 'Advanced Rockcraft books, Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills, REI and EMS pamphlets of the 70's, Ascent magazine, Tech tips from Rock and Ice or Climbing, and the good old trial and error. Wonder how many gym rats or crash-mat'rs of today have read anything besides what is in Urban Climber or on the internet?

Certainly it would behoove every climber to read John Long's anchor book series. Whenever I teach climbing these are required texts.

Also, please make your poll responses. The number responding here is lagging my poll on where people started climbing. If you learned technique through a combination, make sure you responed other/combo.

woodchuck008 wrote:'Basic and 'Advanced Rockcraft books, Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills, REI and EMS pamphlets of the 70's, Ascent magazine, Tech tips from Rock and Ice or Climbing, and the good old trial and error. Wonder how many gym rats or crash-mat'rs of today have read anything besides what is in Urban Climber or on the internet?

Well, if they're gym rats or crash mat'rs, do they need to read any more than that?

Lead class indoors, Anchors class (AMGA) outdoors, Experienced friends (hard to teach how to belay eg. more rope to swing below an overhang instead of smack-into it), books (Long's), reading mags & online (tips, incident reports, etc.)

I'm glad no one has chosen 'university outdoor program'- the last time I saw one of these was on top of Bonzo. Sketchy activities abound- the worst of which was when some poor kid flipped upside down because he didn't pull the slack out of his rap lines before leaning back. It was getting dark and he was so gripped about the rapping that he overlooked the basics.

I feel that I am still learning all the time. I think that I learn mostly through experience. With that said I have also taken the highest level of training for rock climbing in the US and have been through the entire AMGA process. It is always great to be shown new tools or new applications for old tools. Having these dialed is a different matter.

Basic Rock Craft, Advanced Rock Craft, trial and error, and mostly from learning to climb during a time when trad climbing was all there was and everyone was scared out of their mind and very cautious.
near death experiences were great teachers. I was lucky enough to survive mine.

Freedom of the Hills, knot books, articles, and memorable multi-pitch climbs with patient friends.