RRC Archives

charlie wrote:How about, because it's fun?

Charlie, climbing hard is only something like fun. This was Scott James' (KrabiKrabi) favorite quip about climbing.

I quit climbing and I've been pretty happy about that. It consumed too much of my life and I realized that I was wasting all this good time away when I could be doing other things. For example meth, I started doing it after I stopped climbing and i havent felt better! I suggest you try it too!!!

Sounds like a reasonable alternative, another big rush is robbing people in a duct tape mask. Makes you feel all silver surfery and such.

Spiderman envy.

this is a bit from a short essay i wrote and i think it sums it up

I'm working on not selling myself short. Climbing helps with that more than I can really explain. It forces me to realize I can do more than I thought I could - that just because something seems scary, doesn't necessarily mean that I'll fall - and that just because I fall doesn't mean I'll get hurt. A lot of things in my life can seem pretty scary - but climbing reminds me I am capable of more than I do.

waysteep wrote:everything else goes quiet

Right on - it seems to be the only time in life that I can get all the mumbo jumbo in my head to stop - everything goes quiet, that is exactly how I have described it to others...it's such a peaceful feeling. If I could animate it - there would be no sound save that of breathing till the moment you whip or slap the anchors - it's like breaking through the ice or something and then wham there is sound and life and movement and noise and all the things that make it hard for you to get to sleep at night because there is no mute button for your brain.

There - climbing is a mute button for the annoyingly loud commercials of life.

I wonder often if football players, or golfers or whatever other athletes that are whole hog about their sport, if they feel this way about their choice endeavor. Is it adrenaline that allows you to clear your mind and see only what's in front of you? Hold after hold? Clip after Clip? It's interesting. Having been away from climbing for awhile now and suffering because of it, it has brought in to focus why I climb, it's something I think about a lot. Having children changes your focus but I feel like climbing makes me a better parent. Since there is serious lack of rock here, I do what I can. When I am able to snatch an hour or two of bouldering in my friend's sweet barn-gym, my whole attitude changes. I am better equipped emotionally to deal with whatever the little ankle-biter can throw at me and if I am happier, she's happier. It benefits us both.

god I love climbing

i think i climb because it's challenging-more often than not, REALLY challenging. so often i try, and try, and try, only to fail. but then every once in awhile i try really hard, and send something. those isolated moments, where i have not quite sent but know that i'm going to, are why i climb. nothing feels better than working really hard to accomplish something, and then actually doing it.

and, if at the end of the day that doesn't happen, climbers are great people to get wasted with.

Sometimes I need to do something besides throw a Frisbee.

to keep my brothers wife from being choked on any given weekend I must deal with her.