Gym Climbers
Just an observation... What amazes me about these kids learning to climb in the gym is how fast they learn and improve. It seems like quite a few of them can climb solid 5.12 within their first year, but take some of them outside and put them on a crack (or a reachy route) and they will be temporarily confused. Then I tell them, "Yeah, now that's REAL rock climbing!" They can't get enough of it... most of them are very capable of skipping the entry level grades and going straight to the harder stuff, but many of them still believe they are in the gym and that the outdoors should be clean and tamed instead of dirty and wild.
"Those iron spikes you use have shortened the life expectancy of the Totem Pole by 50,000 years."
--A Navaho elder
--A Navaho elder
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marathonmedic
- Posts: 1557
- Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2004 3:01 am
Let's not forget that there really aren't many places for a n00b to climb outdoors at the Red unless they're doing trad. There are only 33 sport routes listed under 5.9 and 7 of them are in closed crags. Until you learn to climb, or at least claw, your way up a 10 or higher there really isn't that much out there to get on, especially when groups of n00bs can fill those climbs for an entire day 10 min after they get there.
Ticking is gym climbing outdoors.
Well, we are constantly searching for more sport routes under 5.9.... hopefully we will keep finding them and noobs will have a safe place to learn the ropes on real rock. I've discovered that it 's MUCH harder to find a sub 5.9 sport route at the Red than it is to find a 5.12+ and over. But, we are still looking...
"Those iron spikes you use have shortened the life expectancy of the Totem Pole by 50,000 years."
--A Navaho elder
--A Navaho elder
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marathonmedic
- Posts: 1557
- Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2004 3:01 am
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squeezindlemmon
- Posts: 1452
- Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2004 7:02 pm
