RRC Archives

You tell 'em Di. Plus, if you climb J-Rock's 5.12s you'll actually only be climbing 5.7 so you'll send and feel great.












Just kidding, J-Rock. You know that.

Uh oh, I'd better start sandbagging a few more routes! Unfortunately the kind owner of Muir Valley has forbidden me from sandbagging...

Dear Pig,
I am 49, and I agree I shouldn't use age as an excuse. I have a basket full of other excuses but I keep climbing. I love it.

christian, there is nothing in the guidebook that says you have to climb 5.12 to have fun.
so i'm wid'ya buddy.


5.1 climber unite!!

J-Rock wrote:Uh oh, I'd better start sandbagging a few more routes! Unfortunately the kind owner of Muir Valley has forbidden me from sandbagging...

from a Star Trek movie (V?):
"A lie, Spock?"
"An error."

congrats to you christian for willing the body to do the deed when the mind says enough...

as far as Va, she knows better....ain't no real climbing below 5.12...might as well stay home and watch videos at that level.

Ahh piggie. Same tired position, different day.

sprag, that's the way truth has to be taught...consistent, unwavering. reality doesn't change just because we are unwilling to accept it

but piggie, it doesn't seem to be work on you.
maybe we need to try a different tactic.

btw. good job on finally sending that 5.4 yesturday. i know you were really beating yourself up when you didn't get it at first go. persistence pays off piggie. two years later and you finally got it! congrats friend, congrats!

The irony in all of this "it ain't real if it ain't on rock" or "it ain't real if it ain't above [such and such grade]" is that there are mountianeers who scoff at all of us. Hemmingway didn't include "cragging" on his list of "real sports" (e.g. bull fighting and auto racing), he only included mountaineering, and I'm sure he meant the high, scary stuff at that - K2 or the North face of the Eiger. Serious mountaineering isn't my idea of fun, particularly if you look through the Rock and Ice issue with the list of dead "greats". Only one or two died actually rock climbing, and almost all died mountaineering.

Or check out what Chounard has to say about cragging and bouldering - he doesn't think it's 'the real thing' even if it is on rock. And think about serious headpointers. Most of them are 'only' climbing 5.12, but they're doing something very different from most of us.

To me it's all 'climbing'. You want to know who I think aren't real climbers? It's the folks who are more interested in spending a day in the woods or outside, for whom getting lost on the approach is just fine, and for whom climbing is just the excuse to get out there, even if they send 12 trad. To me, someone who is serious about the experience of climbing, the movement and the uniqe challenges, but only climbs plastic is more of a real 'climber*' than someone who just goofs off on 'real' rock.

(* note that I'm saying 'real climber' not 'real rock climber'. But then, I don't mean to privilege 'rock climbing' over 'climbing')