RRC Archives

In your opinion, which seems to be as far away from "climbing" as one can get?

Aid, therefore I pick drytooling, but I'm a toproping bouldererer and a seconding trad cleaner so what do I know.

And why is this in the sport forum?

i picked drytooling as well...that's just a fancy form of aid...and the poll seems to be about forms of reaching the top without any kind of aid.

chalk, tape gloves and shoes are aid...why are they different from tools?

those aren't options you slimy fucker.

and I just had my daily bath in a big pile of hofo horse sh**...I thought I was cleansed...sigh.

I think dry tooling is as much climbing as ice climbing is. Some ice climbs are mixed rock and ice so the climber has to place both cams and screws and hang on both ice and rock. I knew a guy that dry tooled a bunch of routes at Tallulah Gorge and it was pretty burly.

They're all forms of climbing, IMO. I probably would've picked aid if it was an option because that's not really climbing. Skillful...yes, but there's no real climbing involved in it.

Ugh, drytooling counts unless you are wearing shorts and rock climbing shoes, then you are just aid climbing. If you are actually drytooling on some M-Sick route where there is actually some ice, or using a tool to hook a rock feature because the ice is too thin on an alpine route, then I would say it's legitimate.

So is the dry-tooling reference pure dry-tooling? I.E. a totally dry route that would otherwise be climbed as a rock route? Or are we talking about any and all forms of dry-tooling (even on an alpine route)?

That said, I'm leaning towards "responding to this poll instead of training." as not counting... My two cents

I would say if you're tied into a rope and the potential exists to fall, then you're climbing. Rock, ice or snow. Free, aid, drytooling or any combination therein, it's all climbing. Anything that goes up rock, is a rock climb. Anything that goes 'free', is a free climb. It's all good as long as you call it what it is. That's why there are different ratings for different styles.

Nearly everyone who climbs relys on aid to some degree. Shoes, chalk, tape, rope, gear, the belay, etc. If it helps you to the top, it is an aid. The only way to break free from aid altogether would be to onsight solo naked. It's ok though, aid is aid and it's still pretty cool. The notion of climbing 'free' would be more accurately referred to as 'free enough'. Do what suits ya and don't worry about what it's called (as long as you call it what it is).

Buildering sucks n00bs. It is worse than crawling across the floor in your climbing gym and checking it off your tick list.