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just curious what motivates people to climb and spend all that gas money and shirk real world responsibilities.

do you just suck at organized sports? do you love being outside, and the climbing is secondary? is it sending hard routes that turns you on? is projecting what keeps you up at night? is it the social aspect? good friends? are you running from growing up and getting a "real" job? is it merely a diversion from being grown up and hating your job? what makes you tick when it comes to why you climb?

I climb to crush other peoples hopes and dreams.

It's a very meditative/zen experience for me. When I'm climbing, everything else goes quiet and I am completely present in the moment. That feeling of pristine clarity is about as good as it gets.. Oh, and I like to be outdoors and generally away from the mass population....

I was going to write what "waysteep" just wrote above. So now all I got is, "I climb because its there"

Seriously, I climb for all those reasons you listed and probably more. At this point it just has become a part of who I am. LOL maybe if I don't get out and actually climb soon I might loose part of that.

Traffic doesn't run you over while your at the crag.

I climb because at this point I'm so deep in the game I can't pull out. It's definitely the most fun sport I've ever done. I'm obsessed with it. It keeps the body in top shape too. I don't think I'll ever quit.

waysteep wrote:It's a very meditative/zen experience for me. When I'm climbing, everything else goes quiet and I am completely present in the moment. That feeling of pristine clarity is about as good as it gets.. Oh, and I like to be outdoors and generally away from the mass population....

Ditto. Being hyper-active with a mind that is always running, it's great to have something in my life that makes me focus and clear my head. Oh and the climbing community in KY kicks major bootie.

i do it because it makes me look cool. people know i'm a climber because i use a shiny new locking carabiner to hold my keys and talk really loudly about all the sick 5.8 climbs i totally almost sent this past weekend if that damn top rope hadn't been in the way. why else would anyone climb except to look like a totally hardcore badass???? 8) (cause all those little faces make me even more badass)

Waysteep and SCIN nailed it.

I was trying to explain it to a friend recently and I was telling him that one of the best aspects of climbing is the fact that everything else is gone. You are centered on the rock. He immediately got it...life in the now, no past no present, nothing but the moment.

It is definitely the best of all sports in my opinion. There is a social aspect to it (though I've been known to be anti-social), but the part I love is that it is 'you versus rock.' You can choose to compete with others, but it really is about the individual. You can push as far as you want, and I also beleive it's a sport I can work at the rest of my life (especially considering I didn't even get into it till later in life). I'm probably close the best shape I've been in about 20 years (despite what my Orthopaedic says).

And don't forget the mental and problem solving aspects. Keeps it fresh every time.

I'm experiencing deja vu.