Why do I climb? (part 2)

Trying to figure out why I climb turns out to be even harder than I thought. I’ve been thinking about the follow-up to my last post on the subject for a month now and I don’t feel much clearer in my mind. I don’t know where exactly this will go, but let’s find out…

So why climbing specifically? If vanity (my desire for others to know that I’m good at something) is a prime motivator for me, why did I settle on a single activity where my skill will be apparent to and seen by a small audience? I was also relatively good at Ultimate (don’t call it a Frisbee), and I had almost no trouble giving it up after 10 years of consistent and dedicated practice. In fact, I put it aside specifically so I could climb more.

Partly, that decision was about what each activity brought out in me. Ultimate highlighted some of my least favorite things about myself: my tendency to be over competitive and argumentative, my know-it-all-ness, my tendency to hold forth on topics. I rarely left the field after a game feeling good about my behavior on it.

Climbing on the other hand, appeals to my competitive side, but refocuses it. Instead of trying to beat someone, I’m trying to solve a puzzle or perfect my own movement to achieve something difficult. I’m a fairly strong introvert, so this internal focus is very comfortable for me (maybe too comfortable, but that’s another story). I do have to be careful still of my inclination to spray beta or pontificate on some climbing minutia, but I find it easier to avoid that, thanks I think to the less confrontational atmosphere of my climbing group.

So, I think that the more individual nature of climbing (including the fact that I generally climb with a smaller group) helps me control what I see as unpleasant aspects of my personality. This is somewhat in conflict with the vanity appeal of climbing, but I think it helps balance that out a bit as well.

Hmmm. That was kind of unsatisfying. Maybe there’s more to dig up here. We’ll see.

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Choose your own adventure (warning: no climbing content)

Remember the choose your own adventure books? Ever considered doing extensive data visualization work on the subject? Then this is for you. For those with short attention spans, try this first.

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Why yes, thanks for asking!

I did indeed go climbing recently and I would love to show you some pictures! I know you're utterly fascinated by my climbing exploits (who isn't?), so I'm happy to indulge you with photographic evidence of said exploits. Pity they're not very impressive. The exploits that is. The photos are quite nice (all courtesy of Jon Reece).

Julian looking awkward:


Kirk looking awkward:


Julian awkwardly expressing his love for a boulder:


After all the awkwardness I did manage to finish off a really good V7/8 that sent me into a tailspin of fail last year. Really fun problem with a unique and odd start. Followed up that success with some more failure on what Jon swears is a V4 dyno with an uncompleted Vhard start but is really a Vhard dyno with a V6 start. Of course, I suck and dynos so, you know.

I'm still trying to figure out the follow up to my last post, but I'm having a hard time articulating my thoughts. Maybe some day I'll sort that out.

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Why do I climb?

I’ll dispense with the vague platitudes. No “I really like being out in nature,” no “I love the connection of mental and physical challenges,” no “chicks dig it.” Those may be true at some level (in fact, I do think that there’s something about the physicality of climbing that appeals to me physiologically/psychologically), but they are not the sum of my motivation. By rambling for a while I’ll try to figure out what else factors in.

I like to be good at things. It’s satisfying to do something well. I don’t know where this satisfaction originates, though it probably finds its root somewhere in the nature/nurture-people-are-social-animals matrix-and-society-trains-us-to-value-certain-things. Anyway, point is that I like to be good at things.

I like it when people know I’m good at things. I take satisfaction from the knowledge that others know I’m moderately good at climbing. I also take some satisfaction from others thinking that I’m getting better at climbing. It’s possible that this satisfaction is at least part of what motivates me to get stronger/better at climbing. I don’t know to what degree, but I think it’s a factor.

On the flip side, I don’t love to talk about how good I am at things. It feels like pure vanity (at least in person) to crow about accomplishments that mean very little (read: nothing) in the grand scheme (whatever that is). I’m sometimes embarrassed to talk about/demonstrate my skill. My wife has been with me for exactly two hours of bouldering, in which time I flashed a difficult problem (hooray for me). It was surprisingly awkward for me. I felt like a showoff and a fraud — as though the point of that particular feat had been to impress her (was it?).

The satisfaction I derive from being (relatively) good at climbing, and from others’ perception of me as a good climber is, I think, at least a part of what motivates me to climb. I hope that this vanity is the least part of my motivation, but I don’t know. I try hard to keep it below the surface, to support and encourage my friends more than I focus on myself, and I hope I succeed.

I’ve got some other thoughts (even less well-formed than this post) that I’ll try to write about in the near future. What about y’all? What role does vanity play in your climbing life?

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It begins... What exaclty is "it?"

With Big Sharma’s words ringing in my ears, I lined up a day of real-world bouldering on Saturday. The crew included Mark, Jon, and two others (one who’d never bouldered before), with Kirk and Rachael meeting us at the boulders. Destination was Pawtuckaway. Project list was basically non-existent.

OK, so that’s not exactly true, but I like to think my expectations were reasonable. Weather was going to be low 60s with tons of sun, so a bit warm for hard projects. Still had some hope for a few things.

Got off to a rocky start thanks to my compatriots’ inability to brew coffee at home and/or make breakfast and arrived at the pebbles at about 11. Warmed up like a meth-addled squirrel (apparently I was kind of excited to be out), did a nice-looking, OK V3 I’d never done before, then spent some skin working a slab in the V5 range (?).

Slabs are weird, right? You generally can’t just overpower them, and even “easy” stuff can shut you down. As a boulderer I’m probably supposed to say something like “slabs are for sissies” and move on to some dope roofs dood! But I actually dig climbing slab. Well, sometimes. On Saturday, with 6 people trying the one line, I couldn’t stick it out, so Mark and I moved on to Boulder X.

Let me just get the requisite “that problem is totally strange and no way can a V6 be that hard” comment out of the way. Mantle problems are just like that, so deal. Anyway, I refined my beta and came close, but warmth and low energy defeated me and I came away empty handed. Nearing skinlessness we moved on and I did another V3 I’d never been on before calling it a day.

So here I am, feeling really happy to have nice fall weather in NE, mentally writing and re-writing my project list, and yet I’m a little ambivalent. I can’t shake the feeling that The Exalted Sharma is right. In NE, you can’t really boulder in the summer unless you’re fond of greasing of V1s. Winter bouldering is doable, as long as you’re willing to suffer. Spring is often wet, but you can eke out some good days. Fall can be glorious, but in bouldering terms it really only lasts about 6-8 weeks. In other words, I spend so much time waiting around for good conditions that I’ve become primarily a gym rat.

I may be coming to a point in my climbing where I need to step back and decide what my priorities are. Do I want to push for harder boulder grades, resigning myself to the cycle of the conditions-dependent? Maybe I should switch my focus over to sports climbing. Or maybe learn to place some gear and open up a whole new range of options.

I still maintain that a good day of bouldering is the most satisfying kind of climbing I know, but is it worth all the waiting? All the finger-crossing, hoping for good weather? I’m not sure anymore.

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Media Matters... ish.

Anyone up for some navel-gazing? ‘Cause I’m totally about to lay it down here. Yeah, it’s like a little taste of the good old days.

Anyway, thanks to Peter Beal I’m pondering one of those fantastically introspective climbing topics. It all started when PB (that’s what his friends who’ve never met him call him) posted up about the apparent superiority of euro climbers (as in, they climb harder stuff more easily, not they’re better people, though that’s also possible). This lead to a totally interesting comment thread. This lead to me thinking too much about what climbing means and whether we should care about progression/improving standards/etc in climbing. This lead to me writing this post and wasting all y’all’s time.

Here’s the quote that really got my wheels turning:
“I agree that climbing ultimately doesn't matter much, especially in terms of national pride, but suppose we argued that difficulty in climbing is a desirable goal and achievements to that end are more admirable than looking good in branded clothing. Is the current mode of marketing and media furthering actual climbing achievement/progress or merely cultivating image? What does that say about culture overall in the U.S.? That our achievements in climbing consist of photogenic people posing in attractive locations?”

There’s kind of a lot going on here. I’ll start somewhere random.

I accept the premise that difficulty in climbing is a desirable goal. It seems plausible (though by no means certain) that if climbers stopped pushing the limits of what’s possible, the sport would stagnate (i.e. fail to grow). Of course, we could argue all week about whether this is really a bad thing. Would it mean fewer people getting in to the sport? Would that mean more access troubles? Less? Would it mean more expensive gear? Etc.

Related thought: difficulty in climbing is my main personal climbing goal, but that’s utterly personal. Whatever Strongmo Francais or Buff Americano is doing has no real impact on that goal. So if American climbing media doesn’t necessarily support the hardest climbing eva I don’t really lose out.

And yeah, American climbing media is probably more interested in selling an image of coolness as it relates to climbing than pushing difficulty. The “important” question is probably whether the climbing community at large loses out, and I think the answer is probably some kind of “yes.” If we think pushing standards provides the most benefit to the community, then the climbing media in the US as currently constituted ain’t helping much. If we think increasing climbers’ level of satisfaction with their climbing experience provides the most benefit, then US climbing media may be helping. Of course, a lot of that media is focused on “lifestyle” stuff like clothing, gear, etc, which is a pretty shallow way to improve an experience.

So, climbing media appears to be participating in the stuff = happiness movement. This probably doesn’t help push US climbers to new heights of difficulty. I doubt it’s the only factor (as commenters over at the Narc point out).

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Semantics

What's with folks referring to boulder problems as "boulders?" I see it around the webster in various places. I think it's weird and confusing. It reminds me of the similarly unhelpful conflation of "blog" with "blog post." Seriously folks, a blog is the vehicle/medium and a blog post is the individual piece of writing. And seriously folks, a boulder is the big hunk of rock, and a boulder problem is the sequence of holds/features you use to climb it. Amiright?

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