Are you a real climber? Or a gaper?
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Maybe this belongs on the random photo thread, cuz, yeah, it was a photo randomly taken on a bike ride one day in Seattle.
But, on the other hand, there is a real debate ongoing about what constitutes "real" climbing. Sport vs Trad. Gym vs Outdoors. Crag vs Wall. Rock vs Ice. Everything else vs Alpine.
But, if you blow this photo up by clicking on it and looking at the little red sticker in the middle of the Railroad Crossing sign, you'll find a whole new way to differentiate real climbers from posers.
And that doesn't even begin to address the question of why someone (a real climber?) would stick this label on a random railroad crossing in Seattle...
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@David-Harris! I like the sticker, since my first few years of roped climbing in Idaho were without guidebooks. By the fall of 1972, I was off to the Cascades & Bugaboos & learned to lean on guidebooks.
They do take a lot of the fun & adventure out of climbing.
1971 Idaho. We were climbing the wrong side of The Arrowhead on a still unclimbed route, & since Harry didn't have enough biners or pitons, he was lowering off the top piton to grab more gear from below.
I'm very happy that we had some fun & lived through our stupidity.
A distant view of the side of the Arrowhead we tried to climb, on our first Arrowhead fiasco. There were two more to follow.
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@FritzRay Yeah, it's a whole other thing.
Most climbers think routes come out of guidebooks... And, for them, that is true. For them, there is no climbing without a guidebook.
And even you and I, ancient as we are, have climbed with guidebooks. But we have also climbed without them, and we know where the real spirit of climbing lies...
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What language is this?
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@zBrown! It's corporatese. Translates to English as "Burlington Northern Santa Fe" with a bolt head for emphasis.
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Arrgghhh!!!
Ye' scabrous land lubbers be needin' some edumacatin', eh?
Edit: I 'ave a mind to put ye' both into the brig for an hour time out. Fer yer' own safety, if nothing else, mateys! Some disinclined to aqueisce to such might just shiver ye' timbers w/a full on broad side. Ye' surely dinna' miss the announcement?
Now where's me hornpipe? I be needin' me' afternoon smoke....
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gawdit(!)
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@zBrown said in Are you a real climber? Or a gaper?:
gawdit(!)
Ha. Did you think it meant "But Not Safe for Work"
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Hmmm I don't have a photo of the climb but I distinctly remember a partner of mine informing that I was "off route". After all, the guidebook clearly showed the traverse here. I looked down at him and simply said " I have a gear rack, I can go anyway I want". He LOL was pretty o.k. with that response. It was actually a good variation.
Cheers!
S....
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When you find a place to which there is no guidebook, the possibilities are endless. You can look up from the bottom...
Like this:
Or you can somehow find your way to the top and rap down to see whether what looked good from below really is that good...
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@David-Harris said in Are you a real climber? Or a gaper?:
When you find a place to which there is no guidebook, the possibilities are endless. You can look up from the bottom...
Like this:
Or you can somehow find your way to the top and rap down to see whether what looked good from below really is that good...
That edge looks like it wants to slice the rope....
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which is why I usually prefer ground up development.. rapping into the unknown can give you some nasty supprises...
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these days I am just a gaper...
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I wonder if there is anything for us gapers to climb here?
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I'm a gaper. I used to be a climmer, I swear.....
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@johntp said in Are you a real climber? Or a gaper?:
I'm a gaper. I used to be a climmer, I swear.....
Yeah, me too. I swear!
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@Scole !Aye, caramba!!!! Likely hundreds of just dandy finger crack lines sandwiched in there, eh?
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@David-Harris said in Are you a real climber? Or a gaper?:
@johntp said in Are you a real climber? Or a gaper?:
I'm a gaper. I used to be a climmer, I swear.....
Yeah, me too. I swear!
Lookin' pretty worked there David.
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" Likely hundreds of just dandy finger crack lines sandwiched in there, eh?"
This is one of those finger cracks!
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Scole! I'm impressed with that rack of wide-crack tools. I have no doubts that you made it up that route.
And David, I am most impressed with your photo too. I too tend to look like a traveling climber's yard sale at times & I also wear those strange knee-pads, that I like much better than bruised & bloody knee caps. Why is it that some other climbers love to give me schist about them? I confess that you show much more exhuberant taste in underwear than I do. Me on Idaho's Slickrock in Aug. 2015. I hadn't climbed that big chunk of rock since 1985. It was more difficult, harder to protect, & way-more run out than I remembered.
Slick Rock. The route we climbed was 9 pitches.
