Advice for a young climber

Write stuff down.

Keep a journal of your climbs. Who, what, how you felt, unique things that happened, what you learned.

I started climbing 44 years ago, and I have a bunch of memories that are precious to me. And I'm still not done climbing! But there's a lot of details that are lost.

Nowadays, we have these fancy computers. You'll be able to search through your journal automatically.

Write stuff down!

I'll second that. But use a real (paper) booklet rather than relying on the computer. 44 years is a long time, and I don't know any software or storage medium that will be maintained over that long an interval. For example, as recently as 30 years ago, we kept our (work) files on 8" floppies. How many of you could read an 8" floppy today? Then we switched to 5-1/4" floppies; y'all got that drive on your laptops...right?

I treasure my earliest (1970's) climbing notes. They're on paper.

Started my journal this past winter, and I already appreciate it so much. I have the worst memory, and so on one hand, I love to hear people tell me what we did, its like a new story to me. But on the other hand so much is lost. Looking back through my journal, and seeing the dates, week by week, with the names, and the climbs, it puts a whole picture together of the year. I really cherish it.

Still trying to figure out what to put in, what not to. Right now I am sticking to leads and pivotal climbs for me.

And I've been adding in photos, printed by the print-shop and spray adhesive in. Can't imagine looking back on this in several years time.

For those NH folks and MWV-IceFest Attendees, those photos from Little Outdoor Giants, that are so unbecoming, but beautifully telling of the moment, they make great journal pics.

Its called taking photos with your iphone and posting them on fbook

And half the time i dont even bother especially in the offseason in squamish where youre re-climbing the limited number of somewhat dry climbs anyways

;)

If you think it, ink it! Trivia or epiphany, write it down. The little tiny details may not matter now, but they have a funny way of completing a story or an image some years down the road.

Take pictures. Either get 'em printed (gasp) or preserve them some other way. Be sure to identify people in thos pix. You are guaranteed to forget who's who.

flynn wrote:If you think it, ink it!

Wise words. Moleskine notebooks have been one of my best investments.

Larry wrote:Write stuff down. Keep a journal of your climbs. Who, what, how you felt, unique things that happened, what you learned. I started climbing 44 years ago, and I have a bunch of memories that are precious to me. And I'm still not done climbing! But there's a lot of details that are lost. Nowadays, we have these fancy computers. You'll be able to search through your journal automatically. Write stuff down!

Meh, I would limit it to mostly taking photos, and only for big multi-pitch climbs (or whatever you consider to be noteworthy) IMO. I used to track every pitch I climbed, every warmup, every 2-star sport route in the middle of a sea of sport climbs, until I realized it was pointless beyond being able to say I climbed xxx routes of xx grade.

I do keep photos of all my long climbs though, and that's worth it for sure.