Alpine > Trad > Sport > Boulder

This thread got me thinking.
mountainproject.com/v/gener…

I often hear people say that Alpine climbers are the best out there, and that sporto's and pebble wrestlers are a bunch of pussies in comparison. I see myself as a recreational climber, and I find it annoying that there is this BS about sport is just an invisible TR and this and that.

Someone in the above post said they never hear sport climbers and boulderers making these negative comments about the other, but the inverse is not true. My though on it is this... sport climbing really starts at the 5.12 level, and at that point, you have invested a shit ton of time and you could likely give a crap about someone else's opinion.

Tradsters that can't climb hard boast about how inferior HARD climbing is because the ego must fine a way to justify that someone else is better than them.

Something real to say > Trolling.

In an effort to get this thread started in a manner that is appropriate, I will add this:

youtube.com/watch?v=ddjD4c-…

The truth hurts.

NC Rock Climber wrote:In an effort to get this thread started in a manner that is appropriate, I will add this: youtube.com/watch?v=ddjD4c-…

My day just of much better !! I have not had a laugh that good for a while now.

youtube.com/watch?v=gaOMug3…

So, you think it's lame that people don't give you respect for sport climbing, but then you go on to say that people who don't climb 5.12 aren't really climbing?

I got news for ya buddy - the people climbing 5.8 trad or 5.10 sport are having just as much fun as you are. Probably a lot more actually. No doubt they are more fun to be around.

Get over yourself.

Ryan Williams wrote:So, you think it's lame that people don't give you respect for sport climbing, but then you go on to say that people who don't climb 5.12 aren't really climbing? I got news for ya buddy - the people climbing 5.8 trad or 5.10 sport are having just as much fun as you are. Probably a lot more actually. No doubt they are more fun to be around. Get over yourself.

I'm not saying that I'm better than them, I'm stating an opinion about "sport" climbing. I have no issue with any of the disciplines, I just notice attitude in one direction not the other.

.... Yawn.... so you guys think the Broncos got a chance against the Ravens Sunday?

When I was in college I ran over a chipmunk with a forklift. Boy, was that messy.

Edit to add: Glad you liked that, Jeff. Your video is pretty funny too. BTW, what do you think about Mystery Ranch? They are located in Bozeman. I just had some dealings with them regarding a warranty issue, and I was REALLY impressed with their customer service after the sale.

Randy W. wrote: I'm not saying that I'm better than them, I'm stating an opinion about "sport" climbing. I have no issue with any of the disciplines, I just notice attitude in one direction not the other.

What you fail to realize is that your "opinion" is in fact attitude in the other direction. Saying that sport climbing "starts at 5.12" is no different than a trad guy saying that sport climbing is inferior. The way you feel when trad guys put sport climbers down - that's the way you just made a whole lot of 5.10-5.11 sport climbers feel.

youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_Z…

You said it man..nobody fucks w The Jesus! I like your style dude...

who cares?

When I was growing up I surfed.

Surfers>bogey-boarders>skim boarders

I also skated a lot and

vert>street>mini-ramp>roller-gayders doing anything.

It's human nature to attempt to set oneself apart from others based on their own subjective opinion.

... I digress.

A 20 hour day on an alpine route > driving to the crag, walking 5 minutes and clipping bolts.

That's just physics, brah.

pebble wrasslin pointless little boulders is just for getting better for those RAD sport lines!
->
hangdogging up those lame safely bolted sport routes is just to get good enough not to fall off of those inspiring trad routes!
->
traddin' at the crag 30 mins from the road is just to get better so you're more confident and safe, so you can get up that huge alpine peak!
->
now you can alpine up to the tippy top of some big magestic mountain!
by the time you get here, you're old, out of shape and crusty.

lots people just skip to some random step to begin with, then/or have too much fun at whatever step they're on and stay there for the most part.

/end rambling, I had about as much of a point as the hippo.

Randy W. wrote:This thread got me thinking. mountainproject.com/v/gener… I often hear people say that Alpine climbers are the best out there, and that sporto's and pebble wrestlers are a bunch of pussies in comparison. I see myself as a recreational climber, and I find it annoying that there is this BS about sport is just an invisible TR and this and that. Someone in the above post said they never hear sport climbers and boulderers making these negative comments about the other, but the inverse is not true. My though on it is this... sport climbing really starts at the 5.12 level, and at that point, you have invested a shit ton of time and you could likely give a crap about someone else's opinion. Tradsters that can't climb hard boast about how inferior HARD climbing is because the ego must fine a way to justify that someone else is better than them.

I rarely hear alpine climbers putting down anybody else.
It seems to me like it's strictly a trad thing. and only a minority of trad climbers, for that matter.

Not understanding sport climbing: A week chufflet with a big ego but very little pain tolerance and too much fat.

Not understanding trad climbing: A noob from the gym who doesn't understand the irrelevance his situation and likes to make weak people mad.

The reward of understanding multiple disciplines: priceless.

a good well rounded climber does sport, trad and boulders ...

if you climb harder trad, sport climbing and bouldering can be very useful to pull through cruxes ... personally every 5.12 or above trad climber i know does sport and boulders at some point ...

;)

Ryan Williams wrote:So, you think it's lame that people don't give you respect for sport climbing, but then you go on to say that people who don't climb 5.12 aren't really climbing?

Respect my authority!!!!!

Oh yea, it's not that they aren't climbing, it's that they aren't "sport climbing", or so I hear.

I'll bet they will come back, with a troop of boy scouts, a hemp cord, and an old swami belt.

Viva la Revolution!!!!

Jonhy Q wrote:Not understanding sport climbing: A week chufflet with a big ego but very little pain tolerance and too much fat. Not understanding trad climbing: A noob from the gym who doesn't understand the irrelevance his situation and likes to make weak people mad. The reward of understanding multiple disciplines: priceless.

bearbreeder wrote:a good well rounded climber does sport, trad and boulders ... if you climb harder trad, sport climbing and bouldering can be very useful to pull through cruxes ... personally every 5.12 or above trad climber i know does sport and boulders at some point ... ;)

yep x2

Nate Reno wrote:pebble wrasslin pointless little boulders is just for getting better for those RAD sport lines! -> hangdogging up those lame safely bolted sport routes is just to get good enough not to fall off of those inspiring trad routes! -> traddin' at the crag 30 mins from the road is just to get better so you're more confident and safe, so you can get up that huge alpine peak! -> now you can alpine up to the tippy top of some big magestic mountain! by the time you get here, you're old, out of shape and crusty. lots people just skip to some random step to begin with, then/or have too much fun at whatever step they're on and stay there for the most part. /end rambling, I had about as much of a point as the hippo.

X2. This is wise, young ones.

Everyone has a certain mix of enjoyment from difficult movement (let's call this "movement") and from danger/exposure/conditions/gear/everything else (let's call this "adventure").

People who place a high value on Adventure tend towards the alpine/trad end of the spectrum, and people who place a high value on Movement tend towards the sport/bouldering side. I'm talking preference here, not skill level - there are boulderers who are also great mountaineers, and Alpinists who could out-crank the best gym-broulderers around.

Most people, though, tend to be best at their preferred style, and a bit below-average in other styles, which is where envy comes into play... in both directions. The part of you-no matter how small-that craves adventure, will envy hard-core alpinists. Conversely, the part of you that appreciates hard and aesthetic movement will covet the V-hard fingers of dedicated boulderers.

If you feel inferior according to one metric, the natural reaction is to apply the other metric to restore your superiority. This type of recipro-spray happens every day, at every crag/mountain/gym, and should be unsurprising by now.

What IS surprising is that we actually (to use the original poster's words against him) "give a crap about someone else's opinion." Without going too far into the irony of complaining that sport climbers are too self-assured to deserve ridicule… clearly there is something else at play here. Why do we care so much about what different types of climbers think, and why do we keep forgetting that these judgment-passers use a different standard than ourselves?

This is, I think, the reason:

Divergence. Over the years, bouldering has gotten more bouldery, sport climbing has gotten more sporty, gym climbing has gotten more artificial (and way cooler), and trad/alpine climbing... well I don't know much about trad and alpine. Divergence is awesome and exciting, and it means that climbing is progressing on multiple fronts. It also means that the average climber understands less and less about what attracts people to other disciplines.

At the same time we all continue to define ourselves as climbers, and identify as part of a larger climbing community. We don't realize (or else we constantly forget) vastly different the disciplines have become. For instance, I do the bouldering/sport/gym thing, and I consider myself a climber. If I'd grown up in the days of rusty pitons, swami belts, and hip-belays, I don't think I'd have been a climber - maybe a recreational gymnast, or more likely, a couch-potato. I just don't have the huge cojones that guys from that era had (and still have). There are personalities who are climbers now, who would not have been just a short while ago, and yet we all still think of ourselves as climbers.

In conclusion, next time you feel like bashing another discipline, or complaining that you're being hated on, stop and ask a more interesting question: What does that person like about climbing that is different from what you like? After pondering that, carry on bashing and spraying, because those are some of the last activities every true climber enjoys.