The balance between full-time dirtbag and 60-hour week office drone

Many aspire to be a full-time climber, and for most the only way to do it is to dirtbag it since you cant exactly live it up when you only work three months a year. But there are many drawbacks to being a dirtbag, mostly being broke all the damn time, and living in a car which gets really, really old after six months. It can be lonely at times too, trying to find climbing partners and driving from destination to destination alone, unless you happen to be a hot chick in which you can probably always find company.

On the other side, being a work drone with a family of four is pretty shitty for climbing life, but you have money to do as you want. So the best balance is probably somewhere in between. Not living out of a car for your entire life, but not slaving for the man all the time either.

For you, where do you find the best balance is?

For me the best balance is in making a lot of money and traveling the world for work. It can go on indefinitely. I suppose until I drop dead from a major coronary or old age. I leave the family and kids life to others while enjoying the company of my first mate. That type of fast pace is not for everyone, but we both seem to crave the challenge of what's next. Happy trails!

Edit: When coming to crossroads in life put your faith in God. He shall guide you on your journey. Amen.

Mr. Vincent B:

Could you elaborate on said making a lot of money and traveling the world for work? Is this a smash and grab job, a sell your soul to the corporate machine or something that lies there in between?

I for one have found either money in pocket and no time, or no money in pocket and lots of time. The no money in pocket and lots of time has provided me with the best climbing of my young life. However, I am slowly starting to move into that looking for a place to call home/getting tired of being broke/the need to produce or contribute something portion of life.

Vincent B. wrote:Alas, my friend, I am not at liberty to discuss the nature of my business over the Internet. It has too many hands in the pot at the moment.

It's okay, we know.



Or is it one of these things?:



Wait, I got it.





Think of how much climbing gear you could buy with all that.

Being a freelancer or consultant in any field could be a good fit. You control your time (assuming you're not a consultant in a larger firm or something), so you can dictate when you work and when you climb.

You can look at the time off either as large chunks on the scale of months, or on a smaller scale of days and weeks.

My position is ¾ time and I work 30 hours per week, typically taking 3-day weekends and occasionally 4-dayers. It works well for semi-local climbing accessible within several hours drive; and there is a wide variety available within that radius from my home in the Denver area. Unfortunately, extended road trips and long stays at destination areas are not practical for me since they don’t fit into the standard vacation allowance of a few weeks. It is not ideal, but it is a reasonable balance.

As for the logistics of making it work: First, I work with an employee owned company having an open mind regarding their employees. Second, I’m an engineer who has been in the field a long time, and I established myself before switching to a ¾ time. Third, I try to be flexible and make it work for the company when needed. Also, it probably helps that my employer knows that I have definite activities outside of work that are important to me – rather than just being lazy or partying.

I don’t recall the author or the exact quote, but you get the idea: “At either end of the social spectrum there lies the leisure class”. For most of us, only one end of the spectrum is available and we strive to carve out what leisure time we can.

You have to live somewhere close to climbing and have a job you can detach from when you leave work. I am an engineer and that is hard to do. My wife is a nurse it seems to fit the bill better. Always wondered what a job teaching might be like. A lot more free time in the summers but less pay and more BS to put up with.

At 50 I have reached the point where I can pretty much climb as much as I want to which is one day each weekend maybe 2 days from time to time. A few days in the gym. That is all I want. Leaves some time for mtn biking kayaking and some hiking.

If you need more than this maybe you expect too much from life

My "solution" was to get old and retire. I now have plenty of time to climb - now if I only had the energy.

I own my own business. We do concrete restoration and waterproofing. Another does directional boring to install underground utilities. I have responsible, honest and intelligent employees that are well take care of. This allows me to spend time in the Adirondacks. Now if i would just take climbing serious and lose some weight i probably would be pretty good. I certainly have a enough time to train.

Of course the problem with my lifestyle is I'm a capitalist pig. So depending how much time you spend on your soapbox this might not be for you.

Bartender/Service/Restaurant industry. If you get in the right spot the money will be good and the schedule will be flexible. Plus all your bar regulars will be super excited to hear stories of your climbing days/trips when you come back with your hands all chewed up. Also you can work just nights and climb every morning while all the other drones are at the hive till 5 and then be there to get their money when they sit there complaining about how they never have time to do anything fun anymore.

Greg Egbert wrote:Teacher. I'm done at 2pm every day. Have the gym to myself between 2:30 and 5. Oh, the other big perk is summers off. Every time we climbed last summer we rarely saw another person. We being me and my climbing partner, who happens to be a teacher too. It's a tough gig.

You're lucky. I know a lot more teachers who work on average 60hrs a week, and have to use weekends for planning. They are expected to volunteer even more of their time to be considered proficient, have to make most of the materials for class, and spend their own money to get what the school doesn't have. After all this, they get 2 (not 3) months off where they get called by the school for this activity or that.

They don't leave at 2, they leave at 6. It's a good day if they don't leave in tears.

I'm a teacher and my experience is closer to what nicelegs is saying that what Greg said. It has some upsides, such as I keep an alpine schedule all week. I get up at 4:30 on weekdays so that I can go straight to the gym after I get out of work. But if you teach expect to put closer to 60 hours a week into work than 40.

Yeah 60 hours is more the first couple of years, it definitely gets easier as you accumulate experience and materials. I'm just annoyed because I had to grade this weekend rather than go on a trip. It can be a great profession for climbers overall.

20 kN wrote:For you, where do you find the best balance is?

I work remotely and live in Bishop.

Mostly boulder / sport climb during the week, save the longer stuff for weekends.

Written on the inside of a bathroom stall at Camp 4:

"Work less. Buy less."

Definitely restaurants, if you're cut out for it. Once your a solid kitchen hand, you can pretty much find work wherever you want, whenever you want. Anytime I've needed a job or wanted to take a break from the road I found a job within a week or two, all over the country. Pretty easy to find PM jobs too that leave you free to climb any morning you want.

Buy/rent a place in an area this has tourist year round. Air BNB the shit out of it. Go live in your car.

These jobs seem to have a good work/life balance for climbers
-Nurse
-IT Jobs (especially if you can work remotely)
-Sales Rep Jobs (you get to travel for work, too)
-Trustafarians (Daddy got this one, honey!)

Just keep your office job and set up a MP troll account to live out your fantasy.

Here is one way:
Find a full time M-F job and that allows you to work a 9/80 schedule (9 hrs days, then take every other Friday off). That way you have a 3 day weekend, every other week. Add in holidays and you have a lot more 3-day weekends. Stay there for 5-10 years so you're acruing 1-1.5 vacation days each month, then take a few of those days to string together 10-day vacations while only using 3 vacation days. By this point you are working 30 hrs per week, on average, for full time pay. You're not necessarily getting rich, but your having fun

Jim Turner wrote:Here is one way: Find a full time M-F job and that allows you to work a 9/80 schedule (9 hrs days, then take every other Friday off). That way you have a 3 day weekend, every other week. Add in holidays and you have a lot more 3-day weekends. Stay there for 5-10 years so you're acruing 1-1.5 vacation days each month, then take a few of those days to string together 10-day vacations while only using 3 vacation days. By this point you are working 30 hrs per week, on average, for full time pay. You're not necessarily getting rich, but your having fun

This... I like this! As a new engineer to the workplace, this would be awesome!