Why Do Some Climbers HATE Bouldering?

I am always very confused when I see many people post about how much bouldering sucks or how stupid bouldering is or they say "I would rather ____ than boulder". I am not saying every climber should like bouldering, but seriously, how badly has this aspect of CLIMBING ruined your life as climber.

It is probably the most simple way to climb. Find Rock. Climb Rock. (Don't Die.)

It is the basis of all other rock climbing and YES even TRADDDDDD climbing is bouldering. WHY is that???? Well all bouldering is experiencing movement over rock. Think about all the historically significant and strong rock climbers. Did they dabble in bouldering?

I know that many people despise the culture that comes along with a younger and significantly different generation of climbers, and that is perfectly acceptable. And, I am not saying every climber should love bouldering, but I don't understand why some people insist that bouldering sucks.

(Personally, many times I would rather be climbing on a rope, but sometimes I don't want to deal with a bunch of gear and often more commitment. I just want to go out with a pad, shoes, chalk, and a friend and then mess around climbing on rocks. I also hope all you bouldering-haters leave some good comments.)

1. CLIMBING is not BOULDERING!

2. SPORT CLIMBING IS NEITHER!

Ryan N wrote:1. CLIMBING is not BOULDERING! 2. SPORT CLIMBING IS NEITHER!

And those are the most tired statements in the "sport". Very creative.

I'm not against bouldering....shit, the more people that boulder, the better.....it makes for empty crags!!!

I challenge any boulderer to jump on a 12 draw sport 10 or a trad 100ft 7 and manage to keep their balls in the sack!

Ryan N wrote:1. CLIMBING is not BOULDERING! 2. SPORT CLIMBING IS NEITHER!

How is climbing not bouldering? And how is sport climbing now climbing?

Elena Sera Jose wrote:I challenge any boulderer to jump on a 12 draw sport 10 or a trad 100ft 7 and manage to keep their balls in the sack!

Okay what is your point? I challenge a 5.7 trad climber OR a 5.10 Red River Gorge climber to do a V4 boulder problem.

I am not saying bouldering is better/worse or anything (nor do I identify as strictly a boulderer)...my point is that it is all climbing and bouldering is just moving over rock.

hahahahaha some people...

The only thing at work here is that flaming on boulderers is just so damn easy. Low hanging fruit, fish in a barrel, sneaking into a Special Olympics event, name your metaphor. Boulderers are like the goofy kid sitting at the front of the bus, just helpless against the taunts of the cool kids in the back. Between the 420 and typically just being young, ya'll are just easy targets. Notice no one fucks with Bob Horan. He's not a punk. The exceptional athletes in this sport do both climbing and bouldering well. But when your only talent is limited to bouldering, we just don't take you seriously; get some proud redpoints in and then you earn your way out of the taunting.

Also, the lack of getting anywhere; and despite all the power moves you still are done in about 2 minutes is just not enough of a thrill or challenge for the vertically inclined.

Bouldering is like stereotyping California, Rado or East Coast climbers. Or shit talking about how the grades in Eldo or the Woo are harder than anywhere else.
Bouldering is an easy target.
Kinda like making fun of Boulder, CO... except that all those statements are true.

Edit: Dammit, DB beat me to it.

Stick clipping is neither

I think a lot of people hate on it because they aren't good at it.

How many pages on this one, Hankster?

Why does one faction of climbers have to dis another?
i.e: blunderers vs tried or spurt (translates to boulderers vs trad or sport)?

I suggest we argue climbing vs wallyball, climbing vs spending hours on Farcebook, or climbing vs shopping.

Sure, only climbers visit this site, but, for crying out loud, quit comparing apples to oranges and appreciate the fact that we all like to pull down. Big walls, big mountains, crags, boulders, ice, mixed, whatever. It is all good.

One of the things I love about our sport is that it is easy to get burned out when you focus on one aspect of the sport time after time and then you can add some variety.

When I get burned out on spurt clamming I can go blundering. When I get burned out on blundering I can go do some turd (trad if you must). Burned out on turd? Go climb on yo mamma.

Petty infighting is for trolls, who need to get out more and take themselves less seriously.

Here, this will help understand the different types of climbing:

youtube.com/watch?v=SyIJ_c5…

Elena Sera Jose wrote:I challenge any boulderer to jump on a 12 draw sport 10 or a trad 100ft 7 and manage to keep their balls in the sack!

Try a few of their highball problems and keep yours in...

I like bouldering, but I hate what it does to my rock climbing friends. The potential consequences of a blunder are not as extreme as in trad and sport climbing, but I feel that it is pretty clear that the risks are a lot higher. I have seen so many sprained and broken ankles, strained tendons, etc. So, I tend to ignore it unless it is the only option.

Christian "crisco" Burrell wrote: Try a few of their highball problems and keep yours in...

The thing about me is my ankles are not broken I don't show off to nobody and I got cha ching to finance gear or trips so u can have your high balls

Elena Sera Jose wrote: The thing about me is my ankles are not broken I don't show off to nobody and I got cha ching to finance gear or trips so u can have your high balls

Like today I was in a trad 7 crack had a ball did not loose my balls in general it was an awesome day minus some douche making his girlfriend cry

Dammit I bit. I've done plenty of trad, bouldering and sport, even bold sport (Yes, it exists.) I'm a big fan of run-outs, high balls and scary leads, and I'm currently missing part of my meniscus post-surgery from a bouldering fall.

They all have their merits, if you're not injured or out of commission what are you doing in this thread?

/;-) this should be fun...expect it to go a dozen pages of arguments in less than this weekend. the ever on going discussion about what bouldering is compared to climbing trad, compared to sport routes, and might as well compare it all to mountaineering ascents like Everest too. Let's cover all aspects of the sport. Don't forget gyms.