What Makes a Hard Man?

For the masses who will never become pro climbers, the best thing to be achieved is the status of “Hard Man”. Everyone knows instinctually what a Hard Man is, and in a way we all try to be him. My question is: how do you know when you are a Hard Man? Is it when you have gotten up on every route at the local crag? Is it when you visit a different crag and onsight a 5.11, establishing your dominance? Or is it only when you tell someone who climbed a 5.6 at your local crag that they did it in poor style, and perhaps they should have finished quicker? I am looking for answers. I am a man (allegedly), but how do I become Hard?

are we still doing phrasing?

No stinking plastic

after thinking about it i’ll go with sketchy and technical FA’s. you put up a few legendary choss trad routes and you’re HARD. 

Hard man is synonymous with canyon man. Strive on soldier

If you have to ask...   

See: Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition for obscenity.

Well, for starters... he doesn't ask how to be Hard on an internet forum.

Kevin Worrall wrote:

No stinking plastic

Can’t tell if you are joking…

Silvia Vidal is a hard man 

When you touch a curvy surface and instantly get excited.  

Puppy lover and “hardman” are synonyms. I think technically the term puppy lover predated the hardman.

Rocrates wrote:

For the masses who will never become pro climbers, the best thing to be achieved is the status of “Hard Man”. Everyone knows instinctually what a Hard Man is, and in a way we all try to be him. My question is: how do you know when you are a Hard Man? Is it when you have gotten up on every route at the local crag? Is it when you visit a different crag and onsight a 5.11, establishing your dominance? Or is it only when you tell someone who climbed a 5.6 at your local crag that they did it in poor style, and perhaps they should have finished quicker? I am looking for answers. I am a man (allegedly), but how do I become Hard?

I wouldn't think it a plus for a hard man to finish quicker. 

Guess I'll stick with the 5.6ers.

YMMV

H.

5.12 : chill and fun grades. You should be able to climb 12s pretty easily and all day long.

5.13: Getting harder, but not that hard. You routinely see people send on 5.13 on second or flash go in Europe, but of course not in the US, climbers in the US are super soft. Americans see 13s like god, Europeans treat them like matter of fact.

5.14 and above: Hard Man

Rocrates wrote:

I am looking for answers. how do I become Hard?

Simple Answer:  Sunglasses 

Jake Foster wrote:

5.12 : chill and fun grades. You should be able to climb 12s pretty easily and all day long.

5.13: Getting harder, but not that hard. You routinely see people send on 5.13 on second or flash go in Europe, but of course not in the US, climbers in the US are super soft. Americans see 13s like god, Europeans treat them like matter of fact.

5.14 and above: Hard Man

Sport climbing does not embody the essence of the hard man. A hard man may climb difficult sport routes, but it is coincidental, not defining. Hard man must be versed in actual mountain craft and have demonstrated ability to eat his leather boots. This is the dictionary definition of hard man:

https://www.wiredforadventure.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ogre-broken-legs-doug-scott.jpg

Hard people are chiseled out of the world’s disappointments. If that’s not relatable, bask in the glory of all of your soft happiness. 

A true hard-man does not define himself as such.

Charlie Porter never climbed 5,12

He did solo Mt Asgard, after 4, 60 mile hikes, each way, in and out, to get all his gear to the base. Then 9 days on the 3,000 ft vertical wall in storm and freezing temps, only 5.10+ free climbing, and A4. I saw his slideshow afterwards, the photo embedded in my brain was a picture of his huge rack hanging on the wall at his bivi in the morning, completely covered and bristling with spiky hoar frost. He summitted with frostbitten feet and had to descend and crawl 30 miles back to a lucky encounter with an Inuit hunter. No food for 10 days.

Charlie was a Hard Man, and that’s just one of his many truly badass adventures. 

Given the time of day, I am currently a hard man

This might he long but I’ll take a whack.

Hard man is an esoteric term we use to describe someone that is naturally and  intrinsically  driven to climb. I believe the more specific criteria that defines a Hardman could be one, or several of the following:

1. free solos double digit YDS routes casually, but you probably would never know because they don’t solo in front of anyone, or tell anyone

2. Onsights hard trad, meaning 5.11+ to 5.12. I remember hazel findlay saying in a podcast that anyone who can consistently on-sight 5.12 all gear should be considered elite.

3. Hardman is in control of the mind. “Bombproof mental game”.  You won’t see a hardman on route whimpering about a scary runout, sketchy gear, or intimidating features.  hardman puts 2 and 2 together and commits to a long runout with conviction. 

4. Secret sender. this character has probably changed over the decades, and i imagine a 1980s hardman to be a lot more competitive with their contemporaries, but a modern hardman i would say, flys under the radar, has few peers, and keeps the send for themself. The hardest person i know in my area, barely anyone knows by name, but has developed hundreds of routes in GA, put up several 5.13s in the state, and doesn’t participate in social media. This, to me, screams hardman.

5. inspired by the rock. Hardmen seem to always prioritize a feature of a route, especially in development. Seeing a perfect knifeblade arete, a daunting hang, or nobel prize winning open book corner gets a hardman all giddy and excited. To a hardman, grades are almost always secondary to the quality, position, aesthetics, and character of a route. 

6. Dedication. Hardmen are all in. Climbing is THE prioirty, the main avenue for emotion. They do anything they can to accomplish their goals, and don’t need encouragement. The hardman is the one waking your ass up from the air mattress at 6:30am, dressed, approach shoes on, coffee already in hand, waiting on you to get going to the crag. When it comes to actually climbing, hardmen get obsessed, but not to the point of detriment of performance or mental state. From the get go, a hardman knows they will complete a project, it’s just matter of clocking in, putting in the work, and getting it done, and they do.

7. Lifer. Being a lifer doesn’t necessarily mean that you climb your whole life. It means you remain a climber your whole life

Hardman exhibit A: Ken. Ken is my fathers climbing partner from the late 80s-90s. He was born and raised in Chattanooga. He grew up around the upper echelon of climbers in the area from that era. He was among the first climbers to ever visit Tennesee wall, would spend most evening bouldering at the base of the walls of Sunset Park. Within a few years, he was properly redpointing 5.12s on gear, and casually soloing 5.10-5.11. His cohort was the likes of Rob robinson, Robyn Erbesfiekd (he was good friends with her), Forrest Gardener, Shannon Stegg (RIP), Chris watford, our local legends. Logical progression, he traveled around the US as a classic american dirtbag climber. He would meet and climb with Ron kauk in yosemite, Bachar and croft in owens river gorge, other figures he befriended include Paul Piana, and yes, Lynn Hill. He went on to become a proficient aid climber, repeating many hard routes on the North side of Looking glass. To this day, despite not having climbed in about 20 years, He remembers precise beta about any climb he has done, down to a crystal. He knows what gear, what foot, what finger. 

A few stories: In his 20s, Ken met a  neighborhood kid whos parents said he wanted to get into rock climbing. He would pick him up from school and head straight to sunset to pack in as much vertical mileage as possible. That kid slowly got better and better, until he was better than ken and eventually moved out to colorado. That kid was Ben Ditto. if you’re not familiar, he is now a quintesential modern hardman. Numerous 5.14 ascents, master big wall climber of yosemite, patagonia, and baffin. He was featured in Reel Rocks “Dodo’s delight” aboard the Dodo with  Sean Villanueva O'driscoll and Nico Favresse, two of the hardest men alive. I like to think that somewhere in the past, Ken instilled the hardman spirit and inspired Ben to become the climber he is today.

Ken once was sentenced a year in jail for a DUI. Once he knew there was no way out of it, the day before he had to be admitted, he went out sunset and soloed some 20-25 pitches of rock, including Scream Walk, Euphoria, Flagstone, Cornerstone, some of the most classic routes at the park. Hardman spirit embodied.