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Why are Victorians so cool; at least Queen Vic was 13-Jul-2013 At 12:43:19 AM rolsen1

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On 11/07/2013 mikllaw wrote:
>I have always wondered about the fact that Victorian climbers are much
>safer and competent (as a wild generalisation), I've always thought that
>it was because of the trad-factor. But reading Jared Diamond "The world
>until yesterday" he talks about endless campsite discussions of epics and
>accidents.
>
>We don't have campfires in NSW (much), it's a daytripping convenience
>state. I probably learnt as much from other epics as from my own, and poor
>modern sports climbers don't even have decent epics- how will they ever
>learn?

I think you're totally right about the campfire culture and the importance of the sense making conversations that happen around them. There is also plenty of time during those four hour car trips as well. I also wonder whether the onsight multi-pitch trad experience is more of a shared experience as thus more conducive to shared reflection than red-point sport climbing which might be more about individual performance?