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Rock, not the final issue? 21-Jul-2004 At 2:28:38 PM adamk

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I think Mikl's point about their being more climbers but less articles is an interesting one. Perhaps because the style of climbing has changed so much this is reflected in what can be written about. I'm only assuming this could it be that 'back in the day' a climbing weekend included putting up new routes, having adventures, experiencing danger, near death experiences, stuff that was interesting to both write and read about. A modern climbing weekend (im not complaining just making a point) usually entails clipping draws on a mega repeated sports route(a fall doesnt mean death anymore) if it rains we have high tech gear to keep us dry and warm, we have 4wd so we dont get bogged on the way(or back) to the crag it all becomes a bit bland and dry. Even if we break ourselves to bits we know a chopper probably isnt that far away. In the pursuit of hell hard grades (which is awesome) perhaps some of the Adventure has been lost and this is reflected in the kind of articles we read in rock. Perhaps this also means that now that the sport/recreation of climbing is so easy to be involved in (which is awesome) some resolute and colorful characters (like we have seen in the past) give
their time and energy to pursuits that are more on the edge? To me Rock seems to be a pretty good indicator of what's going on in the climbing community, if Rock has become bland then is that an indicator of our climbing community?