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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

why do people climb? 23-May-2005 At 11:45:33 AM Kanya

Message

Hi Nicky. Mick Ellerton suggested I respond.

For me climbing has 5 aspects which combine to give the full experience.

1. I get great enjoyment and inspiration from the bush settings that climbing takes me to. Looking
down on the eagles in the Warrumbungles, watching a storm approach half way up Moonarie, watching
the Sydney-Hobart yachts sail by from the Hazards at Coles Bay, dangling 40m above a killer whale
having fallen off a climb at Bridgewater, Portland, climbing amongst the autumn leaves at Red River
Gorge, West Virginia, sitting on top of the Fortress in the Grampians gazing down into the wilderness
of the Victoria Range, the wildflowers in the Gramps in spring on a walk into a cliff.
2. The motion of controlled, graceful movement over rock is exhilarating.
3. The physical and mental challenge is important. The challenge is intense but resolved relatively
quickly and innumerable future challenges always await.
4. My climbing generally occurs with other like-minded people and so the social nature of climbing is
important - the planning, the on-the-day repartee, the debriefing, the justifying of failure.
5. Not everybody climbs and I enjoy the sense of being different and being in places that not many
other people go to.

It is possible to climb without all the 5 aspects - solo top-roping, in gyms, not wanting to take on the
physical and mental challenge on a particular day, feeling like an elephant while moving over the rock
on a particular day - but the full experience involves all 5 components.