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General Climbing Discussion

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Significant events that have changed your climbing 8-Apr-2010 At 2:58:30 PM Hendo

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I am by no means a grizzled old climber, I really haven’t been climbing for all that long so I don’t have any serious stories to tell. However I do ponder my views on risk taking and like almost everything I think about I never come to any firm conclusions, because well, I think I look for imaginary absolute answers. At the moment, while I feel that I have a future to live for, if I die nobody is going to live a life of hardship as a result (I don’t have young children etc). Sure people will be sad for a while but it isn’t the end of the world (for them). If I am maimed and need constant care then someone/’the system’ will experience hardship, hence I am more concerned about that. I vividly remember dodgy situations (groundfalls, dodgy setups etc) when I first started climbing all of which turned out fine (thankfully), and I think I am typically more concerned about getting others (call me old fashioned but especially girls) into bad situations.

I think you could go climbing and be super safe e.g. just toprope from super bomber anchors and you would have less chance of minor or serious injury than many other more mainstream sports. For me I could still have fun doing that (I don’t mind climbing indoors) but it wouldn’t give the sense of adventure. I don’t do things deliberately dangerous (from a climber’s perspective, as opposed to my mother’s…) but I like the idea of going on a trip, not knowing exactly what to expect, not knowing for sure how hard I will find a climb to be, or if I can even make it all the way, how scared I will get, will I get lost, what I will find etc.

To be honest I think I will end up doing things at various points which I consider dangerous and outside my normal level of risks, hopefully it turns out ok. I very much enjoy the absolute focus and concentration I can get from leading, strangely enough the older I get the less I seem to be able to focus and concentrate in normal life. I also need a physical outlet in which to release the animal that is my body.

I agree it seems selfish to put yourself in danger when so many people are forced into situations in which they are desperate to survive and often fail to escape. That is the nature of the beast, climbing has many very self centered aspects to it, people see that as a positive or negative depending on their perspective. The fact that you get to choose your risks is the difference I suppose.

I wonder what I will think in the future.