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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 8, 2018 - 09:15pm PT
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Quiet night up here in the great white north. After a late afternoon beer and some great climbing talk in the pub with ex-supertopian Bruce Kay, and with dinner out of the way, I fired up the computer and thought, hmmm, maybe there'll be something interesting on youtube. So I typed in "Rock Climbing" and the first video that popped up was "19-Year-Old WORLD CHAMPION Rock Climber"
Which left me a bit confused. What was up? Patrick Edlinger back from the dead and in a 19-year-old body? Wasn't Edlinger the last world champion? Or was I just so far out of touch that...???
Ha. Turns out that a young man named Kai Lightner, from North Carolina, is the world champion rock climber now...
...despite never having put hand or foot on an actual rock.
Not to dis the young man, who seems like a really cool kid, and may represent the US in the 2020 Olympics, but, as far as can be determined from the video, he's never climbed anything outside a gym. Ever.
Weird. All his coaches and trainers call him a "rock climber", and he himself talks about how discovering "rock climbing" changed his life, but...
...ah, f*#k. I guess we're just all old and out of touch.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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But can he dunk?
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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The term “trad climber” was forced on the unwilling because of the advent of sport climbing and the effort to differentiate. A clearer case is using the term “gym climber” to refer to people who climb indoors. Gym climbers can earn rock climber status when they move outdoors and climb on...rock.
Next we will have to come up with an appropriate term for “mixed climbing” events done on artificial towers. These events are even more ludicrous “representations” of real climbing with ice axe placements sometimes required on logs swinging around on the ends of ropes.
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jaredg
climber
california
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The guy climbs outside.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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The good thing about gyms is the way they have democratized climbing. More young people from social/economic groups that have not been previously introduced to climbing are discovering it.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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I have a ex-client who got into indoor bouldering at like age 50. He now climbs V7, but very much dislikes climbing outdoors - go figure.
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Kai could single handedly make Olympic climbing a huge success. So much of the Olympics is the personal stories of athletes and their families. I do not usually watch but I will be pulling for Kai in 2020
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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Ghost,
I knew of Kai as an accomplished outdoor climber before I heard of his indoor exploits. Maybe your Google is broken.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 9, 2018 - 09:31am PT
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Ha. As I said, I'm just old and out of touch. So all I knew about him was that one video -- which was entirely focused on indoor climbing. Not even a token mention that he also climbs rocks.
But, as I also said, I wasn't dissing him. He came across as a really cool kid, and, obviously, a gifted and hard-working athlete.
Oh, and one other thing. Today is the Grand Opening of the "Townsite Market", a beautiful old building here in Powell River, recently renovated to house about fifteen businesses -- including the region's first climbing gym. And yes, I'll be signing up for a membership (with, I hope, a senior discount).
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Yeah, you kind of screwed the pooch on that one, Ghost. Ha ha.
Please don't take down the thread, though.
Those YouTube videos of him are quite entertaining & informative.
For instance, I just learned Kai has a +7 inch ape index!
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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An extremely talented and committed young climber who has a chance to dominate the pushing of degrees in the years to come.
Grumpy old men will always be there. Deal with them or ignore them. They like to be seen. Dealing with them is a strategy of mercy... not bad...
Also Marlow is sometimes a grumpy old man. A grumpy old man usually keeping it to himself... :o)
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sorry, Brenner, I forgot we have some token Hosers here. I should have asked,
“Can he backcheck?”
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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You see?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Rockclimbing
Just looking at that first video in the OP, yes, you wouldn't know that Kai has climbed outside. And it says: Rock Climber in the title.
Things have really changed quite a lot. Things progress, with or without the old guard's assent. Sometimes, purely to spite it! The irreverence and curiosity of youth, and all of that!
Change. Take for instance, all of that loving mothering that Kai has received, as displayed in the videos. Can we say smother mother?
Ha ha. Of course she's doing a great job by any standard of parenting.
But, when we were kids in the early 70s, we climbed to get away from that, to escape convention, to embrace the counter culture.
Now climbing is a way to point kids into the mainstream, much more so than in the past. It keeps them out of trouble. BITD, climbing led some of us into trouble!
Times change: concerning rockclimbing, from the late 80s forward, extending to the present we've seen what is tantamount to a seachange!
Interesting how quickly these conversations go unnecessarily binary.
Fact is, climbers have been training forever. Think John Gill.
I grew up in the fold of the Stonemasters. Bachar trained relentlessly. Largo had us underlings doing all kinds of sports specific training. We bouldered, hard.
Moffat & Moon trained on makeshift walls in dank, damp cellars.
This topic doesn't need to be so binary and so divisive. The culture of climbing is more fluid.
Am I a trad climber because I started in the 70s and my favorite mode is multipitch free climbing?
Sure, I climb trad. I'll accept the usage. But I've also climbed plenty of sport routes and plastic.
I helped Peter Mayfield start one of the first climbing gyms in the country: City Rock, in 1989.
I helped Jeff Lowe, the preeminent alpinist of my generation, organize the second snowboard competition in '89, and worked as deputy director of operations for a number of his competitions.
Just prior to that, in '87 & '88, I made THE first guided ascents of El Capitan (Nose & Salathe) for Yosemite Mountaineering School.
Do you see a pattern here (other than tooting my own horn + name dropping, haha.) Change. Diversity. Evolution.
When I was a rep for Evolv, from 2003-2005, I performed 125 climbing gym rock shoe demos over a 15 month span throughout the four corners states.
I saw tons of indoor climbing competitions mostly attended by teenagers.
Some of those teenagers grew up to be some pretty dedicated trad climbers.
Of course I've done my share of mountain scrambling, ice, and a smattering of mixed. It's all climbing.
Heck, now I can hardly walk. But, I will always want to climb long routes, if given the opportunity.
Look at my avatar: does it say trad climber? It doesn't even say rock climber. No. Why bother.
We are all one big diversified family and all climbers of one stripe or another!
-Roy
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Jim Clipper
climber
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I'm on the Kai/mom bandwagon. Home video, where she comments about the dinner they shared was nice.
Really, I bet most "trad climbers" posting here would be happy to be able to tie in with Kai. Maybe, spend an afternoon pointing out a few lines, and seeing how the definition of sandbag has changed. Seems like a good kid who deserves it.
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capseeboy
Social climber
portland, oregon
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The good thing about gyms is the way they....
...keep the hordes indoors and lessen the environmental impact that they would otherwise cause with driving, flying, and globe tramping.
For good, or bad, I never enjoyed gym climbing as I would invariably start to unconsciously compete, and get hurt. Plus, gyms are inside. And, pay to climb?
Latest Hero's: The Conn couple best described it for me in the Conncave video. They just went about doing their thing without all the hoopla.
Did cults like hunting, fishing, skiing, and climbing get capitalized on by those people actually doing it?
Many of my friend's and I never thought Gym's would become so huge $$$. D'oh!
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capseeboy
Social climber
portland, oregon
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Just prior to that, in '87 & '88, I made THE first guided ascents of El Capitan (Nose & Salathe) for Yosemite Mountaineering School.
This is probably my biggest regret of all time in climbing: I never threw down the money to be mentored.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Mentoring is the way, whether by guide or just through informal association.
BTW: those guided ascents were specifically for YMS. That's the qualification. I was the first of their guides to top out on those walls with clients.
Of course Royal Robbins guided it first, and perhaps others made guided ascents of El Capitan prior to mine.
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