Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Mike
climber
Orange County CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 13, 2003 - 01:35pm PT
|
Great insight from everybody here.
Hopefully you guys could sense I had a tonge in cheek when I took those cheap potshots at sport climbing in my historical view of climbing terminology. I really don't think one type of climbing is any better than another. The one that's best is the one you like best. I think dividing the climbing community into disparate factions is not productive, and it's really not the way it works out there anyway, as Matt et al relayed. Most of us do a bit of several types of climbing, and that variety keeps it more interesting.
Thanks for reeling me in on that, y'all...keep it diverse and oh so tolerant!
PS: I climb with people of all experience - it's the attitude that matters most to me.
|
|
mojo
climber
Birmingham
|
|
|
Aug 13, 2003 - 10:11pm PT
|
Dinkus,
You humorously and without apology raise that trad flag. What a riot.
|
|
Apocalypsenow
Trad climber
Cali
|
|
|
Aug 14, 2003 - 11:44am PT
|
For fun...How can you tell when a trad climber is NOT on the rock?
1) They don’t have any duck tape on their clothing.
|
|
Matt
Trad climber
SF Bay Area
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 14, 2003 - 01:03pm PT
|
nor any duct tape (at least not as much).
i met a woman in tuolumne meadows this summer who had duct taped her finger tip so she could keep climbing- that was cool.
|
|
nature
climber
some other life
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 14, 2003 - 08:26pm PT
|
quack quack
|
|
Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
|
|
|
Aug 15, 2003 - 02:51am PT
|
It is always problematic to mix scholarship with climbing, especially in a venue like this. However, never being known for good judgement, I'll press on...
The question of defining "climbing" is not new. The latest incarnation is the topic of this thread "what is the definition of 'trad' climbing?". This question is often asked as a sort of affirmation... is bouldering climbing? is cragging climbing?
I grew up in climbing in the 70's where some of these questions were addressed in the climbing literature of the day. An anthology of these articles was collected by Ken Wilson in a volume titled "The Games Climbers Play". The title was taken from the article written by Lito Tejada-Flores "Games Climbers Play" in the 1967 Ascent magazine.
The first paragraph:
"What I should like to propose in this article is not a new answer to the basically unanserable question, 'what is climbing?', but rather a new way of talking and thinking about it. Climbing is not a homogeneous sport but rather a collection of differing (though related) activities, each with its own adepts, distinctive terrain, problems and satisfactions, and perhaps most important, its own rules. Therefore, I propose to consider climbing in general as a hierarchy of climbing-games, each defined by a set of rules and an appropriate field of play."
Tejada-Flores goes on to develop what I believe is valid way to think about climbing. With only slight modifications and generalizations, his framework can be used today to understand the relationship of sport climbing, gym climbing, "trad" climbing, etc.
I believe that the article was recognized at the time as having "charted an altogether more logical and organized concept of the sport than anything hitherto conceived" to quote from Wilson's introduction.
The first three "basic climbing games" are:
1. The Bouldering Game
2. The Crag Climbing Game
3. The Continuous Rock-Climbing Game
I invite you all to read the article. You will understand "The Bouldering Game immediately, except for the statement: "the number of climbers who specialise in it is relatively small" which was true in 1967. Perhaps this would be generalized to include gym climbing in a modern recasting of the definitions. I would posit that "Sport Climbing" is a variation of "The Crag Climbing Game", and that "Trad Climbing" of "The Continuous Rock-Climbing Game". There are 4 other "games": Big Wall, Alpine, Super-Alpine and Expedition.
The article (and many of the other articles in the anthology) make great reading... and also form the philosophical foundation of the sport.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!