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TheSoloClimber
Trad climber
Vancouver
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Nov 16, 2012 - 02:27pm PT
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Some woman to me after I topped out the Chief in Squamish after fourth-classing the easiest route up it, "Did you just climb up here?"
Me, "Yeah."
Her, "By yourself?"
Then her kid runs in and shouts, "He free soloed it!!!!"
Her, "......."
Also had plenty of people ask me how long it took me to climb up, if I have ever camped on the wall, etc.
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ladyscarlett
Trad climber
SF Bay Area, California
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Nov 16, 2012 - 02:29pm PT
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I have the same thing, with both el cap and half dome...
I tell them that those climbs are scary and I don't do scary things.
But more often then not, people don't perceive me as a climber...
Just a sherpa!!
HAHAHAHA
Cheers
LS
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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Nov 16, 2012 - 04:27pm PT
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When I soloed snake dike, some tourist guys at the top figured they could go down the way I came up, and started heading down there to check it out. I talked them out of it, though.
frozenwaterfalls - I always though of myself as a dirtbag, in the normal sense. At some point, it became associated more with what we're doing, than with homelessness. First one to institutionalize it was probably Fitz Cahall in the Dirtbag Diaries. It's the modern day stonemasters but also includes snowboarders, surfers, etc.
"At both ends of the social spectrum, there exists a leisure class."
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whitemeat
Trad climber
San Luis Obispo, CA
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Nov 16, 2012 - 06:57pm PT
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Totoaly true, I think ive heard all those comments in yosemite
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Betty Uno
Mountain climber
Alti Plano
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Nov 16, 2012 - 07:55pm PT
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This was over twenty years ago but it's real so here ya go;
I was on the Montrose side of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison checking the progress of a couple of guys climbing the Hallucinogen Wall.
It's still a multi day climb, though considerably less days than back then.
A couple drove up in an RV, and stopped, wandered around, and asked what were we looking at. After the inevitable explanations, they were silent for a while and then the wife asked...
"Are they married?" and I honestly thought for a moment that she meant were they married to each other, don't ask me why, lol. I said no, they were not married.
She said; "Well ofcourse not, what sort of wife would let her husband do that?"
I immediately said; "What sort of wife would STOP her husband from doing what he loves to do?
Even if you could, it would make him less of a man, it would turn him into a...."
Ooops, I found I was staring at her husband at that point. They left, rather hastily, I thought.
It was such a culture clash I have never forgotten it.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 16, 2012 - 08:22pm PT
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Ya mean it stands for something other than Air Traffic Control?
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Betty Uno
Mountain climber
Colorado
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Apr 25, 2013 - 09:04pm PT
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Here's one that's related to dirtbaggery, in a way.
I was a PSIA certified ski instructor going up the lift with a student who appeared to be about 20 but I'm no judge. He said to me; "Where do you go in the summer? Where is your home?"
I said in the summer I continue to live right here and I have two summer jobs, plus I chop all my winter wood and do a lot of hiking and climbing.
He said; "You can't live here." I said, yes I do, and so do a lot of others.
He continued to repeat that no one could live in a ski area. That his Dad said all of us live in the nearest big city (230 miles away) and commute every week.
There was no gainsaying him. He really thought every one, all of us, the builders, the painters, grocery clerks, deli owners, bus drivers and bakers, not to mention ski instructors all actually lived in the nearest big city and ran right back to it the minute the ski resort closed.
"No one lives in the mountains," he said.
I gave up. But I'll never forget that "no one lives in the mountains."
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MisterE
Social climber
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Apr 25, 2013 - 11:27pm PT
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At Smith Rock:
"Are those snap-links?"
"What are those shiny things in the rock for?"
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