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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2188 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 13, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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The sport of Rock Climbing. As distinct from alpinism, where there's the idea that you go that far to get the view, There is nearly always an easier way to get to the top of whatever you're climbing. While equipment and technique has come a long way, people die doing it every year.

The sport of Rock Climbing. As distinct from alpinism, where there's the idea that you go that far to get the view, There is nearly always an easier way to get to the top of whatever you're climbing.

Agree. But not with the distinction. Alpinists insisted on doing the North Face of every peak, and died in droves for it.

I think I phrased the distinction poorly in my initial comment. Alpinism at least involves skills that are mildly relevant to some kind of theoretically functional task, traveling long distances over difficult terrain to reach a goal. Rock climbing essentially takes a single one of those skills and specializes it to reductio ad absurdum. It's possible to at least imagine a scenario where Alpinism would provide relevant skills, like reaching a remote village in bad conditions or launching an ambush or something. Rock climbers have to go out of their way to find routes that are difficult enough to test themselves, and coming up with a scenario where the ability to climb anything past 5.10 would be relevant is purest fantasy.

The crazy thing to me is the ‘free solo’ stuff where they do it without safety ropes. Pure deathwish, adding unnecessary extra risk to feel closer to the void.

Not crazier than the wingsuit guys? I guess both die doing the thing they love.

As crazy, maybe?

It's the physical counterpart to speedrunning: not aiming to be the best at the thing, but instead defining a sub-goal of doing an easier thing with the utmost perfection.

I'm not sure if you climb much, but it is absolutely not true that you can get to the same view with an easier way. We call these technical summits. Off the top of my head Cerro Torre is famous, near me is Slesse Mountain in British Columbia, in the Canadian Rockies there's Mt Louis, Mt Birdwood, Mt Alberta. etc.

That was phrased poorly. I was thinking more in terms of rock climbing as guys going out to climb a 5.12 route that's sorta on a random cliff, which they mostly drive to or take an easy hike to, which they are seeking out more or less purely because of the technical difficulty of the climbing. In my mind most technical summits are by definition Alpinism, because you had to first journey to the rock face before reaching the climb, with the climb forming just part of a larger journey to the top of the mountain.

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