I got out to Eldo a bunch this weekend. The highlight was onsighting C’est La Vie (pitch 1 & 2). The crux on the second pitch was amazing- A dihedral slab where you lay back a face hold, your feet are pressed such that you’re almost horizontal, then you have to pull out of it to reach the next hold- Hard to explain, but I’m going back to film it soon.
While in Eldo, we saw a bunch of bats, and climbed up to a bird’s nest on Genesis. I down climbed so as not to disturb the mother and chicks.
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I’d like to welcome our newest contributor, Doug Lintz. Many of you know Doug; he’s a veteran climber, up and coming photographer, gear head, and good friend. His first post, about climbing in the Monastery, is found here. I look forward to seeing more from Doug in the future.
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I’ve been thinking lately about a concept I call the Sphere of Relevance. The idea is this: There is a range of climbs/ grades that are relevant to you, and climbs harder or easier don’t matter much.
For example:
1. Recently, I was climbing right next to a modern bouldering test piece, Ode to a Modern Man (V14). It just didn’t matter at all to me. It wasn’t “inspiring”, it wasn’t even worth looking at, it was just too far beyond me physically and mentally.
2. This past spring I “onsight soloed” the Second Flatiron (5.4?). Although it was a pleasant outing, it really doesn’t matter to my climbing “career”. It was irrelevant.
What do you think about this?
Disclaimer- I love watching bad ass climbers send hard stuff- for the entertainment.
To look strickly at the difficulty of a climb or boulder problem is to totally neglect the other 90% of climbing which makes the sport relevant, the people. No matter how "hard" or "easy" you climb, the entire experience is crappy and pointless if you have negitive crappy people around. Soloing the first flatiron, for me, was an eye opening and awesome experience, even if it is and was well below my climbing ability. I think it all adds to your climbing career because you can sit in awe when you watch people climb V14 or think back on that one super spectacular day of climbing where the people were the focus and not the climb….