EWolfe Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 What was the experience that made you realize climbing was just what you needed? For me, it was a day in 1987, just after Christmas, when I went to the UW wall, flush with my gift of new shoes and a harness, courtesy of my friend Marilyn. I watched an amazing dance by some 'core locals on the North Wall, completely flailed on ANY start on the wall, and went to work. For about 16 months, just there. I lived 20 blocks away, and bouldered 3-4 days a week. Discuss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
layton Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 I realized there was something to do after setting up the tent while backpacking instead of cooking and writting about my vagina in my journal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillA Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Mike's ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dechristo Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 At first, it was always about mountains. My first forays in the Coast Range and the Wind Rivers taught me I wouldn’t last long if I continued to solo everything, including down-climbing class five in the dark. Convinced of my need to learn pro systems, by happenstance, I met a guy who’d just come away from a multi-week course with NOLS in Lander and coaxed him into “showing me the ropes” in the Tetons. Established routes and obscure new routes throughout Wyoming and Utah, in the mountains and on towers in the desert, flowed under our hands and feet. My initial end was the mountains, but I fell in love with the means along the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billygoat Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 When I discovered I had enuf $$ to get all the shiney gear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underworld Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 the first one was free Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chirp Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Initially: I was working on a trail crew in Zion in 1983 and listened to stories by our supervisor John Gangemi about his adventures in the Valley. Backed up by witnessing his outrageous fitness of running up to scouts lookout just below Angels Landing from the parking lot spinning a rock bar like a baton. Hooked: Bouldering around Granite Mountain and Thumb Butte, clueless but enthralled, mezmerised by the melding of excitement, fear and potential! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephH Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Always climbed growing up - trees, houses, structures - and all the neighbors would come get me when they were locked out of their houses. Then n Vietnam my photolab was 11 decks above the main deck under the antennas. The last three decks were via wrungs welded to the side of the superstructure. In running parallel in heavy seas the ship would be rolling hard so you'd ave to run up a couple of wrungs while it was a slab and then sink a leg and arm and hang for dear life while it went over into an overhang. It could get pretty exciting as the arc it swung that high up was pretty radical and imparted a lot of velocity. On returning to the states to SoIll I ended up climbing the cliffs to photograph orchids that grew in the pockets. One day taking a break sitting at the base of the cliff I was suddenly draped in goldline and down came a sport rappeller I mistook for a climber. Man, quick as you could pop a tall one I had a diaper wrap on a rope in one hand and budwieser in the other doing my first rappel. I fortunately met a real climber the next trip out and they explained the difference to me. Fortunately they saw the soloing I was doing for photos and quickly got a rope on me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 At first it was the adventure you could have and the places you could go in the mountains, but now it is mostly to see the girls at the climbing gym that keeps me going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archenemy Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 At first--the man I was falling for had a passion for it. Hooked--same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ketch Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 I used to camp quite a bit. To use our time we used to toss a small rock at a 15' topo of the area. Wherever it hit that's where we tried to go that day. After a bit we found that climbing up the walls was easier than trying to navigate around and it was alot more fun. I'm still into the mountains but pretty much fell in love with the process of getting there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 My Dad and his buddies were all climbers and they seemed so bad ass. I wanted to be a cool climber guy too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 I was surrounded by mountains from birth. My father hated trails. My brothers had no mercy. It was climb or die.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 I was in the Boy Scouts. And of course, the first thing that a bunch of little hoodlums want is find something dangerous to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kix Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 watched big wallers and slabbers in yosemite for years and years growing up in cali. fascinated, but not really compelled. 3 years ago a boulderer got me high and I've been bouldering ever since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lummox Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 tripping on 'cid 500' off the deck on yosemite an realizing that somehow among all the miscreant and misfits that were climbers in those days, i fit in. werd up my niggahs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rooster Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 What was the experience that made you realize climbing was just what you needed? I'm in it for the hens. Definitely the hens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 tripping on 'cid 500' off the deck on yosemite an realizing that somehow among all the miscreant and misfits that were climbers in those days, i fit in. werd up my niggahs. Sad how climbing is so straight these days. Lame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rooster Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Sad how climbing is so straight these days. Lame. The GoreTex ads of late, like the one with that guy breathing into the coffee cup looking all Mens-Journal-ish, the girl crawling through the brush with this "ooh this is soooo adventurous...!" look on her face, and the most recent travesty, "Bail...Brag" showing an empty and occupied ice climb, respectively, pretty much sums up why climbing is now so mainstream. Get used to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldManRock Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 I had just read "Conquest of Everest" and I had to try this kind of adventure - Closest mountain was Thielson - So July 7th 1957 I stood on top and decided this was a blast - Hooked big time - And still active - One of the best choices I have made... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Shit was hard, yo! Try, flail, fail, try, flail, try, fail, go home. Come back, try, flail, try, fail, try, succeed! Try something else, flail, try, fail, go home. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Still works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexual_chocolate Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 At first I thought climbing was boring. My best friend in college got into it, and I'd tag along to the UW rock and try clambering around barefoot, not really getting what the fun was. After I got my first pair of shoes and learned how to use them, I was able to do the things he did. Then we started making up harder problems, and that's what hooked me: having a vision for the seemingly impossible, and then through effort and inspiration, actually doing it! It's the same thing that still is the biggest intrigue for me about climbing: Vision, inspiration, effort. Doesn't matter if it's bouldering, sport, or trad; the appeal lies in the inspiration provided by vision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 having a vision for the seemingly impossible, and then through effort and inspiration, actually doing it! Apt distillation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drederek Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 First ascent of "Kitchen Counter" in June of 1960 by the Drawer route. I was 10 months old and in trouble again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EWolfe Posted February 4, 2006 Author Share Posted February 4, 2006 Classic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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