Dru Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 read all about it! Spurs make mixed climbing too easy Quote
thelawgoddess Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 interesting read. somewhow - even if i had spurs - i don't think i would EVER find an m10 "too easy". Quote
Stemalot Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 (edited) wow, I have no spurs... but then I don't climb m10 either (yet!) , but I am glad I still have style. Edited March 8, 2004 by Stemalot Quote
JoshK Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 Ya know, I used to think one of the coolest things about climbing was people would play by their own rules, and others would shut up about how others play the game. Â Whether you're Will Gadd or some gaper, mind your own "style" and let others worry about theirs. Quote
Dru Posted March 8, 2004 Author Posted March 8, 2004 charlet is gonna be so sad when no one buys the dart now Quote
iain Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 no, you HAVE to buy it and saw off the spur so that everyone can SEE you are indeed still a new-school system-bucking, fast-and-light, softshell-wearing, simulclimbing, drytooling, titanium teakettlin', patagucci pimpin' badass. Quote
JoshK Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 no, you HAVE to buy it and saw off the spur so that everyone can SEE you are indeed still a new-school system-bucking, fast-and-light, softshell-wearing, simulclimbing, drytooling, titanium teakettlin', patagucci pimpin' badass. Â Â Quote
Stemalot Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 (edited) no, you HAVE to buy it and saw off the spur so that everyone can SEE you are indeed still a new-school system-bucking, fast-and-light, softshell-wearing, simulclimbing, drytooling, titanium teakettlin', patagucci pimpin' badass. Â Totally agree with ya there! Edited March 8, 2004 by Stemalot Quote
Billygoat Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 no, you HAVE to buy it and saw off the spur so that everyone can SEE you are indeed still a new-school system-bucking, fast-and-light, softshell-wearing, simulclimbing, drytooling, titanium teakettlin', patagucci pimpin' badass.  Plab  Quote
MrDoolittle Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 Mixed climbing was both, now it's neither. And I SO wanted to hang upside-down from both feet at the crux of my latest alpine test piece. Quote
Alex Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 Mixed climbing was both, now it's neither. Â true, true Quote
texplorer Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 A very interesting article from one of the best ice climbers in the world. Â Too bad that technology makes ice climbing "easy" for everyone. Maybe he'll just have to suck it up and climb yet harder or more committing lines . Â Or. . Maybe it will take the next generation to define what ice climbing will become. If its so easy, will people solo M?'s? Seems kind of a lame argument to me. Quote
Distel32 Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 then downgrade that shit!!!! Â If people are onsighting the hardest grades in that aspect of climbing, then obviously they aren't really the hardest. Â Ok so people haven't onsighted m12 or whatever the hardest grade is, but they have m11...?? Multiple times as well Quote
Dru Posted March 8, 2004 Author Posted March 8, 2004 i expect we will se similar arguments in rock climbing when gecko tape becomes commercially available Quote
thelawgoddess Posted March 8, 2004 Posted March 8, 2004 charlet is gonna be so sad when no one buys the dart now i think charlet saw it coming. the new darts can be purchased with optional spurs. Quote
glassgowkiss Posted March 9, 2004 Posted March 9, 2004 it's interesting to talk to these guys. distel- that's exactly what i told one of the guys involved with this topic. dry-tooling for a sake of dry-tooling is a dead end street. now they are going to redefine ice/mixed climbing again, so the gear manufacturers can drum up more sales. a complete bullshit. go climb, have fun and for all the dwellers out there- get a life Quote
Billygoat Posted March 9, 2004 Posted March 9, 2004 WTF  Cams (SLCD's) are so much easier to place than nutz and chocks...  Try leading at your level and leaving the cams behind some time.  Give me a break  If spurs are aid, chalk is aid Quote
wgadd Posted March 16, 2004 Posted March 16, 2004 Hey Board Posters, I didn't think there were any NW climbers left there judging by the plates on the Parkway the last week, grin. Anyhow, I've got opinions on what you're writing, here goes: Â Chalk is aid, so are climbing shoes, tape, (I want that Gecko tape, does it work in the cold?), etc. The quesiton is how much aid we use and still feel good about calling an ascent "free." Mixed climbing is no expeception. After all, we're hanging onto or from steel no matter how you spin it, but for me and many others, spurs and tool-hooking cross that line. If you sit your ass on a tool or hang from a spur everytime ya get pumped then that's aid in my mind. Part of climbing free for me is getting so pumped you fall off--bolt-on spurs basically eliminate that problem for anybody who climbs mixed regularly. If any of you climb mixed with or without spurs on steep routes then you already know this. Â Climbing spur-free actually requires you to buy less gear--just use your normal light gear and leashless tools (which will last longer without sharp spurs ripping hell out of the grips). Â As for "downgrading that shit," that's one option, but in my mind it slams the people who are our giving it their best no matter what they are climbing with. I don't think that's cool, better to leave the grades alone and just note the style. A 5.11 finger crack is 5.11 even if a climber hangs on every cam--it doesn't become 5.8, it just got done with a different style. Â I climbed supercrack first with a rack of hexes. It's one hell of a lot safer with lots of cams, but the basic climbing movement is the same (OK, maybe chalk and tape make it a touch easier, but we accept those aids nowadays). Spurs and tool trickery make mixed routes one hell of a lot easier, same as resting on gear. That's not "bad," just a different style of climbing. Â Mixed climbing is not a dead-end street, it's just branching and growing. Rapahel Slawinski and Ben Firth just did the FFA winter ascent of a route on the north face of Temple--all drytooling. I also felt mixed climbing was at a dead-end when I started using spurs, it just got silly. After talking with a lot of mixed climbers (not just the uber types), I decided that I felt better going as free as possible in winter (not about to give up my tools, the rock here is pretty damn cold, grin.). Climbing trickery-free demands more creative climbing, more flow (the pump clock is back and ticking hard!) and a willingness to suck back your ego when you start sucking on routes you could hike with spurs. For some reason this is fun, yeah! Â OK, happy spring to you all! Â best, Â wg Quote
lummox Posted March 16, 2004 Posted March 16, 2004 I climbed supercrack first with a rack of hexes. now that is some spray. Quote
Dru Posted March 16, 2004 Author Posted March 16, 2004 I climbed supercrack first with a rack of hexes. now that is some spray. Â just wait until you see "Sister Extreme" before you start talking about spray from Gadd Quote
lummox Posted March 16, 2004 Posted March 16, 2004 just wait until you see "Sister Extreme" before you start talking about spray from Gadd wtf? whoppi goldberg make another movie? and i reckon wiggins climbed supercrack first. bitch. Quote
wgadd Posted March 16, 2004 Posted March 16, 2004 Ah, Lummox, lots of people (OK, old farts like me) climbed supercrack with hexes, that's not meant as spray, but the comment did bust me up so thanks. It's meant to show the difference between hexes and cams (safety, made the route more reasonable to lead, climbing pretty much the same). If I'm gonna spray I try to do a righteous job of it, as Dru noted about Sister Extreme, grin. WG Quote
fern Posted March 16, 2004 Posted March 16, 2004 Â it seems like the idea is that "SPURS ARE AID" only if you bother to hang off them like a bat. But for climbing daggers and stuff where you might wanna wrap a leg around or whatever they still seem like they might be useful and no more aid than frontpoints are. Â I'd like to see someone climb one of those dry tool routes inverted and handsfree using just their spurs ... that'd be like A0 right? Quote
wgadd Posted March 16, 2004 Posted March 16, 2004 We actually joked about climbing only with spurs in the car last night driving home--should be possible, but damn would that hard on the hamstrings. I never found spurs to be worth the bother for skinny pillars and such (your boot works well enough and you don't stab yourself in the front of the leg while walking), but I think they would be helpful. A spur on a traditional crampon doesn't actually do that much for steep climbing, it flexes the crampon too much. Helpful, but you can't hang like a bat usually. I'm doing a spray-session (also called a slide show) at UW on the 15th of April, I'll buy the first round for any post-show discussions. Â best, Â wg Quote
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