This week we’re going to veer away from election issues and land access problems, from trip reports abroad or tales of grand heroism, past how-to articles and crag overcrowding and keep on going, going, going… to labels climbers use. Yes, it’s what we do best: put boxes around things to understand them better.
There are many terms bandied around in climbing, a parlance that only the initiated will understand and fewer will glean the subtle jabbing undercurrents towards others. This list will be nowhere near comprehensive but it will help give the not-yet-climbing Squamite something to grab onto.
Free soloing: This is the form of climbing many non-climbers believe all climbers practise. Free soloing is climbing up a cliff without any form of protection whatsoever. Alex Honnold brought this to the masses with his 60 Minutes interview centered on his ability to climb without ropes at an unbelievably difficult level. The black and white risk here is if you slip, you don’t have any back up or second chance. Practised most often by experts on terrain on which they are very comfortable, the common view is that they’re insane or psychologically unbalanced. On the other hand, if you climb this well, you can control your risk exposure through skill and judgment.
But how can you control everything? The world will never know. Contentious.
Free climbing: Climbing up a cliff using hands and feet to drag you towards the heavens. The rope, methods of protection and belayer are your back-up in case of a fall. Is it OK to grab the occasional tree? Absolutely, it’s part of the cliff. Is it OK to grab the gear secured permanently or temporarily to the cliff? No, that’s cheating. Grab the rope? No again, that’s only there in case gravity plucks you off.
Aid climbing: Climbing faces so blank, steep and sheer that instead of relying on using your bodily skills to move upwards, you build ladders of intricate, precariously placed, specialized gear that often only holds body weight at best. You climb ladders of your own gear placed in the rock until you reach the top. This is an older style, which at more difficult levels is slow and terrifying. It also damages the rock upon repeated ascents.
Climbing news
Briefly, in climbing news here in Squamish, the first annual Golden Scrub Brush Awards were held Saturday night at the Cliffside Pub. The night was an awards ceremony celebrating those who spend months if not years of their life cleaning new climbs for the community here in Squamish. Proceeds from the night went to the Squamish Access Society, the local organization that deals with access issues.
The awards had a great turnout, great music and a surprising cross section of the Squamish climbing community who came out to raise a glass.
This Saturday (Nov. 29) is the Grandwall Bouldering Co-op’s second annual Toonie Bouldering Competition starting at 2 p.m. If you’re even slightly interested in what goes on at our bouldering co-op and are considering altering your life forever, selling everything and living in a van and climbing rocks, then this is the place for you. The comp runs from 12 to 6 p.m., followed by a party and member drive in the Garibaldi Room at the Brew Pub starting at 8 p.m. There’s going to be a grip strength competition and much fame to the winner. Both events are open to anyone interested in climbing. Come on down.
