Ego. Fear. Climbing Style.

I am very open with the students who are interested in climbing at Park High that climbing is quite possibly one of the most clickish sports in the world, and that it shouldn't stop them from enjoying it in a way that is the most fun to them.  The fact that climbing can involve real danger, and that it has a number of facets that can get technical make it a breeding ground for ego.  I've been around too many climbers who base their self-worth on how daring and dangerous they are, and how hard of a route they can climb.  Little do they know, but I really don't care how hard they can climb, or how many times they've put their hiney on the line to send a scary climb.  If they are nasty, irresponsible people, they are totally unimpressive and uninspiring to me.

Now having been in the sport for a little over 12 years, some of the B.S. that is present in the otherwise wonderful sport of climbing as begun to float to the top, and I've decided that I am quite fine with having as little to do with it as possible.  In celebration of this view, I resolve to climb according to my own style, and I would encourage others to follow suit in their own style!  Some arrogant purists will probably criticize us for "ruining" climbing and not being "real" climbers, but they are welcome to live in their strange and paranoid world as we horrify them with our own approaches.

My style is:

• Realizing that I may flail and have to take on a safe 5.9 lead at the beginning of a climbing day, and that it doesn't make me a worse at climbing than I "should" be.  A mental warmup is just part of my day, and I'm okay with that.  I can still engage in a glorious battle with a 5.11 or 5.12 lead if my head gets into the game later.
• I do fall practice...  a lot!  It sounds silly, and purists who still think the year is 1961 and we're climbing on gear made of 2x4's and old stove legs will tell me that I'm flirting with disaster, but it relaxes my mind and trains me on how to react in real falls so that I can climb harder and fall safer.
• I'm fine with hang-dogging and stick-clipping up a route as I get to know the moves.  
• I don't climb scary routes unless I have them extremely dialed.
• I train a lot in my home gym, and I enjoy it.  
• I respect and admire other people's styles... as long as they are courteous towards others, the crags, and realize that climbing is a sport, not a measuring stick for measuring ones quality as a human.
• Some of my hardest routes are mere warmups to others, and that doesn't cheapen my own accomplishment when I finally manage the send.  
• Crag developers are awesome.  Thanks for the routes!  I'll do what I can to protect and maintain the crag!