Looking at all the climbing magazines, one would think that a 25 year old rock climber should be super psyched to climb V12, or redpoint some heinous 5.13d knee-bar-beta-cave-climb. Climbing a 60 foot A2 is not quite as glamorous. One hook move -- ooooh, aaaah, scary...
Ok, well I can't come up with a counter to that one. I kind of do want to climb V12. Same with the knee bar thing too. But aid climbing does have it's finer points. And it is another great tool in one's 'climbing repertoire,' if you will.
Have you ever stood up on a hook? Or maybe stood on two hooks with your last "real" piece of gear six feet away? It's exciting. I would even go as far to say that it's almost as exciting as, say, pulling on a mandatory mono; or perhaps as exciting as a big dyno above your gear; maybe even as exciting as doing that knee bar.
Then there are the skills you learn while aid climbing. Mastery of gear placement, for example. You have to stand on every piece of gear you place. With this, you are able to find out what holds, and what doesn't. What is a passable gear placement, and what isn't. (Good skill, I'd say.) Other skills, like dialing down systems for super efficiency is another good one. After all, when push comes to shove, anyone can aid climb practically anything. It would seem to me that speed is where it's at.
So what makes someone a good climber? Well that depends on your definition of "climber." If it's simply being able to pull hard, well, then that's it. But there could be more. Why not go for the well rounded approach? I like bouldering, I like sport climbing, I like trad climbing, I like easy climbing, I like hard climbing and finally, I like aid climbing.
(I still don't really like ice climbing. Sorry Matt.)
1 comment:
that picture reminds me of ted nugent. cat scratch fever! ba ba- ba!
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