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Re: [zealotnoob] who's yabo:
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dingus
Nov 8, 2007, 10:15 PM
Views: 39837
Registered: Dec 16, 2002
Posts: 17398
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Trundlebum thanks man. That was awesome.
A counter point however - the wide open lonesome is STILL out there.
I promise you, it is. I'm too old for it and so are you but damnit there are still white spaces on the edge of the maps!
I don't have time to scan it right now... a 1976 photo of my buddy Steve climbing an aid route with me, wearing jeans and jean jacket, a construction hat and cowboy boots! Standing in aiders!
I remember reading a Roman-era letter translation written by a wife to a Roman Legion soldier off fighting some endless and pointless war.
Now I surmise the translator took some liberties but that letter? It talked about the mundane goings on about life. Washing the clothes, taking care of the kids, what the neighbors were up to, etc.
What struck me was how ordinary it sounded. There were no technological references in the letter (ie Cams and screamers and sticky rubber). It was completely domestic, 2000 years old and it could have been yesterday. In fact, and sadly for us, that same letter was written yesterday by hundreds if not thousands of distant loved ones. Even more will be written today.
Right now as I type this, some lonely husband or wife is typing a 2000 year old letter.
Climbing is like that too my brother. I feel a direct connection to Otzi
and Whymper and Comici and Whillans (most of all haha) and Robbins and Gonzo, right through to the Stonemasters to today.
As much as things have changed you know what hasn't changed one friggin bit?
The sound of a biner snapping home after you drop the rope in the basket. The smell of granite dust in your rope. The black of aluminum oxide. The feeling of trashed fingernails after a wall climb. The utter exhaustion of having given your all, whether its the 13th hang fest on a memorization project or top out day on the big stone.
Even in our well known and well mapped Sierra there are rocks and routes, cliff faces and major lines STILL to be done.
My noob days started in '73 with a goldline rope, some Liberty biners, some nuts and webbing and Beginner's and onto Advanced Rockcraft.
The world has turned no doubt. Climbing is not fringe now, extreeeeeeeem is in!
But a climbing letter 2000 years from now? I think we'd be able to read and understand it my friend, just as they could ours. Just as these kids can yours.
Cheers dude and thanks again
DMT
(This post was edited by dingus on Nov 8, 2007, 10:16 PM)
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Post edited by dingus
() on Nov 8, 2007, 10:16 PM
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