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chizang
Jul 7, 2004, 7:05 AM
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Registered: May 25, 2004
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Hello all,
rec.climber here just dipping my toe into the larger pool of rc.com. This is my first post here, so hopefully I found the right forum.
Enjoy.
/Alex
----------------------------------------
July 7, 2004
Why do we climb? I suspect that for more than a few of us in this
tribe, both question and answer run straight through the very core
of our existence. It at once defines us and confounds us. We
climb because we have to, need to, want to. A life without is an
utterly alien concept.
Oh sure, there are the "easy" reasons that one could rattle off
if pressed upon by an outsider, a non-climber -- the challenge,
the beauty, the solitude, the meditation, the satisfaction,
the problem solving, the remoteness, the partnerships, and so
forth. But upon reciting the litany, we're left feeling
fradulent and frustrated. We know there are deeper reasons
but they are fleeting and ephemeral and difficult to capture
in word or thought. We've all experienced that moment of
gestalt, the ah ha! when for but an instant, your mind can
snapshot that rush, that flood of emotions washing over your
corporeal self and you recognize that *that* is why you
climb.
But like a will o' the wisp, it's soon gone -- you can only see
it out the corner of your eye, can't coax it off the tip of your
tongue. And so we mumble something about it being there and stand
there mutely embarassed that we can't express why we are who we
are or why we do what we do.
My apologies for presuming to speak for the tribe. We are myriad
in our reasons, our motivations, yea our selves -- for that is
all we are, a collection of selves -- that there's no way a
single junior tribeman, lost and confused in his own thoughts,
could accurately capture the feeling of his kinsmen, not in a
single post like this anyhow.
Why then, do I climb? Certainly not for the feeling of a dull
knife slowly twisting back and forth in my lower intestine right
now. Certainly not for the feeling of jangly nerves, everything
on edge, teeth gritted, and metallic tang in the back of my
mouth.
Dangling a few hundred feet away from the safety of the earth,
clinging to the north face of Hallett on a line that Bob Culp and
Tex Bossier opened up in 1961, contemplating three ridiculously
small bits of metal and a bit of nylon while thunder booms and
the snow rains down, I'm scared. Really scared.
I'm tying figure eights on the brake hand side of the rope as
Whitney climbs. I wonder if the lightning will hurt and if I'll
feel intensely excruciating pain before I die, or if I'll be
lucky and everything will just go black. I want to tell Whit to
give my regards to my friends and my apologies to my enemies, but
refrain.
The demons in my head are legion. Self-doubt is permeating. Have
I f*cked up again?
Moreso than anything else, I really just want to live. I want to
be somewhere else, anywhere else at any price -- just ask and
I'll pay. I feel like I'm scrabbling desperately at the fabric of
life clinging for purchase while being inexorably pulled away by
an evilly black force.
Later -- on the summit -- it doesn't let up. My hair crackles and
my testicles feel like they're in the back of my throat. Big
bolts are splitting the sky, and we can manage to count to about
five before the *CRACK* concusses us. We look desperately about
for a bit of nylon or a cairn that would announce the location of
the rap anchors. Anything to get off the high point and away from
the terrors in the sky.
Salvation.
Later yet -- in the descent gully -- the anaconda's coils loosen.
My jaw unclenches and I only notice this because the lack of
pressure and tension in my skull is surprising. My gut has
untwisted and my diaphragm works normally again.
So why then, do I climb? The best I can muster is it's what I was
given to work with. Humans need to express themselves, to assert
their existences, to pinch their own arms once in a while and
wake up from the dream-state of complacency. Some of us paint,
others sculpt, others make music, and still others write. We've
all been given different gifts. We have different tools and
differing ways of expressing our creativity. It's innate -- we
get it for free by virtue of being human. We want to create, need
to create, have to create. A life without is an utterly alien
concept.
My expression then, my assertion of humanness, is climbing. The
flavor of the climb, its timbre is my medium. As with the artist
who chooses to work in oil or charcoal or watercolor, so do I
boulder or sport clip or venture into the alpine. As the artist
swooshes with big broad strokes or painstakingly details, so do I
jam a crack or dance up a face. And as the artist sits and waits
for true inspiration to strike, so do I dream of one day
realizing my full creative potential.
The bliss of creation places you nearer your god and maker, for
there is where you are truly in his image. The created creating.
I climb to create. I climb to become a better person. Simply, I
climb.
---------
July 3rd, 2004
Whitney Elkins, Alex Chiang
Culp-Bossier with Jackson-Johnson finish, Grade III, 5.9
pictures available at: http://www.chizang.net/...gallery/culp-bossier
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reno
Jul 7, 2004, 8:36 AM
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Right on... Very, very nice.
This route was one I wanted to do when I lived in Colorado, but I never had the chance. Your story gave me a good feel for it, though, and I want to do it even more now.
Thank you for sharing.
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tim
Jul 7, 2004, 8:48 AM
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Didn't a large chunk of the Culp-Bossier fall off a while back? I took a lesson from Chris Kalous at the Colorado Mountain School (as I barreled across the country) and followed the Jackson-Johnson. Hell of a route... I had asked about the Culp-Bossier and there was a big scar where the first few pitches used to be when we got to the base of Hallett's.
edit: you lucky bastards! you got to glissade down! I hate you! ;-)
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cologman
Jul 7, 2004, 8:58 AM
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That was Northcutt-Carter, one of the Fifty Classic Climbs and is on the Third Butress not the Second Butress which is where Jackson-Johnson and Culp-Bossier are. You can still access Northcutt-Carter climbing in from the right just at a higher difficulty of low .10.
Nice TR by the way, the joy of escaping moments like those is so sweet!
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chizang
Jul 8, 2004, 2:08 PM
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Registered: May 25, 2004
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Tim, cologman is right -- that was the Northcutt-Carter that experienced the rockfall. Don't get too worked up about the glissade -- it was only for a few feet (but fun nonetheless!) :)
All, thanks for reading.
/Alex
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mother_sheep
Jul 8, 2004, 3:04 PM
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In reply to: That was Northcutt-Carter, one of the Fifty Classic Climbs and is on the Third Butress not the Second Butress which is where Jackson-Johnson and Culp-Bossier are. You can still access Northcutt-Carter climbing in from the right just at a higher difficulty of low .10. Nice TR by the way, the joy of escaping moments like those is so sweet!
Hey Jeff. . .Didn't you have an FA on Halletts? Or maybe I'm thinking Longs. I read it in one of my guidebooks but I can't remember which route.
And yes, nice TR. Pretty hair raising if I do say so myself!
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cracklover
Jul 9, 2004, 8:58 AM
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Registered: Nov 14, 2002
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Hey Alex,
Nice TR, and welcome.
Gabe
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nthusiastj
Jul 9, 2004, 9:05 AM
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Nice story. Incidentally a friend and I bailed from this route the very day before due to the bad weather. At least you got to finish. Did our tracks in the snow help you find the Route?
J
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chizang
Jul 12, 2004, 1:09 AM
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Registered: May 25, 2004
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Gabe -- thanks for the welcome. I'm still a luddite and attached to my newsreader, but the TR forum here on rc.com is worth checking out.
In reply to: Nice story. Incidentally a friend and I bailed from this route the very day before due to the bad weather. At least you got to finish. Did our tracks in the snow help you find the Route?
Hi J,
We didn't see any tracks when we headed up on Saturday (the 3rd). In any case, finding the bottom of the route wasn't too hard -- it was the finishing part that caused us some difficulty. ;)
What pitch did you bail from?
/Alex
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nthusiastj
Jul 12, 2004, 1:39 PM
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About half way through the 4th. Pretty much under the big ledge.
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cologman
Jul 12, 2004, 2:16 PM
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Registered: Sep 28, 2002
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In reply to: In reply to: That was Northcutt-Carter, one of the Fifty Classic Climbs and is on the Third Butress not the Second Butress which is where Jackson-Johnson and Culp-Bossier are. You can still access Northcutt-Carter climbing in from the right just at a higher difficulty of low .10. Nice TR by the way, the joy of escaping moments like those is so sweet! Hey Jeff. . .Didn't you have an FA on Halletts? Or maybe I'm thinking Longs. I read it in one of my guidebooks but I can't remember which route. And yes, nice TR. Pretty hair raising if I do say so myself!
Tracy,
I'm amazed, most people aren't aware of it. Its a rte called "The Magistrate" on the First Buttress. Just climbed up there again over the weekend. Did the Culp rte with kcrag.
Jeff
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granitegod
Jul 16, 2004, 3:59 PM
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Registered: Jan 20, 2003
Posts: 340
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To climb, or not to be?
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