Learned to trad climb there. Yosemite is actually relatively safe compared to many other traditional climbing areas because of the solidness of the rock and the continuous nature of the crack systems. It just gets a lot of traffic and attention. There are more deaths in Yosemite related to tourists slipping off trails or taking selfies next to waterfalls than there are rock climbing.
Granted...I'm a bit jaded after being on SAR for while there, A couple Mop Ops really hits the psyche.
Well, À chacun son goût, as they say. Certainly rock climbers can give the rest of us ... not sure if the word is "pleasure" but the occasion to direct our fascinated attention away from our daily cares. I recall several times, in Zion and Yosemite, standing amidst a crowd of people, watching tiny figures going up Angels Landing and Half-Dome, I think it was.
Ah, got it. My nephew did that in Eastern Washington. He said the worst part was carrying out the bodies from light airplane crashes in the mountains.
Just do all future climbers you might meet a favor and don't ask them if they free climb. It doesn't mean what you think it does.
That's Free-soloing. Free Climbing is just climbing with your hands and feet but with a rope on, as opposed to climbing by pulling on gear. It's a big naming fail on the part of the climbing community but also probably the most frequent and annoying question that tourists ask.
Ah so. Learn something every day. So another question: is "feeding the rat" a genuine climbers' expression?
Crazy that you were on YOSAR. I was friends with all the yosar people about 8 years ago. They sort of turn over though and I don't spend as much time in the valley as I used to.
A friend of mine (who is not a climber) told me that it meant the powerful drive to climb one more peak, presumably one more difficult than you've already climbed.
I left when the floods shut us down...used to run the mountain shop. I lived in the valley for ten years and actually started with Curry Co.
My understanding is that Mountain Climbing was regarded as utterly insane by anyone who didn't have to do it (because they lived there) until the very later part of the 18th century. I always wondered what changed.
When we have finally sorted out how the brain works, I believe we will find that there is some sort of evolutionary advantage -- a group advantage, not an individual one, although I know many people in the field contest the idea of 'group selection' -- to having, in your tribe, a certain number of young males with a high appetite for risk. You lose a few but in return a rival tribe is frightened away from a desirable hunting ground, or you establish that those red berries are indeed not to be eaten. Brain research will eventually establish a biological basis for this. You can go onto Youtube, if you're feeling a bit morbid, and find endless videos of young men (always young men, no diversity here) trying to walk across narrow girders laid between two buildings ten stories high, descend a mountain by taking a 'short cut', responding to a 'neknomination' by drinking a litre of pure alcohol, lowering themselves over the side of a building and trying to do pullups, strapping themselves to the bottom of an airplane with just a belt which then breaks (Google 'Jim Bailey') -- with tragic results. Sometimes the outcome is not tragic and you don't feel bad about laughing at these attempts to win a Darwin Award.
Safety Equipment, the 5. rating system, Route mapping, Sport climbing and adventure sport craze in general. Oh...and the Patagonia Company.
Did you ever read "Class Six Climb"? by William Cochrane? It's a SF story about climbing a tree the size of Everest.
Welcome Cap'n. I grew up in Connecticut and Rhode Island. They are beautiful states, but if you visit bring your Visa Card. Everything is expensive and heavily taxed.
It's not just a young male thing .. it's a white First World thing. More specifically, it's almost exclusively privileged First World white males.
Okay ... not sure about the "privileged" part ... depending on how you define that ... I would have guessed that the education/intelligence level of the risk-takers is not that high, but perhaps that's just prejudice .... but what follows from this? I am not sure of your point.
I'm only referring to extreme adventure types, not kids who drive too fast (that's actually more a feature of your trash types). Extreme risk taking (in adventure form) is very much a 'rich man's sport'.
Do you think it might be replacing the old rites of passage? Like killing a lion, existing in the outback off the land, or winning your spurs in some other way?