In reply to bpmclimb:
> (In reply to all)
>
> The leader and belayer seemed happy about being filmed, and were presumably ok about it being posted on You Tube. This is like putting your head above the parapet to be shot at, so it seems reasonable to assume that they're happy to be criticised, too.
I don't think they expected that anyone could be bothered, and would just watch the clip and go "eek, that's a whipper! thank god the second runner held!". Naively of course.
> The belayer seemed too busy pulling faces at the camera to take up a decent starting belay position...
All valid points I'm sure, but for me, that just isn't what trad climbing is like. On trad climbs near my limit, I've dropped runners into the sea, spent an hour dithering on the crux for no good reason, crossed my ropes, gone completely off-route, overcammed friends, failed to weight-down spike runners which have lifted off, kicked out my crucial runner and had to fiddle in some crap RP in a state of abject terror, blah blah blah.
Other leads of course, have been a masterclass in exemplary trad practice.
The point is that there is no value nit-picking your way through someone else's climbing - I suppose it makes you look very experienced in comparison to these young whipper-snappers (sorry...) but it also gives some less favourable impressions too.
I'll say it again, damn that internet.
This is making me think more broadly about the information we make public about ourselves for everyone else to judge us by (the whole point of faecesbook of course). After reading this, you might conclude:
- only show yourself looking your smartest and most sexy, being brilliant at everything, otherwise the whole world will descend on you, telling you how pathetic and wrong you are.