UKC

This video from Louder than 11 really speaks for itself. Amazing landscape and climbing footage from Yangshuo, China, featuring an impressive first female ascent of China climb, 8c, by Paige Claassen.
First female ascents seem to be Paige's thing. Remember her ascents of Grand Ole Opry, 8c/+, and...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68646

In reply to UKC News:

Looks great, as ever.

If the climbing trip is raising money for charities then that's a really good thing to do, it's win win win...

In reply to UKC News:

strange comment near the start of the video where she basically said "I was expecting it to be completely shit".. especially the food?! result of being brought up in the USA?

great video nonetheless, amazing place.

In reply to UKC News:

8 mins of unashamed American pap!!!!!!!!!!

In reply to UKC News:
to think that this video was put together after some editing...now we know Paige has the brain of an average Midwest American schoolgirl, as do the video editors at LT11.

Just for kicks, let me try this approach on America..."Hmm so I flew to America for the first time and went straight to the Red River Gorge thinking America is gonna be full of gunslinging rednecks and eat nothing but McD and shitty pizza all week, but it turns out...the redneck bit's true but the pizza is actually pretty good! and OMG!! I spoke to at least 2 educated Americans who knew where China is!! SO COOL!"

I rest my case...

In reply to climbnplay:

But Miguel's Portuguese, right?

In reply to climbnplay:


It's better with the sound turned off and your choice of music.

In reply to papashango:
bit harsh mate. China has a certain reputation. Would you be surprised if someone said they expected to get the runs from a trip to Delhi? and isn't "result of being brought up in the USA?" making exactly the same kind of judgement as she makes?

In reply to daveaubrey:

Maybe, but if you are a sponsored athlete and are putting out a video for the world to see, then saying something like that is rather stupid.

In reply to GuyVG:



Wealthy Americans afford to go on massive climbing trip to "dirty" rural China to raise money to help wealthy Americans back home in Colorado.......... ok....

In reply to jon: Not sure who edits the footage, the sponsors might have a say in it, and might have chosen to leave it in, considering the intended audience could be mostly American. I don't really know obviously, we'll see if her sponsors drop her or not.

In reply to Robert Durran:

I was using a very obscure form of sarcasm, so obscure in fact that I was the only one who could see it. I'm not a fan of charity holidays.

In reply to Robert Durran:


Whew! Thought I was the only one who needed some help with this one. < Scratches noggin > I'll get the hang of it in a minute. I will!

Re Jon's point about 'sponsored athlete' sayings (wash yer mouth out, Jon, she's a 'Marmot ambassador'!) yeah, a tad more delicacy might have been in order.

Great climbing though.

Mick

In reply to daveaubrey:

She just comes across as young, ill-informed and naive (IMO a complete idiot), Yangshuo is not as she described at all (maybe other parts of China are), a few minutes on Google would have shown otherwise and prevented those comments? She wasn't going to 'China', she was going to Yangshuo, the Chinese equivalent of Harrogate.

Completely agree with jon (if you are a sponsored athlete and are putting out a video for the world to see, then saying something like that is rather stupid) - EVEN if it were true!

My USA comment was a genuine question, because I'm not sure a brit/euro/whatever climber would have that kind of opinion.

In reply to papashango:


Expensive and full of old people?

In reply to Arms Cliff:

expensive (relatively of course!) not sure about the old people

In reply to papashango:

Are you serious? This thread is embarrassing. This hatred towards a complete stranger is based off her comments that china is dirty, polluted and the food is bad and that it can be uncomfortable for westeners. The food thing is an opinion, which she admits she was wrong on, and the rest are true to at least some extent. Since you left, Conor, there have been quite a few hazy days here and yangshuo is definitely an exception compared to the rest of china which is dangerously polluted. Even Guilin, just down the road, is heavily polluted. In terms of it being dirty, all my friends here have had at least mild food poisoning at least once, there's rubbish on the streets, kids piss and crap in the street and food hygiene standards are low. In terms of it being uncomfortable, again, yangshuo is the exception to the rest of china in that people are quite used to foreigners here but even so it can be very uncomfortable here with random strangers taking photos, asking questions and, in my case, rubbing my tattoos without permission. The voiceover at the start talking about a low-pollution day is Ting (who lives here) not Paige. Don't get me wrong I love living here and wouldn't want to be anywhere else but to say that it isn't dirty and chaotic is disingenuous and to call strangers idiots based on one comment while passing racist judgments about the quality of education her countrymen enjoy is silly. Seth wasn't particularly impressed by your justification, Conor.

The comment about charity trips is equally ridiculous. Have you visited her site? Have you seen the work she's done for foreign charities? On that, do you assume everyone in Britain is rich because some are? Is comic relief pointless? Are all the foodbanks we have self indulgent? How would you feel if your local community had been devastated by a flood? Would you want to raise awareness and help?

Get off your high horse

In reply to daveaubrey:

Nah, you're wrong. It's soulless drivel with a good strong whiff of imperialism. It's sad, with all the money that goes into these kinds of films, that they are so bland. What was the aim of this climbing trip? Just to talk to some Chinese versions of Chris Sharma? - hopelessly passe about the climbing they do and coincidentally saying all the things that brands love? Awful.

In reply to Franco Cookson:


To sell North Face - or whoever it is she is sponsored by - anoraks and t-shirts.

In reply to UKC News:

And what's with the subtitles for people speaking English perfectly well even though it is not their first language? Seen that more and more recently when it just isn't necessary. I take it as pretty patronising to those who are speaking but perhaps it says more about the intended audience or perhaps the film producers.

I enjoyed watching the climbing but I have to say the other stuff did grate I'm afraid. However people have expressed their feelings about that above it doesn't take away the fact that it's not particularly successful if a fair proportion of those viewing it come away with that feeling. I don't know anything about Paige other than what I have seen in this film.

And this film comes across as though she is having a jolly for charity and putting herself out by doing something she loves. If that is doing her disservice, and it may be, then I wouldn't be happy about how this film puts my persona across. So perhaps the defensive attitude above ought to be directed at the film makers as oppossed to those that watched it and drew those conclusions.

In reply to Robert Durran:


Was that the case? Wasn't she just doing a bit of online networking etc after the event, to raise the profile of Colorado, while she happened to be in China?

I wasn't sure what to expect from my first time on the mainland. I thought it might be mega crowded but i found Shanghai quite pleasant, so I can relate to what she was trying to express.

In reply to Morgan Woods:


I just watched a video. I'm not sure I even know what online networking is. She may, of course, have been doing some of whatever that is too.

In reply to daveaubrey:
aww poor you...getting your tattoo touched by curious strangers (probably girls and you secretly love the attention) from a different culture (that you happen to be living in) with a somewhat different idea on personal space. With all your mighty worldliness, I would have thought you had gotten over the idea by now...

but on a more serious note, if you want your *Western* standards, move to Shanghai or Xiamen, or better yet, get your whiny ass out of my country.