UKC

Over the years, I've met and had a lot of people in my life. Family, wives, friends, business colleagues and associates etc, and apart from the odd exception, they have all given me problems, stress, heartache, been unreliable, selfish, judgemental, disloyal, pissed me off, let me down, and been a pain in the arse.

I've also known a lot of climbers over the years too, and with the very rare exception, they have been exactly the opposite.

They've been warm, open, honest, loyal, supportive, reliable, non judgemental and a whole lot of joyous fun to be around.

They've also been there when the shit hit the fan both on and off the hills, and 'literally' saved my life on more than one occasion.

Even those heated disagreement's - some of which occasionally turned physical - were soon forgotten over a pint, with no grudges held.

So this post is in homage to the brother and sisterhood of climbing, who regularly restore my faith in human nature, and who I've been fortunate to spend so much time and shared so many wonderful adventures with.

The phrase 'salt of the earth' readily comes to mind.

G.

In reply to Goucho:

Until you get injured

In reply to Goucho:

Climbers are just people; with all of the flaws and benefits that 'ordinary' people have. What you have discovered is that with people who share a common interest with you you can actually relate. Personally I've known climbers who are absolute prats and non-climbers who are jewels.

The best friends to have are the literate ones who can tell you there is no apostrophe in 'friends', however.

Climbers tend to come in the wide range of different types that other people come in, but frequently have the following common characteristics:

- They tend to prefer climbing to the exclusion of other things which rather endears them to other climbers and makes them irritating and tedious to the rest of the population.

- They tend to worry less about personal hygiene than the general population.

- They tend to be financially tighter than the general population - especially when it comes to risking life or limb to retrieve a fivers worth of old tat - however this is as much misplaced honour as financial probity.

- They can be more generous than the average with time and help provided it's within certain arenas (ie doesn't conflict with climbing).

- If the UKC experience is anything to go by there are a lot of "on the spectrum somewhere pedants" mixed in willing to argue the toss about absolutely nothing.

In reply to Goucho:
Would agree with the above, can only be superseded by cavers, although many of us do both. Cavers have all the attributes or characteristics of climbers, but care even less about material things or person appearance!

In reply to Goucho:

All my climbing mates are great, but then they are my mates, I would think that, but I've encountered a few climbers that I probably wouldn't climb with again and certainly wouldn't be mates with.

Experience on here tells me that climbers come in many varieties.

In reply to duchessofmalfi:


Sampling bias. It will probably come as a surprise to many UKC users that there is a significant fraction of the climbing population that do not use UKC, or have accounts but don't use the forums.

In reply to Goucho:

Climbers are the only friends to have ( plus their spouses if they like drinking, parties, walking and having a laugh).

In reply to duchessofmalfi:


If I'm anything to go by, there are a lot of people who sometimes find arguing the toss about absolutely nothing easier and more interesting than whatever boring / difficult work they're actually meant to be doing at the time. I doubt that the conversations would go the same way in an actual real life situation.

In reply to Goucho:

They are, however, also the most boring, obsessive, one-dimensional, tedious, self-satisfied bunch of tossers you are likely to meet in a long day's march

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

This is spot on!
Although if you're not a tedious, obsessed tosser you're probably a bore.
Except me, I'm a boring tosser.

In reply to deacondeacon:

I'm amazed that the thread has got this far without someone pointing out the superfluous apostrophe in the thread title.

In reply to Andy Say:


Whilst that is undoubtedly true I think that misses something much deeper: what is it about climbers that makes them different? And I think its not just climbing and climbers. I think we share something in common with participants in other extreme sports. I've seen interviews with surfers or wingsuit pilots for example and they have the same outlook on life and ideals to those of climbers.

A few things that make us different spring to mind (though doublless there are more):

1 Willingness to take risks
2. Wilingness to face fear regularly
3 Deal with failure on a regular basis
4 Rejection of materialism/consumerism/money as the most important thing in life.

There's a chicken or the egg question here too. Is it because of who we that we choose climbing, or is it because climbing and similar extreme sports have subversive effect on us?

In reply to John2:


That's because we're such nice guy's

In reply to John2:

It hasn't, and someone has.

I've given myself a severe thrashing for such an inexcusable grammatical error.

In reply to Wiley Coyote:


Who are you calling one-dimensional?!

In reply to Dave Garnett:


I'd draw the line at that!

In reply to duchessofmalfi:






Spot on I'd say

In reply to Goucho:

Well the people I climb with are different I'll give you that. They're all male with the exception of one other female climber but she hasn't been about at the club for a while due to work. We don't have many regular female climbers besides myself at the club I go to which doesn't really bother me; I have lots of platonic male friends and while people do find that concept to get their heads round I just get one with men better at times. They can be a bit more up front and straight talking than women can be at times and don't try and throw in unnecessary drama or negativity at things for no or some petty reason and just hang onto a grudge or go about trying to subvert a whole good thing for one of their friends.

The last time I went bouldering as a group it was just good, pretty relaxed fun and we had a range of abilities so it was good as it was a pretty supportive bunch and we all learned something and the banter afterwards at a late lunch in the pub was good too. We always have good banter when we're at our own club wall and there are people there I can always rely upon to help push me and support me when I'm finding something difficult. I've learned a lot climbing and it has helped make me a more confident person.

In reply to Goucho:


Funnily enough I was once part of a climbing group who did all those things to me. I know some other climbers/mountaineers who are genuinely nice decent people. I don't think you can generalise. People are people regardless of their hobbies.

In reply to duchessofmalfi:







I can truthfully say that none of those characteristics apply to me. Then again, I have never thought of myself as "a climber". I'm just somebody who enjoys a lot of different hobbies which include a bit of rock climbing. It's not a way of life for me.