UKC

Anyone else amused by the piece comparing rock & ice climbing in today's Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2253881,00.html

Wonder if the journalist has ever actually climbed

In reply to Doug: I'm new to all this, I'm only actually just getting into joining a club and getting going so my opinion won't count for much. i've done ice climbing down a glacier in the Arctic but at no point was i feeling inner peace! it was my first ever attemp at something like that so i don't know if when you've been doing it a while that's the feeling you get.

how wrong have they got it then? i take it by the fact you've posted this they're wrong?

In reply to Doug: Good grief. Just read that article. What a prat.

In reply to Doug:

Plimsolls?
I think he may have researched climbing in the 1950s by mistake...

In reply to Doug: Well I ice climb and Im a physical blob of shite - others may see me as an even worse blob of shite than I see myself though

In reply to Doug:

"climbing over awkward terrain - such as technical boulder-climbing - is unpredictable and spasmodic"

eh?!

In reply to Doug:
So down jackets are 'essential' for ice climbing now, are they? <scoff>

The whole article is laughably rubbish.

In reply to Doug:

ooh 'fighting with an alien environment'. I like it.

What did you do at the weekend?

I fought in an alien environment and achieved a state of inner peace and almost meditative ecstasy.

In reply to just wanna climb:


Isn't Chris Moss the prat that wrote that article suggesting that the polar caps are increasing not shrinking?

In reply to Doug:

ha ha ha ha ha.

i read that this morning and wondered how long it'd be before people started picking holes in it.

reckon the other sports featured have people so arch and knowing in their responses, sitting on forums picking at it?

it's just a loose overview, people, as are all the articles in the series, and if it inspires people to join our glorious sport and find out more, isn't that a good thing? oh no, we're too precious to want anyone to join in because it's ours, all ours, and we're *way cooler* than other people.

guffaw!

In reply to Alex Roddie:

I want some of those "good ropes" mentioned that make falling a rarity.

In reply to Toby S:

from the tiny amount of winter stuff I've done, I've definitely had moments of wondering at the madness of standing on a bit of frozen water, two or three foot above the ground, frozen water that won't be there in a couple of months and wasn't there a couple of months previously, and taken a moment to consider the awesomeness (in it's most Gordon S sense, not the 'rad, dude!' sense) of the situation. That's one of the things I like about it all.

In reply to CJD:

Picking holes in semi-ludicrous articles is a sport too you realise?
Can we help it if we are better at that than at climbing?

In reply to CJD:

Bloody hippy! :0)

No doubting that it's a great experience, but I'm not sure about the way he's portraying it as some kind of meditative experience. Unless you count my panicked prayers of 'please don't let me die' and the mantra of 'neveragainneveragainneveragain'

In reply to MeMeMe:

lol, good response!

thinkng about it, though, things like the 'plimsolls' bit isn't so ludicrous - certainly not for starting out, or wearing approach shoes for easy routes or scrambling, which is another way for lots of people to get into it.

and bouldering doesn't involve repetitive moves, like, say, running or whatever, so that comment wasn't so unreasonable.

I don't think it's as straightforward as it might seem, to try to explain something for a layman audience who are unlikely to be familiar with all but the most basic elements of it.

not sure about the down jacket, mind, but they *are* a nice thing to have!

In reply to Toby S:

but the meditative mention ties in to a) the whole Burke notion of the 'sublime' as awesome and terrible, with victorians going to the mountains to go to what they perceived as 'the edge of experience', and b) the 'flow' thing discussed by Mihaly Czunpronounceablename of being in a 'zone' of total concentration that's not so very far from meditation. Climbing's one of the most oft-cited examples of this, as is children playing - it's very serious, very focused, but hugely pleasurable in terms of its all-consuming demand on concentration and pleasure in success.

In reply to CJD:

an article about flow, by way of further explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29

In reply to CJD:

It's Saturday morning stop trying to make me learn stuff! I'll bookmark that for later.

The cynic in me says that that's all just hippy bollocks, but I'll admit to a few occasions of feeling quite serene in the hills... But don't tell anyone right?

In reply to CJD:

You are ruining our fun with your logic!

Actually I mostly just chuckled at plimsolls because it's not a word I've ever used and it just sounds ridiculous in a kind of old fashioned and slightly posh way.

I think the articles are just supposed to be a bit of fun. It was cross country skiing versus nordic walking last week. I read it while having my breakfast.
I think they are more aiming for the "regular column that fills up some space" type of thing rather than the "article that is going to inspire people to change their life".
But there is nothing wrong with that, I do need things to read while I am eating my breakfast.

In reply to Toby S: Ive felt pretty immortal on mountains but never climbing, Fisherfield this summer for me is about "the existance of things not seen"

In reply to MeMeMe:

guffaw! sorry 'bout that.

the guardian (and the observer) magazine is all a bit 'aspirational lifestyling', though, so who knows - maybe there'll be a queue for the Ellis Brigham ice wall in covent garden this morning

In reply to MeMeMe:

and plimsolls *is* a marvellous word

In reply to Doug: Yeah I see what you mean. The 'adrenalin rush' part is a bit off the mark, especially since there are no other sections indicating the overall mental wellbeing that climbing can give. Spiritual aspect for many climbers too.

In reply to CJD:

I was thinking exactly the same going over the Plimsoll bridge the other day.

http://www.bristoljpg.co.uk/2005/samuel-plimsoll.htm

In reply to CJD:

F*ck me CJD, I don't use this site that much now. It doesn't tend to offer much of interest to me. However on the odd threads I have read of late a couple of your recent postings have stood out as unreasonably sensible. Just thought I'd mention it. I'm still not a fluffy though, uh-uh, not me, no way jose.....

In reply to CJD:

Seems reasonable.


I certainly am, you've a sort of geeky cool too.

In reply to The Crow:

<raspberries>

In reply to Doug:


Shame, shame on you all. How could you possibly doubt the veracity of a journalist ?

In reply to CJD:

and at least the article didn't mention top-roping - everyone'd be struggling with the almost orgasmic excitement of being the first to rush to their keyboard and squeal at the indignity of it all...

In reply to dinkypen:

I must admit that my bouldering is pretty "unpredictable and spasmodic"

I haven't read the rest of the article yet though, is it worth it I wonder?

In reply to CJD:

143 users are now struggling with the mental image of you squealing in almost orgasmic excitement...

Bloody tease!

In reply to Doug:

>Ice is harder, so expect even firmer, more defined muscles, less fat and better contours.

How true, how true...

Mmmh, eh? stop nudging me whilst I'm dreaming