UKC

Often we ask ourselves Why climb? Well, in this superb philosophical video, Captain Kirk answers that question.

“Why do I climb the mountain? Because I'm in love.”

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=50550

In reply to UKC News:

Someone needs to tell him El Cap is a cliff not a mountain!


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Love it!

Anyone found the real footage so we can see how they clipped and chopped it all together?

Sam

In reply to UKC News:

brilliant, lol.

In reply to Sam Mayfield:

Original footage

youtube.com/watch?v=Kestt5BI3eg&

He is actually nuts.

In reply to Chris Craggs: Chris I may be wrong here but the mountain IS called El Capitan, the cliffs are called somthing like the south east and west face....

In reply to Tom_Harding:

How can it possibly be a mountain when you can drive round the back and walk downhill to the crest (I hesitate to say 'summit')?


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Captain Kirk isn't real neither Chris, nor is space travel as seen in Star Trek.

In reply to UKC News:

This is really rather old. Surely you should have posted this when it came out a few months ago?

In reply to Chris Craggs: Hi Chris, I think you've missed the point of this video entirely.

Clearly Kirk is using the word 'mountain' as a metaphor. He could easily substitute it for 'cliff' but to the wider world 'mountain' has a broader sense of imagery. Struggle, battle, adventure, life.

When Kirk says he hugs the mountain, obviously this is in a spiritual sense, embracing the challenge and uncertainty of life.

It could be El Cap, Everest or Running Hill Pits.

This video isn't to be quickly watched, ingested and forgotten. This is a serious piece of philosophy brought to you in cutting edge multi-media.

This is art and as modern as it gets.

You can rely on us at UKC for this stuff. No probs.

Jack

In reply to Chris Craggs: Snowdon is a mountain but you can get a train to the top. Im trying to find some info on google at the moment...

In reply to Tom_Harding:

You might end up winning that argument from a strict definition sense, but deep down we all know its a crag really.

In reply to UKC News:

He does the classic soloing / free climbing mix up. Seems to me a lot of yanks do this, maybe once free climbing meant unroped soloing in the US...? Or are they just all wrong.

Soloing is also a very confused term though. As far as I know it's independent of style, it just means on your own doesn't it?

In reply to Tom_Harding:

Google away - a mountain has to have a pointy top - period!


Chris

(or at least a flat one with slopey sides all the way round!

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Really? I thought it just had to be mahoosive.

In reply to bouldery bits:

Its got to have a drop on each side, otherwise things would get silly.

In reply to Chris Craggs:

What the hell was Captain Kirk thinking eh? Of course it's a cliff, caused by the Sherwin Glaciation between 1 to 1.3 million years ago, everyone knows that.
If Kirk was guiding me on El Cap, and he started singing me that song halfway up, I’m afraid to say I would have a shrinking confidence in the man’s mountain (cliff) knowledge.

In reply to Locus:

Oh come on Locus Captian Kirk wouldn't be wanting climb with you anyway because he's above that. He'll be free climbing solo and if he gets into a bit of Sh@t! it will be beam me up Scotty quick!

But will happen if the warp drive is malfunctioning and Scotty is elsewhere!??

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Surely a cragg Chris? Sgurr a Ghaoracha is a mountain but you can still drive up the Bealch na Ba and walk across to the top of the Coich Nose!

In reply to Lone Rider: don't mock the Kirk
i'd like to see you freesolo el cap..
youtube.com/watch?v=GlxzpWjM5Q8&

In reply to p3t3:

After watching the original footage, and seeing the recent Johnny Dawes clip it reminded me of an extremely idiosyncratic and pretentious essay by the same called I believe ' A Glass of Water '.Peehaps that's where JD gets his inspiration - by the way we re named JD'S stream of conciousness ramblings ' A load of Bollocks ' by way of TRIBUTE.

In reply to jonny2vests

Perhaps they refrain from using the term 'soloing' as it might have onanistic connotations for our hairy palmed transatlantic cousins.

In reply to p3t3: