In reply to Robert Durran:
> Anyway, the fact is that if all you whinging dwarfs were right about being tall being such an advantage, then the best climbers would be overwhelmingly tall. They are not. You are wrong.
Ah, it seems you found the lanky climber's curse. It goes like this:
Tommy the tall and Jimmy the short start climbing together. First day out Tommy lanks up a couple of VS like if they were ladders, where Jimmy has to work them through, try them time and again, and find a sequence that works for him. Jimmy at the end only manages 1 of the VS in a top rope while Tommy sniggers.
The next outings go similarly, but Jimmy improves rapidly and start ticking those VS one by one. Meanwhile Tommy lanks all the VS at the crag and a couple of HVS for good measure. Jimmy gets a bit stuck with those HVS, and starts practising dynos, mantling into breaks, and using shitty smears and dirty crimps to be able to reach the good holds. Eventually after a few sessions he manages to climb his first HVS.
Time goes by and they are both now climbing E2. Tommy still skips the cruxes by reaching past them, while Jimmy has got pretty strong and technically gifted. Tommy laughs sugestions that being tall helps by pointing out that Jimmy is a midget and can climb the same routes he does.
More outings follow and they get into E4's, and Tommy can't just reach past the bad holds any more. However Tommy is weak and technically challenged, and try as he might he can't hang those holds or rock-over into that waist high smear, so he fails to climb any of those routes while muttering something about levers, bunching up, and carrying 2 stones. Jimmy on the other hand progresses quickly into the E5's after dispatching several E4 easily onsight.
A couple of years later Jimmy is an acomplished well known climber with sponsorship from a hair gel brand and an online dating company, but Tommy doesn't answer his phone calls any more to go climbing. Jimmy hears rumours that Tommy doesn't climb any more and that he spends most of his time drank down up the pub while shouting incomprehensible things to the short bartender who works there.
Post edited at 00:40