Smart people don't do runouts...

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healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Topic Author's Original Post - Mar 5, 2015 - 01:40pm PT
This gem was posted on MP on a topic about Cochise where the newlings are bitching about old bolted routes:

Generally speaking the more intelligent a person the less likely they are to risk life and limb. That being said wouldn't that mean the runout scarefests are already "dumbed down to the ability of the lowest common denominator"?
jonnyrig

climber
Mar 5, 2015 - 01:53pm PT
Isn't everything a runout when your a noob?
Meaning, if you decide to try climbing, you're already the lowest denominator.
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Mar 5, 2015 - 01:55pm PT
Isn't everything a runout when your a noob?

No, it's not until you really know what's going on that you get smart enough to get scared. At least that's how it was for me.
EdwardT

Trad climber
Retired
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:00pm PT
Thanks Healyje.

Funniest thing I've read today.
jonnyrig

climber
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:03pm PT
so... if you start out scared and continue anyway, are you bold? or just dumb?
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:05pm PT
Generally speaking the more intelligent a person the less likely they are to risk life and limb.

It's got nothing to do with intelligence. It's all about sanity. Most of those runout scarefests were put up, and subsequently climbed by, people who were very intelligent. And also batshit crazy.

A lot of us here fit that description.
EdwardT

Trad climber
Retired
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:06pm PT
This sh*t is hysterical. I jumped to page four.

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/cochise-development/110095695__4#a_110152942
Rock!...oopsie.

Trad climber
the pitch above you
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:08pm PT
so... if you start out scared and continue anyway, are you bold? or just dumb?

Based on reading the taco, I believe this is entirely outcome dependent. If you top out you are a bold hero. If you fall, you were an incompetent dimwit that should have known better.
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:09pm PT
No, it's not until you really know what's going on that you get smart enough to get scared. At least that's how it was for me.

You speak much truth there, Gary. My first leads were chimneys - totally unprotected - but where I felt secure. I was much more frightened leading a 5.0 face than a 5.7 chimney. That changed after I spent a lot of time bouldering, and too little time doing chimneys. Only then did I realize that I could fall, and the consequences could be, well, grave.

John
mike m

Trad climber
black hills
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:09pm PT
Runouts do smart people
jonnyrig

climber
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:11pm PT
I believe this is entirely outcome dependent. If you top out you are a bold hero. If you fall, you were an incompetent dimwit that should have known better.

I was just thinking that...

Get a mentor!

shortly followed by:

Sack up!
Jones in LA

Mountain climber
Tarzana, California
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:17pm PT
ive been climbing with a group doing tons of rad development in the stronghold. really stoked to see new lines going up in more obscure areas way in the back on the west seide.

we are notticing though that theirs allot of random bolts scattered around that basically dont look completed.


This is precious beyond words. New School meets Old School!


Full disclosure: the days of scaring myself on those 'un-completed' routes are pretty much over. I now tend to gravitate to the new, 'rad' routes.


Rich Jones
hooblie

climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:24pm PT
So flogging a bunch of clip-ups is like gobbling smart pills?
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:25pm PT
Johnnyrig, your post reminds me of some other nuggets:

"Always climb with someone more experienced than you." The Mountaineering Handbook by Casewit and Pownall (I really think Dick had very little to do with it) gave us this gem. Query: What is the largest size possible of a climbing party if everyone followed this rule? Answer: zero.

And then, from Tom Patey who, sad to say, had his humorous definitions come true:

Beginner: Someone (often dead) who should be kept away from the mountains at all cost

Veteran Climber: Someone whose death was inevitable.

John
survival

Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:42pm PT
So all runout routes were put up by dumb people?

Awesome. I'm a friggin' idiot!!
dirt claud

Social climber
san diego,ca
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:44pm PT
Wow, all the topics over at MP forum are about climbing, well that's not fun, what gives? :)
survival

Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
Mar 5, 2015 - 02:48pm PT
Ok, you guys win, Ill stop training front levers and start doing sphincter crunches.

Priceless.
son of stan

Boulder climber
San Jose CA
Mar 5, 2015 - 03:07pm PT
Smart people top rope.


skitch

climber
East of Heaven
Mar 5, 2015 - 03:21pm PT
Isn't that why all the old-schoolers smoke a bowl before climbing? Gotta dumb themselves down enough to do the run-outs. . .
johntp

Trad climber
socal
Mar 5, 2015 - 03:39pm PT
Thanks Healyje.

Funniest thing I've read today.

Ditto. Still laughing.

edit: Warbler - well put.
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