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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Jan 10, 2017 - 11:03pm PT
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It seems Katie's point is that the rise of blogs and instagram might lead a noob into thinking people who make that content are experts,
then might be led to free solo Matthes Crest.
But the noob should know better than to trust unedited media.
And it appears the noob at the start of the article did know better - he asked her in the parking lot if soloing it was "normal". Although his question sounds kind of dumb. I.e. "normal for experts, or normal for average folks". So her followup question "Have you soloed before?" probably helped.
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Gunkie
Trad climber
Valles Marineris
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Jan 11, 2017 - 06:50am PT
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She makes a good point.
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chill
climber
The fat part of the bell-curve
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Jan 11, 2017 - 08:11am PT
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Summary: Author encounters an idiot in a parking lot and writes an article about it.
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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Jan 11, 2017 - 08:41am PT
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TLDR: I'm angry those I deem as lesser than me are getting all of the attention.
Nothing has changed as to who or what appears in the media or their caliber, IMO, there's just more of everything now. The jealousy and insecurity hasn't changed either.
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cat t.
climber
california
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Jan 11, 2017 - 09:29am PT
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I don't think her point is to complain about who receives media attention; it's more of a rumination about how the constant barrage of "#rad!!!111 shots" from social media streams affects climbers' (not just noobs') risk perception. I think it's fairly similar to a discussion that came up on ST over the summer. One could argue that an individual should just ignore the prevailing culture, but in general it's nigh impossible to remain impervious to culture.
Edit:
there's just more of everything now As more and more people climb 5.13, 5.6 becomes "easier" in the community's eyes. I think the unfortunate side effect is that common/easy things are also perceived as "safer"--but no matter how many people are out climbing hard, the objective danger of mountains is not changing.
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micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
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Jan 11, 2017 - 10:05am PT
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I have walked way out to the edge of more than one cornice for just the right photo op over the years. Social media totally affects me and my judgement......I do all kinds of idiotic things now that I can edit and post it and gain admiration so quickly. Its like a drug to me. Seriously. Its a good thing I'm not a better climber or into soloing. I would totally be swayed by the opportunity to get rad on Insta if I had more than 16 followers.
#selfieking
#summitsdontcountwithoutaselfie
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TwistedCrank
climber
Released into general population, Idaho
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Jan 11, 2017 - 10:40am PT
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Define "normal"
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nathanael
climber
CA
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Jan 11, 2017 - 11:14am PT
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This is definitely a relevant article. I made a recent trip to Joshua Tree with a few friends of varying skill levels. One girl, who is very active on social media and all that, mentioned she would like to try an easy free solo. I was surprised, because she's only ever led a few sport routes and has never taken any offers to learn to place gear and trad lead, etc.
Anyways, I'm not really one to tell someone they can't try something, especially since she really thought she was capable and prepared. Plus I feel like just hearing "no you're not ready" just glamorizes it more. She was suggesting something like "The Eye", a route she'd seen her friends soloing on a previous trip. But at the same time I knew she would definitely panic and die is she actually tried to solo the eye or something similar.
Later in the day I found a cool 4th/low 5th class chimney that let you scramble up onto a tower. I climbed up and told her to solo up to me. After about 10' she stopped and said she didn't like it because if she fell she would get hurt. (real lightbulb moment...) I went back down to grab a rope for a toprope and watched her struggle up it (turning 5.2 chimney moves into 5.10 face climbing), then tried to get her to downclimb it on toprope and kept hearing calls for a tighter belay. She didn't ask to solo anymore after that.
Anyways all this to say, it's not an isolated thing. People really do look at that social media (and social pressure in real life) and get caught up in the image thing without comprehending what risk, exposure, etc really means and it builds a disconnect between the image of smiling soloers and and the reality of if you fck up you die.
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Dolomite
climber
Anchorage
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Jan 11, 2017 - 11:30am PT
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Nice post, cat t.
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Srbphoto
climber
Kennewick wa
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Jan 11, 2017 - 11:32am PT
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especially since she really thought she was capable and prepared.
perfect!
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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Jan 11, 2017 - 11:50am PT
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The whole article is basically about not being good enough for the fame. The soloist dying thing is an excuse for cover. A noob interrupted her "we're too rad" narc bro sesh. Must have been rough. I've read a ton of these snips over the years. They are mostly written by and about women.
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caughtinside
Social climber
Oakland, CA
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Jan 11, 2017 - 12:00pm PT
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The instabrag is a double edged sword. People use it in different ways.
I have found that if I don't follow accounts that have a greater than 5% selfie ratio, I enjoy it more and weed out obnoxious self promotion. YMMV
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
sawatch choss
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Jan 11, 2017 - 12:11pm PT
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The whole article is basically about not being good enough for the fame. The soloist dying thing is an excuse for cover. A noob interrupted her "we're too rad" narc bro sesh. Must have been rough. I've read a ton of these snips over the years. They are mostly written by and about women.
This is a spectacularly snarky and judgmental interpretation of Katie's motives, even by the standards of this anonymous poster. Wow, what an as5hole.
As someone who has recently climbed alone and ropeless for the express purpose of sticking pictures of the event on the interwebz to amuse my friends, I can testify to the queasy feeling that such an outing causes. It would feel super-effing-stupid to blow it on a mission like that, and the inner dialogue arising from this constant awareness was in no way helpful. I won't be doing that again- more because once is enough, but also because the whole 'watching myself do something' meta-feeling detracts too much from the enjoyment of moving around on rocks that I truly prefer.
[more, later (but not much)]
I think the piece is well-considered, well-argued, and makes the appropriate caveats for a general audience. The fact that it appears on the Climbing website strikes me as particularly pertinent, since (as a friend who writes for them put it) the target audience is people who "have been climbing for two years and live in the midwest."
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cat t.
climber
california
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Jan 11, 2017 - 12:21pm PT
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The whole article is basically about not being good enough for the fame. The soloist dying thing is an excuse for cover. I think this is way off base. I personally feel a bit sick inside when I see overzealous noobs trivializing the inherent dangers of climbing, and I am 100% positive that it's not because I think they're not good enough for fame. If jealousy enters into it, it's because I'm jealous of the carefree nature of people who haven't lost good friends in climbing accidents.
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jan 11, 2017 - 12:57pm PT
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Andy saw this coming, David is not sure he approves of risking death to achieve it for 15 minutes, or less.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 11, 2017 - 01:08pm PT
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The sum substance of this article is
In 1968 I free soloed Cathedral Peak in my Sears work boots and met the Sierra Club climbing leader at the Top who told me I had balls but was still a stoopid n00b.
Now in 2017 I'm told we are still stoopid n00bs ...... :-)
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Killer K
Boulder climber
Sacramento, CA
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Jan 11, 2017 - 01:27pm PT
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Natural Selection.
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 11, 2017 - 01:27pm PT
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surely there was some source for your early/continued madness?
Because it was there.
Werner's wiggle was done by Eric Beck.
I didn't put that up ......
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jan 11, 2017 - 01:33pm PT
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I helped rescue someone trying to solo Werner's Wiggle. He was screaming (well maybe whimpering) for help while Tom Burke and I were coming down. Tom stayed and tried to calm him down while I went back up and lowered him a rope and a harness. He was nice enough to buy us some beer once he stopped shaking.
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