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Gunkie
climber
East Coast US
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Jun 21, 2009 - 03:50pm PT
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What do people mean when they say aid climbing is for wussies?
I'm a wussie.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Jun 21, 2009 - 04:38pm PT
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Gunkie
How'd you find this thread from back in 2002? DId you search "aid Wussies" or something?
just wondering cause the title isn't very revealing
PEace
Karl
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Jingy
Social climber
Flatland, Ca
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Jun 21, 2009 - 04:48pm PT
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Aid, to my understanding is the use of tools to make you way up a wall.
To people who trad climb, or sport climb, or boulder may think of this activity much like creating your own ladder up an otherwise route, however difficult.
Some ascribe the term "Wussy" (= Part Wimp, part puss) to the undertakers of the "Aid Climbing" activity....
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jstan
climber
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Jun 21, 2009 - 04:57pm PT
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Lively thread.
"Guaranteed outcome climbing" needs more examination than it has been given I think.
If one is 2000 feet up, there are no good rappel anchors below and you only have to get five feet higher to get off, changing the rock so you can get off can seem really practical. As regards one's personal dialog with nature's challenges, when one gets down what is the take away? I got beat up pretty badly. I lost. And in the process I messed up something that I do not own.
That said, technologies that can be used to get one up to the top are changing and improving all of the time. Those things have no connection to the person. So where does the natural challenge of the rock come in? The ultimate technology is just to take a helicopter ride to the top, wouldn't you say?
Free climbing in which the protection is never weighed, nor is equipment ever used to prepare one for the climb is perhaps most intricately dependent upon the climber themself. If that dialog is why one is drawn to climbing, then you will probably be more interested in free climbing. If you are not drawn to this dialog, then you may well do something else.
Mind you there are many forms of climbing, called free climbing, that are not. Protection is weighed, holds modified, protection preplaced, inspection from the top and so on and on and on. These all tend to assure "success."
Ultimately what one does on the rock is largely determined by the reason why one has come there in the first place.
No two people are there for exactly the same reason.
As regards work on the "pig." Many years ago two friends were two thirds of the way up Watkins on a blistering day. Simultaneously they asked the same question. Why are we here? They decided they were there for no reason other than to get the pig to the top.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Jun 21, 2009 - 05:24pm PT
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Basically, we all have a "Wussie Line" where we decide to turn off bold and turn on "survive, retreat, chicken, whatever"
Anybody without a "Wussie Line" is insane. The question is, where is your "wussie line" and what are you willing to do when you run up against it? (drill rivet? Bail 2000 feet? Make cheat stick?) and do you fess up when talking about climb later?
peace
Karl
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Jun 21, 2009 - 05:27pm PT
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Walter Bonatti bailed off the Croz Spur 7 times before sending it. Don't think I'd call him a woos.
I think he might also qualify as "old and bold".
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Rob_James
Ice climber
Aoraki/Mt. Cook Village, New Zealand
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Jun 21, 2009 - 05:35pm PT
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Nah. Aid routes aren't for wussies. Nor is bouldering.
A2, A3 ain't exclusive to those that can't punch 5.10.
Heck. Live and let live - quit with the posturing ("question"s), test yourself, and go find the answers for yourself.
As long as you're honest 'bout what you do, who cares? Respect the environment and the challenge. Just give space to the side for those moving a little quicker.
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