Help me solidify my thoughts. I realize that this will remain a remarkable feat regardless of my/our opinions-- it just crys out for deeper contemplation
Adult climbers have pondered this issue since the beginnings of rock climbing as a recreational sport (1880s):
"Let anyone of ordinary height take a friendly small boy of an active nature for practice on such a place [high stone wall at home . . .] and he will have the pleasure of seeing him easily climb up vertical places that are much more difficult, or probably impossible, for the taller man, even though he may be an expert mountaineer." - George Abraham in The Complete Mountaineer (1907)
Question for all those who think Ashima has an advantage because of her strength to weight ratio, what do you have to say about her much shorter reach? Is that some sort of advantage, too:-)
People point to Sharma, Caldwell, etc as young guns who didn't burn out and continued to climb harder as they grew into adult sized frames. But if you really tease that out a bit, they didn't progress as much as we might have expected...and I put a lot of that down to growing into an adult body.
Huh? What kind of "Expectations" did you have...? Flying through the air by flapping their wings? Sharma and Caldwell have done some of the hardest things EVER done, and Caldwell has probably freed more El Cap routes than anybody. Sharma has climbed 5.15+, there is not 5.16..sheesh
and there's folks saying "but she's not doing bold routes" Huh? She's 11. People would call the police if her folks were putting her on bold routes. Besides, that bouldering she's doing is off the ground and hard as crap, you hit the ground every time.
You know who one of the first kid phenomenas was? They used to call him "boy wonder." Ron Kauk, still throwing it down in middle age.
Watch her climb, it's not just strength to weight ratio, she's got skills.
It's threatening to us that an 11 year old can crank this hard, because we like to take some validation for our specialness from being a climber, and that seems silly when an 11 year old can crank the hardest routes (or that a monkey can climb 5.17 without a rope)
We should get over that because few can be #1 and even they are not #1 at everything.
Its wasn't long ago that nobody had flashed a 5.14. Things are changing quickly all the time.
She doesn't have to stick with the sport to have made her mark. We all have different paths. She's bad ass now, and I'll bet if she wants to be bad ass later, she will be
Let us know!