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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Like a real fork? and it popped your tire? Well don't that beat all! good thing it wasn't a land mine eh?
Yes, a real fork. A dinner fork. And it did make my tire go flat. I couldn't even be grumpy about it since it was so absurd!
I too am happy it was not a land mine. :)
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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When you come to a fork in the road, take it. (Attributed to some folk philosopher.)
Aren't we lucky to have all the choices that we have, and to be able to live as we do? 99.99% of all humans who've ever lived, and 90% of all those currently living, might envy our fortune.
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Good job Base!
Nice Up! jogill
I miss Walt too...
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briham89
Big Wall climber
san jose, ca
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Good words for thought from a lot of people on here....
I graduate in May and have some major forks to workout...
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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We all like to think we make our fork choices
willingly but do we really? Would that I
could count all the forks I've careened down.
I could stock a restaurant.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
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I would ride my bike from Round Valley to the Buttermilks every winter day and have them all to myself.
Superb!
Experience-choice
Went to work for REI early on, thinking it would sustain me in my climber lifestyle, but I quickly found out it wouldn't satisfy me intellectually. My brain hurt with questions: life, existence, determinism, and how to climb more.
Some school lead to summers off and climbing all over California, which lead to more school closer to Yosemite. Couple years of being able to go to the Valley regularly really let me feel a kinship for the area, and be baptized in climbing. The Prow some pitches on Half Dome, some cragging of the best kind, even a bolt or two on an potential FA.
But all the while I was schooling and maximizing my time. Summers, weekends, holidays, we were about climbing. Though not living the dirt bag lifestyle, it was modest. Rents helped as best they could, part time jobs here and there, and some good friends kept me climbing.
Student loans allowed for more school, and more climbing. All in all, quite a bit of balance between the 'climbing life' and the 'normal life'.
Do I wish that sometimes I would have done more hard cracks, more FAs, more Walls? Sure, in that vague amorphous sense that more climbing is better than less climbing. But now, having done enough things (onsights in the 11 range, climbing on 12s, high sierra routes, new routing, climbing on choss, El Cap, ice, bouldering, and even a renewed appreciate for offwidth!!! ones climbs should inspire, be fun and with friends, and not just be numbers or done because they are "classic." And also, the schooling has allowed me to do cool things I would never have been able to be exposed to before; to honestly say "I made a difference" in my own way.
The fork is what you make it. Any climbing is a blessing and a gift. Anything more is a fortune! Ride the wild pony indeed, wherever her meadow may be!
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okie
Trad climber
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You did it right. Whatever fork you take it's you on that road.
You were a good climber because you were happy to be there, and you really went for that and other edges with a running start. You lived, man. And you've got some left, too.
It is impossible to achieve the perfect mix of freedom and responsibility, and at either end of the scale lies a form of hell.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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I knew a guy who mixed his cement with a pitch fork...The guy was a real mortar forker...RJ
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Todd Eastman
climber
Bellingham, WA
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You don't have to dirtbag it to stay engaged and creative with your interests.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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regrets are a waste of time
to quote Pogo:
'We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities!'
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jopay
climber
so.il
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Interesting post,many admire Fred Beckey's life but would not sacrifice to do so, I'm sure Fred's nomad life would not work for all, but something tells me that if Fred had to do it all over again he wouldn't change a thing.The fork with the college degree, job and family are the sure thing the other not so sure, who knows what lies around the next bend but of that came the mountain men, restless spirits who roamed the west in search of the next great adventure. In the end I'm sure many died lonely death's with few to mourn their loss but it is the life they chose and I doubt many of them had regrets.
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Climbing is magnificent and all-consuming, and if you do it at a high level, it’s gratifying to get the admiration of your peers and your name in the odd guide book… But regardless of whether we have chosen the dirtbag lifestyle or a more conventional one, we can all agree that climbing is not worth getting killed for. Something that has not been mentioned so far is that for too many who took the road less traveled, it ended in a youthful fatality in the mountains and a lifetime of grieving for their families: literally a dead end.
I have known quite a few who pursued the game of constantly upping the ante in climbing accomplishment and risk. I played that game to a small degree, myself. One fork that I look back on is the summer of 1978. I was in the middle of my first year of law school, when Tobin Sorenson invited me to go with him to the Garwhal Himalaya, all expenses paid by sponsors, to attempt some beautiful, but objectively dangerous, unclimbed peaks. That trip got canceled, but had we gone, we might have accomplished some very daring and memorable first ascents (which would have led to further sponsored trips)…or it is quite possible that we would have died trying.
That summer,instead of embarking on a dangerous adventure with Tobin, I worked construction in Idylewild and it so happened that I fell in love with a beautiful girl, now my wife of 32 years. There is no doubt in my mind that I stumbled onto the right path, despite the inevitable stress and drudgery that comes with a career and responsibility for a family.
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MH2
climber
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Wow, you had a road?! What I wouldn't have given for a road.
And many many thanks to Crimpergirl for her fork in the road story.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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I'm always intrigued-amazed by the medical professionals that work 16 hour shifts , have kids and family life , and still manage to get out and accomplish impressive athletic feats...
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m_jones
Trad climber
Carson City, NV
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Looking back, it seems not so much about which direction to choose as it is just to choose.
Ones personality seems to dictate how long to stick with a choice and when to move on.
What do you want to trade your life for or maybe more importantly what not to trade your life for.
I was lucky enough to grow up in the mountains and have spent my life enjoying them.
I have two parameters that have helped guide me.
Never have a real job (office - cubicle) and always take the less traveled path. Seems to work for me. Never would have survived a real job.
When I look back on some choices I almost made for a career, I am frightened at how it could have been. I maybe could have done better ($$) in some ways but so far, how I have literally - spent my life - is pretty satisfying.
Great wife - awesome daughter - and I get to go rock climbing!
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Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
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I think about this all the time...
Spring of '83. End of my sophomore year as an undergraduate. Owed $900 to the bursar's office after Ronnie Regan took away a big chunk of my grant money. Said he needed it to fund bigger, badder weapons development so we could all prosper from the trickle down of wealth. I just interviewed for a summer job with the Curry Company in the valley and scored a position as a carpenter paying a whopping $7/hr when the minimum wage was $3.35/hr. I had a plan to nurse my '74 AMC matador out to Cali, sell it, and make my way in Yos. Screw college. I was over it. No one was helping me and no one gave a sh1t about me. Time to strike out on my own.
That was on a Friday afternoon in Philly.
After binge drinking with other Regan castoffs all weekend and not studying for my finals because it just didn't matter anymore, my financial aid adviser asked me to come down to her office immediately. It was early Monday morning. For whatever reason, I actually walked the 5 blocks because I needed air and ended up on the steps to that building.
Long story, short, she found state and private grants that covered 70% of my lost federal funding and scored me a job at the university press (many interesting stories working there). My outstanding tuition balance was paid off and I had a Electromagnetic Fields & Waves course final in 90 minutes. Got a 'C' on the test, a 'B' for a final grade, and a stern lecture from my professor for slacking late in the game. I stayed home that summer and earned money to go back to school in the fall. Never took the Curry Company job and received a letter from them that I could never work for CC in the future.
I ended up graduating a few years later and got a job in the defense industry with Lockheed doing RADAR research, signal processing algorithm development, and simulation platform development in FORTRAN all in the quest for bigger, badder weapons systems. And the sh1t I worked on probably led to some very fast and violent deaths to humans who never had a chance in a fire and forget wartime environment.
The best years of my climbing career were still ahead of me. I did a number of big walls and some hard scary free climbing during that time. Then I met my wife, got a house, made three kids, and will have college payments in the not so distant future.
So I took 'that' path because of a hard working financial aid adviser. And it kills me to this day that I cannot remember her name.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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As a young man I enjoyed the vagabond life.
I drifted about learned to live on very little.
I wandered into LA with $17, a backpack and a guitar. Camped by the observatory the first night. Over the long years I built a decent middle class life and learned to love this city like I love the wild places of the West.
Now that the kids are grown, I can begin to think of those things I never got to do. Pick up some of those loose ends and continue on.
At least I mostly have the money now.
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Base. It was many years ago we chowed down on some stir fried chicken in your van at the Buttermilks and discussed this very subject. At the time neither one of us knew what the future held. You have done well Mark. Stay the course.
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jstan
climber
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now I standing here in 2ft of freezing rain water in The Pit
Journalistic license.
No rain in JT and was pleasantly warm all day long. Got windy as the day wore on.
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