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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 16, 2018 - 09:27pm PT
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Joe Fitschen gave a wonderful remembrance of Royal Robins at the recent Oakdale Climber's Festival, and I've been thinking about the central theme ever since.
Joe should publish it if he hasn't already (though I don't think he has). The long form of the stories exist in his book Going Up, were we learn of the very early climbing adventures of Joe and a host of characters, Royal among them, and certainly Royal became the center of that climbing universe.
In our youth we wonder what future will unfold for us, and now in our old age we know. Joe recounted the early times when he and Robbins, would go out climbing without any other thought than having fun. Before there was the push for harder grades or bigger routes or important climbs, there was just the fun of climbing.
Royal's future unfolded in influential and important ways, Joe ended his remembrance something like:
"I wish I could take you back to that time when it was just fun."
I have made a concerted effort, since hearing Joe, to make sure my climbing has been motivated by having that kind of fun.
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skywalker1
Trad climber
co
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Nov 16, 2018 - 09:54pm PT
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I understand what you are saying. For me it was just that, fun. Then testosterone took over and it was, well what can I do with this natural drug. So I went for it and I'm stoked on the memories. I have a family now so things aren't as raucous on my end. But it is sure fun as all get out when we get out and now it's just fun.
S....
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Nov 16, 2018 - 09:55pm PT
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Hi Ed
Joe Fitschen gave a wonderful remembrance of Royal Robins at the recent Oakdale Climber's Festival, and I've been thinking about the central theme ever since. Joe should publish it if he hasn't already (though I don't think he has)
Mari and I couldn't get to Oakdale, so I missed Joe's comments (and meeting you), but I know Steve recorded everything, so his words are not lost.
Joe ended his remembrance something like: "I wish I could take you back to that time when it was just fun."
I have made a concerted effort, since hearing Joe, to make sure my climbing has been motivated by having that kind of fun.
This brings to mind a couple of things. First, it's not just when they go climbing that people forget that fun is important. My ex-company (I retired a couple of months ago) hosted annual industry conferences in North America and Asia, and one of the high points was a so-called fireside chat -- just me and some industry bigwig on stage -- at the end of which, when I thought our chat was over, Denis said he had something important to bring up, and could he have a couple more minutes. This was a guy who was generally agreed to be pretty much the best in the business, so of course I said yes...
His important point? Exactly the same as Joe Fitschen's: Yes, it's easy to get swallowed up in the belief that what we are doing is IMPORTANT!!! -- climbing in Joe's case, international logistics in Denis' -- but if we forget that important things should also be fun, we lose.
And second, we must never forget the Prime Directive of Climbing: "It don't have to be fun, to be fun!"
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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Nov 16, 2018 - 09:56pm PT
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I too was impressed by Joe's talk and our marathon session with him that evening back at the hotel. I was impressed by his remembrances of that time but also of his continuing appreciation and enjoyment of life. While his memories of those early days were clearer than most, I did not get the impression that he was stuck in that time frame, longing nostalgically for the golden age. Rather, he had used it as the springboard for a long and fulfilling life beyond climbing.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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Nov 16, 2018 - 09:59pm PT
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And speaking of fun, I always remember Layton Kor's saying - "The best climber is the one that has the most fun".
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 16, 2018 - 10:05pm PT
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Wish it were true but human nature being what it is, the good old days had their share of competition and rivalries.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 16, 2018 - 10:57pm PT
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I don't mean to say that Joe was stuck in the past, and I agree with Jim that there were all the foibles of human ambition on display.
Joe was remembering the time when climbing with Royal was "just fun," when there were no other ambitions, when there wasn't even the idea that there would be.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 16, 2018 - 11:08pm PT
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Competition and rivalries are fun, Jim. Part of life in any endeavor.
I've never gotten involved with these in climbing, though.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Nov 17, 2018 - 07:11am PT
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Since Idaho climbing in the 1970's was far from the mainstream, it was fun to have fun with a local climbing club named The Decker Flat Climbing & Frisbee Club, & a fun club slogan.
Our first 4th of July party in 1970.
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Trump
climber
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Nov 17, 2018 - 10:02am PT
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^^^^^^^
That looks about as good as it gets!
I think that not unlike ourselves interpreting our experiences as fun, imagining that anything is or was “just” anything is a simplification that we simple humans probably need to make, at some point or other. Maybe knowing or understanding less is or was more fun, but I expect you’re prolly someone who experiences gaining a more complex understanding as fun.
Either way, have fun!
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Nov 17, 2018 - 10:10am PT
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Whaaaaat? It was supposed to be fun!?
Joe, you could have said something, you know?
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 17, 2018 - 10:21am PT
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It was supposed to be fun!?
Exactly.
Is this the fun part?
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John M
climber
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Nov 17, 2018 - 11:07am PT
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Without the challenge and a legitimate chance of failure, it's just amusing exercise. An average mountain bike ride is more fun to me than climbing things that don't present a challenge.
maybe you need to expand your definition of fun to include challenges.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Nov 17, 2018 - 11:37am PT
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If it still wasn't fun, people wouldn't do it. I think what he really means is that 'when were young and didn't have a care'. That's what I miss the most; the climbing is still the same. Gravity just pulls a bit harder now.
BTW, I can think of lots of times it wasn't fun. The forced bivies, having to do the dreaded man spoon, etc., etc.
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Nov 17, 2018 - 11:48am PT
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Are you talking about hardman fun, or regular man fun?
It is relative.
I will try anything once. Twice if it hurts. ;-)
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norm larson
climber
wilson, wyoming
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Nov 17, 2018 - 12:32pm PT
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It’s all really fun. Until it isn’t.
Maybe the older you get the easier it is to remember where the line to not fun is.
I’ve really been enjoying climbing and the folks I meet more the older I get.
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Larry Nelson
Social climber
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Nov 17, 2018 - 01:09pm PT
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There are many harsh lessons to be learned from the gambling experience, but the harshest one of all is the difference between having fun and being smart.
Hunter S. Thompson
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Nov 17, 2018 - 01:35pm PT
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i toiled and tumbled and slammed and struggled to remove myself from tree wells and awkward head plants in deep powder but i was a happy warrior about it each and every day until eventually i could lace a trail thru moguls and drop into chutes with aplomb. free heels were the key to mobility in the mountains, and i didn't doubt for a moment that skill on skis was what i needed to get where i wanted to be. fear that i might arrive there without the requisite abilities is what sustained me thru the aspiring years. in the end, the best reward was the safety that accompanies simple competence.
my ex was a gifted, natural athlete. gymnastics came easy for her, so said her sisters. each of them had taken state in high school and made me believe that jenny was the star in the family. she would show up at meets and pull off routines that she had barely practiced. i think her motivation had to do with not wanting to be left behind, or let her sisters to get one up on her.
she bought tele gear for social reasons, but it turned out, at least back in the good old days of primitive skis and floppy boots, she found it to be trickier than it appeared. so when she tossed her stuff in the closet and swore it off after all of a week, i found myself examining the difference between our two approaches. that's when the word fun came up. with all the humiliation involved, "where was the fun?"
what came to mind were the numerous beach trips we took as kids. long before boogie boards, we would get out far enough to pretend we were body surfers, which is a skill we can't claim to ever have acquired, but we took joy in a lot of abuse and luckily not one of our gang broke a skinny neck. but while we got thrashed and tossed about ruthlessly in the surf, the one thought, that at least i never had, was that we weren't having fun
~~~~
as to climbing, it's bound to turn up fun ... this business of taking a well appointed set of aptitudes out for a grippy dance. it's just what these bodies were built to do, simple as that!
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Nov 17, 2018 - 02:16pm PT
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There were times I did climbing that was carefree and fun. For instance, taking a less experienced climber out and doing a fun, easy multi-pitch where I got all the leads.
But even beyond the competitive aspect of it, I enjoyed pushing myself. I loved getting in "the zone". I could sometimes do it with basketball and sometime with climbing. But I never got into the zone climbing easy, fun stuff.
I also pushed myself to increase my route choice. After standing in line to do all the moderate 5.8 and 5.9 moderate multi-pitch climbs in the Yosemite/Tahoe area, you start eyeing harder routes and working up to them.
My main partner and I spent long hours learning to climb wide cracks just to open up more Yosemite route possibilities. I don't remember having a lot of fun during much of the learning process. But I vividly remember one day on a flared 5.10a OW/squeeze chimney suddenly thinking, "wow, this is the first time a wide 10a climb felt no harder than other types of 10a climbing and I can make smooth upward progress without thrashing". That was a really fun discovery after a lot of hours of grueling practice.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Nov 17, 2018 - 02:25pm PT
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with so much that is not laughable, I find that making sure I laugh a lot when climbing is key.
Not sure how to spontaneously get my laughs, but if I'm open to the joy of the sarcasm, the silly, the ridiculous... well then I can usually arrive at that place.
:)
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