When it was just fun...

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mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Nov 25, 2018 - 06:25pm PT

Call me St00psy, neebee.

chappy

Social climber

oakhurst

Nov 26, 2018 - 12:40am PT

Mouse...pretty cool old pic. I must have taken the photo. That is my brother Matt on the right Blair Glen in the center and I believe his younger brother Brian on the left. Definitely fun times back then!

The Frog

Trad climber

West Allis WI

Dec 12, 2018 - 09:47am PT

At age 74 and still climbing, because it's still fun, I'm reminded of what a woman who taught me a lot about climbing when I first started said: "If you're doing this, it better be fun, 'cuz it's much too scary not to be fun, too." I let my rope gun buddies lead the hard stuff now. The last big climb I led was Skyline Traverse at Seneca Rocks, supposedly a 5.3, with my wife seconding (She's in her 60's). And boy, did we have fun!

Flip Flop

climber

Earth Planet, Universe

Dec 12, 2018 - 09:56am PT

Immer Lustig!

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Dec 12, 2018 - 10:00am PT

Cool shirt!

DMT

Yeah, looks like a Latok garment.

And this photo Mark Chapman took of his brother Matt and the Blair boys IS FUN!

Having known Matt, I could see right away that it is him. Narrower eyes with thicker eyelids, and usually a more stoic visage as compared to his brothers.

Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber

Out Of Bed

Dec 12, 2018 - 10:07am PT

Stout stuff FROG!
Skyline Traverse at Seneca Rocks, supposedly a 5.3, still Chalkless in 11/17

it never gets hard, but still, -Not- for a scared/beginner/gym-climber, to try to lead.

I didn't find any footage of the "sketchy walk over the chasm"
That "Step over" is one of 3-4 spots, you need to be solid for.
this Go-pro Video is telling[Click to View YouTube Video]
TURN THE VOLUME (wind noise) OFF, @0:47 of 0:54 seconds, watch for the 'pan' looking up.[Click to View YouTube Video]
the Go-pro of the 1st party's 3rd pitch
(watch, if you can stand the go-pro thingy?)[Click to View YouTube Video]Good Fun

larryhorton

Trad climber

Dec 12, 2018 - 12:07pm PT

Didn’t really matter to us whether it was the first time or the umpteenth. The prize was always awaiting us—the remembrance of what home feels like.

‘Fun’ is fun, sure. But perspectives do change, and for me, fulfillment is the requirement that has replaced fun—a word I hardly use anymore—because the replacement is so much more… fulfilling.

While I still love spending time in the mountains and deserts of the physical plane, it would now be relatively empty without the attainments of elevations where I can actually establish myself, set up residence, and never have to leave. A trip into the Wind Rivers is wonderful, but it’s no longer a requirement for ineffable experience.

Nice contemplation, Ed.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Dec 12, 2018 - 12:38pm PT

Larry, yer SO full of fill dirt. :0)

Nah, just kiddin'. I seem not to be able to take much seriously any longer.

I must be entering my second childhood.

Keep up the good vibes.

How's tricks in the Land of Enchantment/Fulfillment?

Some guys never grow up. Some guys never grow old.

Ksolem

Trad climber

Monrovia, California

Dec 12, 2018 - 02:31pm PT

Just to pick up a conversation with DMT about halfway back up this thread...

Interesting point ksolem. I notice you separate 'just fun' from a something else - competition.

I had to learn over time I don't really enjoy participation in competition sport. I had negative experiences in school and in the military and gravitated toward individual contributor activities my whole life, both for play and work.

I'm not much of a team player.

And I had to learn I do not enjoy turning climbing into a competition. When I turn competitive, I had to learn again and again, I was not having fun anymore. And I don't necessarily mean competitive with others so much as competitive with myself.

Just goes to show we're all wired differently and the definition of having fun is individual as well. But back to the OP of the thread, I suspect Joe was also referring to the notion that competition impacted his and others ability to just have fun as well, but of course he speaks for himself.'

Cheers
DMT

The competition I was talking about was in no way a negative thing. We were pushing each other. It was a kind of fun, and I never went home disappointing by that. I did go home disappointed if I failed on a climb I wanted to do, but that was between myself and I, and it didn't last long. Myself and I just got into the game of pushing each other :-)

I've never been one for the normal sorts of team sports either, and the winner vs loser style of competing. Winner takes all is not my idea of fun.

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Dec 12, 2018 - 02:44pm PT

Everyone climbs for fun, but “fun” can mean so many seemingly contradictory things for different people. Climbing endless aid pitches doesn’t look like fun to me but, correspondingly, some of the alpine stuff I enjoy wouldn’t trip the trigger for most folks.

larryhorton

Trad climber

Dec 13, 2018 - 07:12am PT

Soul is in absolute agreement with you, Mouse. Larry Horton is nothing BUT dirt. As are you and everyone reading this. Werner, Ed, Jim. Everyone. And everything. The Canadian Rockies, the Alps, Sierra, Karakoram. All dirt. If you think I’m being cynical or facetious—or if what you REALLY think Larry Horton is full of is something other than dirt—you’re invited to come back and take a look around for yourself in 20, 30 years. All dirt.

Is that all there is? Of course not. But you’re in the company of billions of individuals still under the illusion that all this is real. And when the several hundred or so you associate with here experience the translation of one of your illusory—not illustrious, illusory—compatriots, everyone goes into shock, horror, regret, anguish, surprise—and weepy denial.

This is the dream, Mouse, not the reality. And it’s just a coarse reflection of our collective and individual amnesia of who and what we are.

And this is taking place in a thread about ‘fun’.

capseeboy

Social climber

portland, oregon

Dec 13, 2018 - 07:57am PT

It's all fun and games until it isn't. Har har...

Jay

Trad climber

Fort Mill, SC

Dec 14, 2018 - 12:53pm PT

It’s quite often a fine line of distinction between fun, adventure and horror, especially with trad, or alpine climbing. Last time I went trad climbing it was a mix of fun, adventure and suffering. It made me happy and left me wanting more.

That picture on Guadalupe rock is something! I did my first lead climb on that rock many years ago, lol. It was more fulfilling than fun at the time.

It is such a minor crag, I never thought I would see a picture of it posted on the internet!

climber

Boulder, CO

Dec 15, 2018 - 11:58am PT

Comparison is the thief of joy - attributed to Theodore Roosevelt
Comparison is the death of joy - attrib. to Mark Twain

The Declaration of Independence could have used "fun" instead of "happiness,"but we each have our own notions of what defines either.
Youthful hubris and energy fuel all sorts of ambitions, depending on temperament; we disguise them in varieties of other euphemisms, some noble, some idealistic, some valiantly absurd.
Talent can turn one person's death-defying epic into another's fun-filled holiday, but in climbing if we were honest, our murky goals sometimes run into darker realms where fun is a dirty word. We equate fun with being too easy, simple, uninspiring, noncommittal, trivial, unworthy of our superior abilities. We forget that fun is not a goal, but a byproduct as we work through lives that involve effort, disappointment, and random wounds and setbacks. Zest for life may just refer to the ability to find the moments of fun in the moment, regardless of situation.
Of course very few lifelong climbers would have ever persisted, were it not for the sheer undefinable, unbridled joy experienced when the first technical rocks were grasped and successfully ascended. That childlike, unapologetic glee felt unencumbered by expectations, washing over our pretensions and embarrassment at being incompetent or clumsy.
That first hit can be euphoric, or lead down a life of addiction, depending on our unique traits. If we can mature, and come to realize how much fun actually arises from the companions and adventures we have on the journey, we can let the numbers and ratings and speeds and narrow escapes sift into their own pigeonholes, and be content to savor what we distill as fun, from our experiences.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Dec 15, 2018 - 12:02pm PT

Everyone climbs for fun

Fixed it for ya:

Everyone without an amygdala climbs for fun.

yer welcome

Ksolem

Trad climber

Monrovia, California

Dec 15, 2018 - 02:36pm PT

How about the one's that are only fun when you're done with it, sitting at the fire back at camp. All of a sudden everyone's all in a buzz about how great it was.

Tom Patterson

Trad climber

Seattle

Dec 15, 2018 - 02:42pm PT

^^^ I was just about to say that same thing, Ksolem. Sometimes, it's a question of getting through a route that was challenging, punctuated by moments or stretches of pure terror, and then sitting around the fire to talk with your partner about how gnarly it was. Sometimes, the fun is retrospective, rather than in the moment. Nothing wrong with that.

larryhorton

Trad climber

Dec 16, 2018 - 05:40am PT

“We forget that fun is not a goal, but a byproduct as we work through lives that involve effort, disappointment, and random wounds and setbacks.” —AE

Absolutely. Joy and bliss come closer, but even they are not the goals. They are most enduring when they result from placing our attention on what is real. And simply ascending beyond what is not. Interestingly, the “effort, disappointment, and random wounds and setbacks” we experience are not real. They just appear that way in a dual world, where everything must be balanced by its opposite in order to exist.

It’s unclear to me what Teddy and Mr. Clemens were getting at. Surely, both were remarkable and interesting characters who’d fit right in here, but neither of them were residing in realms above duality—and neither are we. So, blaming loss of joy on ‘comparison’ leads us down the dark alley of intellect, and abandons us there because comparison equally leads to ‘loss’ of pain and suffering. We actually get fairly balanced doses of joy and suffering in a dual world. And the degree of that balance or imbalance is dependent on what we accept as real.

I’ll be the first to agree that the dual worlds suck. In fact that’s their intention—to force us to finally wake up and look for a way to transcend them, and get outta Dodge. When we start looking within, a previously unperceived pathway is not far off. When we keep putting all our cards on the outer world—activities, other people, conditions, locations, escapes, erudition, and all the other places we typically look—we get more of the familiar see-saw. By design.

We eventually learn the most from adversity, don’t we? It’s the grist that sharpens the blade. When did we ever have a lasting epiphany from fun? Fond memories maybe, but experiences that changed our behavior? Or elevated our viewpoint? Brought us face to face with a fleeting microsecond glimpse of who we truly are?