The strongest climber I have ever had the pleasure of meeting has no social media, is hardly reachable by phone and is what you would consider to be your favorite climber’s favorite climber. He has sent the Heart Route on El Cap and etched his own name into the walls of Yosemite with his own big wall free routes. He shows up to whatever climbing area that interests him and casually sends everything below 14+. The pros know him by name, but to those who haven’t met him he’s a ghost, traveling the world for as long as he can finance it and doing big things along the way. He carry’s no sponsorships, and you will never find him on the front cover of a magazine, the only updates to his legendary sending spree come by word of mouth from his dirtbag network spanning the globe. For those that have met him, he is incredibly humble. So sworn against the attention that comes with climbing above 5.15, he devoutly refuses to accept free gear from sponsors, running around with two pairs of duct taped jeans, and approach shoes that can no longer hide his toes. The only gear he owns which isn’t in sorry disrepair being the harness Tommy and Alex shoved at him before leaving The Valley en route to Squamish, as his “Harness was no longer safe”. While he may live his life at a standard which is likely beyond what any of us are capable of, it can be said he climbs for no one other than himself, giving zero fucks if anyone pays attention. In respect to him, I refuse to name him here. Though I do recognize the irony of spraying about him.
I mainly bring him up to discuss a topic which has given me “the ick” for quite some time now, especially since I myself have been guilty of it in the past and well this feels like a bit of a mea culpa/appeal for others who had the same brain rot I once had. The topic I’m referring to is when climbers climb for attention. I define this as engaging in or spraying about your climbing, specifically to impress other people, climbers or otherwise. You know the type, the kind that portrays themselves as a glorious hero all over social media, but those who have climbed with them swear off ever tying in with them again. They misrepresent their contributions to a route or their grades, and they cultivate a group who either from lack of experience or limited contact with the outdoors community believe said climber to be the epitome of climbing performance. Maybe this comes from a sense of insecurity, I definitely did, and perhaps some youthful arrogance, but I’d say this happens for 50% of all climbers. Luckily, half of them usually learn better, find better motivations to climb and grow out of it, the other half maybe not. This essay is aimed at reaching that latter half.
So, this is to you, sprayers of Instagram, and senders of the not so gnar, people who decide to be unnecessarily sketchy for fun, there are ways to be inspired climbing beyond the objective of other people’s attention. I admit I was one of those who thought being sketchy meant being rad and gaining the respect of more senior climbers and alpinists, but I promise you the appeal of such approaches leaves when you feel the pain of losing a close friend in the mountains. At least it should if you have any real emotions. The worst of all of them being the ones who openly mock it in person yet write about it seriously on the internet. Events like these strips away the superficiality of our sport in a way few other things can and should force us to consider why we and the ones we’ve lost cared so deeply about it. I’m willing to bet that they wouldn’t say they were doing it to get a pic for Instagram. Don’t get me wrong risk is always an element at play when we tie in or step out from the belay, but it shouldn’t be glorified for likes and it should come from a genuine desire to commit to your objective. The taking on of unnecessary risk, doesn’t make you cool in anyone’s book really, and I think does a disservice to those who have passed enjoying the sports we love. Mostly what it does is make people not want to climb with you again. Several people no longer climb with me for that reason, and now I too find myself in their position.
Following my anonymous friend’s example, I rarely post on social media now, beyond the odd really good day out which I want to share with people I care about. This is something I think more people should consider doing. I’ve found it takes more effort to think about what goes into an effective social media post, the framing, filters, captions, getting the perfect picture etc. than it does to just fully commit yourself to reveling in whatever awesome fun thing you are doing. For some specific examples you wonder how they have time to climb, spend time writing novels about a 5 pitch WI2 and hold a job. Almost like if they spent more time training and less time spraying, they wouldn’t have to post all over social media to get recognized? Rather than capturing images to post on social media, take pictures of your trip you would want to see when you’re older, which I believe should be the people we do things with; our closest friends and partners, not ourselves posing in a masculine stance to glorify whatever 5.9 we just did. This is real life, not a dead bird ad. I do recognize that this is how many people do eek a living climbing full time, but regardless, for your typical person, I think this point stands.
Finally, maybe as a last appeal to those of us that aren’t yet convinced that we shouldn’t be climbing for other people’s approval, is that climbing for your own enjoyment and the empowerment which comes with it, more than eclipses what you may get from besting your previous like count on your new post. You know what’s better than posting about a route which you got rope gunned up and calling it a tick? Actually, contributing and sending the damn thing. The sense of empowerment and accomplishment you can get from overcoming obstacles for yourself and not others are more powerful than anything someone else can grant you. When I let go of the idea that other people actually cared about how I performed is when I left a long-standing plateau in my ability. Not only is the pressure of believing others have an expectation of you an unnecessary burden to you and your performance, the truth is no one actually gives a fuck how hard you climb. At no time was this more apparent in the climbing community for me than when I was on the circuit, when you were in the parking lot at the end of the day everyone had a place, even those not even a year into the sport. The only thing that truly mattered was your psyche and commitment for climbing, no matter your grade.
So, to all you Instagram warriors out there, be like my anonymous friend and stop spraying. You only look goofy.
This is cool Jacob, but what have you sent recently?
Grad school mostly, ED4.
People climb for different reasons. Some climb to impress others. Some climb because they want to scare themselves. Some climb because they like the word “send” == “ascend”?
I don’t climb because I get scared enough driving. So people are different. Not wrong, just different.
he owns zero dead bird apparels