how hard is climbing

Ray Lovestead wrote: What about UFC?

It has to be hard to repeatedly get your brains bashed around inside your skull but maybe not so much on the athletic side. Other than that it seems to be equivalent to boxing with additional kicks to the head.

USBRIT wrote: I think many people find the hardest climbs are those that if you fall when leading you are going to seriously hurt yourself,,,and rarely if ever does that include crack climbing.

I think sweating a lot on a runout slab is a different sweat than climbing a severely overhung jug haul. Way more mental, at least for me.

Olympic style hammering throwing gets my vote for most badass skill.

Eric Chabot wrote:Offwidth feels pretty hard. Maybe the hardest

Define hard? Calories and exertion? In that sense, yes OW are hard.

If your definition is likelyhood of a fall, then offwidths are rarely hard.

You've also probably got pretty bad technique. They aren't that hard (up to about 11a or so).

I think that really all forms of climbing have a similar 'difficulty'. If you aren't up to snuff on the strength, skill, grip, etc., you can't make the move. That's true of a 5.8 face climb and a 12a OW.

OW climbing is hard because most people don't come across them very often. If you live in Laramie, WY and climb Vedauwoo every day, guess what is pretty easy to do? And guess what you think is really hard? Face climbing.

That said, OW has a pretty steep entry fee for fitness compared to other forms of climbing.

This list is kind of funny because really, at the highest levels, all sport is pretty equal in terms of difficulty. Pro badminton is pretty intense and so is boxing.

I'm of course going to totally deny the existence of bowling and curling.

This thread needs Aleks Zebastion...
Paging Aleks.

I think professional fish head eating should be up there.
That and 'back and neck meat' exhibitionism.

I'll just ask this.

Do any of these other sports have what we often refer to as "Hardman" or "Hardwoman"?

I would think Alpine climbing has to be one of the most mentally hard, considering you're dealing with massive commitment levels and life and death decisions.

Ray Lovestead wrote:I'm curious to know if anyone on MP has stepped into a ring. I go to a boxing gym and participate in the exercise routines for the fitness. Notice I didn't say I box. I would never, ever, consider stepping into a ring with someone who knows what they are doing after having just the slightest hint of boxing that I've done. Boxing is serious business. What about UFC?

I used to box and can tell that climbing is harder (looking at it as the effort to be good at it), and very similar in many aspects (breathing control, technique, focus, genetics).

Also practice many sports that involve outdoors. And feel that all day MTB is almost as hard and Climbing (specially all day MTB).

But climbing is the one where you worsen faster. my experience: I 2013 got to climb 5.11´s and started to feel close some 5.12 (but never got to finish one without falling, dont´like to rehearse routes but perhaps with that method i could have done one),right now i´m struggling in 5.8´s and 5.9´s. I didn't stop practicing other sports, but still the drop is huge.

I think sports with a higher chance of death if a failure occurs should be considered harder.

Choss Chasin' wrote:I think sports with a higher chance of death if a failure occurs should be considered harder.

driving a car is deadly but its not hard.

Chan Shin wrote: driving a car is deadly but its not hard.

I think driving a formula one car at 200 mph in a race is a bit hard !!

TBlom wrote:This thread needs Aleks Zebastion... Paging Aleks. I think professional fish head eating should be up there. That and 'back and neck meat' exhibitionism.

+1

I've long wondered who would win in a fish head eating competition, Aleks or Sméagol?

Matt Stroebel wrote: +1 I've long wondered who would win in a fish head eating competition, Aleks or Sméagol?

My money's on Aleks, no doubt.

powhound84 wrote: I heard Aleks swallows them whole.

All whilst performing glorious flashing of the climbing rocks