"Your Cams are So Shiny!" - Musings on being perceived a noob.

Bill Kirby wrote:I had a similar experience when I brought out a brand new pair of X Dreams...

Somehow you always manage to bring up those damn x dreams. ;)

Simple solution.

Tell them to pound sand. Send the gnar. Then show yer dirty nuts to their gfs. Then stand like Burchey's profile pic.

Seth Jones wrote: +1. Next time, dangle your dirty nuts right in their faces and tell them to mind their own business.

climbing friend,

Ho ho, ha ha, ho ho ha hya myah!!!!

Zac.St.Jules wrote: Somehow you always manage to bring up those damn x dreams. ;)

Haha.. come on, you know you enjoyed the battles on NEice a few years ago. My favorite being "How the f8ck do you know the Dreams don't climb moderate ice well if you've never tried them!'

Seth,

Remember Christmas Story? It's not Ra Ra Ra Ra its Fa-La-la-la!

walmongr wrote:Just wear flipflops the true way to see if a climber is a nob or not is by how beat up his toes and feet are from being is climbing shoes that are 5 sizes to small for days on end!!

Haha! But this is why I always wear shoes!even with my super shiny new gear. I do not mind the thinking I am a "noob". I just ask if they want to run up my route real quick when I come down.

True Story......

The usual crew was hanging at the Cannabis Cliff in RR.

Down below, at the parking area, a dark sedan pulled up. You know the type the cops drive, with the little bottle cap hubcaps and the spotlight on the passenger side.

Two dudes get out, go to the trunk, grab a rack and a rope, and start walking up the hill to to climbs and US.

When they get to us they are all out of breath and sweating.

One of then ask.

"so witch one is the 12?"

I say .... "that one".... pointing at the 7

Now the other dude is eyeballing the yard sale we have going on, boom box, beer almost everything....

Cop one ask ... "so witch one is the 7?" .....

I point to the 12.

this sort of nonsense goes on for a few more minutes, you know stuff like "where you from?" .... "you guys good climbers?"

And finally we get to the sixtyfour dollar question.

"do you guys have any POT we can buy from you? We have a really long drive back to Idaho."

I say.... "oh NO I never do any of that shit... I am an athlete"

he looks at my long hair friend and asks "come on dude help out a friend we have a really long drive to do..... "

my friend just shakes his head and says "NO" .....

the two "Climbers" go back to car and drive off........

my other friend, who never said anything during the whole weird scene asks..

"how did you know those dudes were cops, the shinny rack and new rope?"

nope I said.... "it was the PRICE TAGS on the shinny rack, that was the giveaway"

Mess with people when they say that stuff. Tell them it's your first time climbing outdoors but no worries, you watched an instructional video.

Pablo-Roberts wrote:I dont know about anybody else but I actually get the opposite of this ALOT.... my gear is old, im not that old ive been climbing for 7 years with all the same gear essentially and dont spend thousands of dollars every year to buy the new shiny bullshit.... this leads to a perceived notion of my gear being dangerous because of all the shiny cams out there.

Really? I am still climbing with a double set of cams bought in 1999. I actually never get crap for it. Probably cause my partners are crusty too.

wivanoff wrote:"your cams are so shiny...look at how shiny your biners are...etc" "Yup. Is that your first rack? Because I climb enough that I wear out a rack every 2 or 3 years and have to buy a new one."

What? How do you "wear out" a rack?

Eric D wrote: What? How do you "wear out" a rack?

Take the whip.

Seen it happen on Rewritten in Eldo. Was climbing with a friend who is just starting out leading trad and most of his gear is newish. Made me chuckle.

Have also climbed in some remote areas on harder routes with the same gear and never got a side look.

Lots of people out there with a wide range of experience and ego.

Eric D wrote: What? How do you "wear out" a rack?

Evolution... I needed to get rid of the Pitons at one time...
I needed to get rid of the Hexes at one time....

Eric D wrote: What? How do you "wear out" a rack?

Depends on how long you climb on it ;)

The response to someone who comments "your cams are so shiny...look at how shiny your biners are...etc"

is

"It's new because I've been climbing long enough and often enough that I've been through several racks already. Yep, just wore 'em out"

I have also seen the opposite.

Young climber shows up barefoot on a popular climb in Eldo with oval biners and a hard hat for a helmet. A rack of mismatched cams and hexes. The shit looks like it's from the 80s.

Proceeds to start climbing and laying back an easy hand crack, piece of pro every 4 feet. Elvis leg and all. Had to give him credit though for not taking or falling..

Jonathan Cunha wrote: Old can be cool (good stories, whatever) but new is SAFE--embrace the shine.

tell that to the exploding and mushrooming x4s.
Anyone have some beat to shit camalot juniors I can buy?

^How about some tri-cams?

Eli Buzzell wrote: tell that to the exploding and mushrooming x4s. Anyone have some beat to shit camalot juniors I can buy?

I've got two #.5 & two #.75 juniors re-slung in 2009.

Just ignore it. Some people don't know how to mind their own business and let people live their own life. If it's not one thing, it's another:

mountainproject.com/v/hexes…

Ego, insecurity, hatred. It's all bullshit to be ignored.

That being said... A couple weekends back I ran into a climber at a local crag ground placement practicing, and he had a brand new set of Wild Country Rockcentrics. They were so beautiful looking compared to my scratched, dinged up, faded, slightly more than one season and heavily used set that I found myself somewhat envious. What did I do? I complemented him on his choice of gear. And then we went on to have a great conversation about rock pro and how awesome the Rockcentrics are.

You know what I got out of this besides a great conversation? He also happened to have a new set of DMM HB Alloy Offsets and Peenuts that I've been wondering about but have never placed or cleaned. So I was able to get a real live demonstration of how these pieces place in certain types of flaring cracks. Sold me right then and there on them. I went out and bought both of those a few days later.

Making friends is far more powerful and useful than negative criticism.

Eric D wrote: What? How do you "wear out" a rack?

Take it to the desert.

doligo wrote: Take it to the desert.

I have spent a total of 11 years climbing in the desert, all on the same set of cams.