Is it wrong to keep track of your climbing stats?

Hey All,

This year was my first year climbing, so I thought it would be a cool idea to keep track of some basic information about each of my climbs as I had finished them (Where did I climb?, What climb did I do?, Grade, Pitches, Did I Lead it?, Was it Sport,Trad,Top Rope?, A brief Description.) After all, it really only takes five minutes to do this after each trip! (Crazy right? : )

Furthermore, because I am a software guy, I actually put them in a spreadsheet and now I am able to get some cool stats like total pitches, average grade, number of leads etc.

When I tell my fellow climber friends they look at me like I have two heads! But I ask you, why? (I guess I do know WHY, but I will ask you anyway)

So it begs the question...What is wrong with keeping semi-detailed stats about what you climb? I see a ton of climbers mark up their books with tick marks and such. What's the difference between this and putting your ticks in a simple spreadsheet? This is the tech age right?

To all of you stat haters or "Purists", I too climb for the fun of it, and I am not some egotistical pitch counter. Truth be told, I think it is quiet fun deriving, analyzing and even gloating over my climbing stats!

I look forward to your thoughts.

Regards,
-Matt

Nothing wrong w/ it...look at the tick list feature on MP.

Probably better off asking your friends what their beef is. Most folk here seem to be tickers...

I don't keep track of climbs followed, but I have a complete record of all the lead climbs I've ever done. I find it useful, especially because I am looking for guide and instructor jobs and they often ask about what I've climbed. I don't include things like if I onsighted or redpointed the route, but I do keep track of who I climbed the route with and gear notes.

No, it's not wrong at all, IMO.

This site allows me to keep track of some of my ticks. 8a.nu is popular partly because people like to keep track of routes they've done. It's also popular because people get obsessed with the ranking feature, so maybe that's the downside of ticklists--comparing them to others and ranking yourself based on that comparison.

I wrote mine down when I first started, and like you ended up putting them into a spreadsheet because 1) my writing sucks, 2) it's easier and more functional, 3) I could do it at work and look like I was working. I started with the simple collumns like you have, and added in things over time to tally climbs in an area, peak onsight/RP/etc, original climbs, gear leads, charts etc, etc, etc. If you were to see it now you'd probably make fun of me given the complexity of it, but it was built slowly over time, I enjoyed doing it, and well, I got paid to do it.

My friends talk smack on it all the time, many of whom track their sends on here or RC.com. Just different ways of doing it. I like being in control, and knowing that I'll have my data if the website goes out of business. I also enjoyed programming it. Fuck em if they don't like it, I didn't do it for them.

I like to keep track of the date and the climb. That way I'll know that if it has been a week or more since I did a route, I can do it again knowing that it'll be like a brand new climb.

You know what they say about us old folks: redpoint today, onsight tomorrow.

i've kept a spreadsheet since 2001. my only regret is that i didn't keep a spreadsheet since i started in the late 80's.

Example of how to keep your climbing database:

bobkamps.com/climbing_db/cl…

PRRose wrote:Example of how to keep your climbing database: bobkamps.com/climbing_db/cl…

With the exception of logging gym climbs.

I think it's a great idea! Besides, it's for you and nobody else so why should they care. When you are much older, you will cherish it.

Ditto what Jim said. I can't remember specific stuff from just 30 years ago. Books get lost when you move, etc. It's fun, you re-live climbs a little when you enter it and you have all the data to "mine" years later. Keep it up and enjoy.

I keep my memories in my heart and an old summit record book, which us used for any kind of route, be it rock, ice or mountaineering. Don't care about spending hours of keyboarding data just to look at stats later. I'm good with my recollections.

Matt Meuse wrote:Furthermore, because I am a software guy, I actually put them in a spreadsheet and now I am able to get some cool stats like total pitches, average grade, number of leads etc.

Heh, I have a spreadsheet with a record of every climb I've ever done. It's cool to be able to look back several years and read the comments I included on a particular route, see how I was feeling and how hard I was climbing at the time. I don't have all the stats you mention, but I do use a COUNTIF() formula to extract all my lead climbs and whether they were trad or sport.

I like having a record of what I've done, but it's just for me.

JL

I have a rope diary with my Bluewater. I love to read from it on rained-out weekends. You should definitely keep a log.

I have a hard cover journal type thing split in half for roped routes and boulder problems. It's definitely nice to go back and check which pitches you led or how long it's been since you did ___ problem and now it's either easier or somehow harder

i highlight routes in the index of my guidebooks and make beta notes on the route page but keep all the date.. redpoint/flash etc info in the journal to keep the guidebook cleaner.

Scott McMahon wrote:Nothing wrong w/ it...look at the tick list feature on MP. Probably better off asking your friends what their beef is. Most folk here seem to be tickers...

The really cool thing about the MP tick list is you can make it look like you climb 5.13X trad routes.

I keep track of everything from climbing, cycling, running, x-country skiing, tele skiing, and hiking. Nothing wrong with it at all. It's good to have a record of all this stuff, it can bring back good memories of great climbs or whatever. I can compare times to help me see what kind of shape I'm in. I've kept track since the mid 80's. I also keep track of the people that I'm with.

I count my blessings if I can climb out of bed in the morning.
My wife keeps track of the beers I drink.

host2 wrote:I count my blessings if I can climb out of bed in the morning. My wife keeps track of the beers I drink.

That's what I'm talking about!

This is an excellent idea and if you were ever interested in getting into guiding you would more than likely need to submit some form of a climbing résumé, which would likely include a spreadsheet of your climbing. Good work for being more organized then most of us.

I keep a daily training log. It's just so I can keep track of my recovery and fitness.

About 2.5 years ago I suffered a debilitating injury in a car accident and among other things had to be taught how walk all over again. The process of recovery is ongoing, and I expect to struggle with this for years to come.

Keeping track of my climbing stats is important to me, but I don't expect anybody else to care, unless they are thinking about climbing with me. If they know what I've done, then they can have a rough idea of what my abilities are / aren't.