Free Solo and Terra Incognita

I didn't want to co-opt the name of the route next door, Mother Earth.

Mikey Schaefer wrote:

Wow that's pretty cool, I was called a"fuccbois!"  Pretty sure that is a first!  You know what they say "there is no such thing as bad publicity"   

Edit to add:  I hope next time Erin walks past me at Planet Granite in Portland she introduces herself.  You'd think with all she has to say she'd actually say it directly to me.

I saw that version of her edited magazine cover and I'm pretty sure she had your name spelled wrong so maybe she will still overlook you. 

Still, you might want to consider a new type of belay glasses.

Mikey Schaefer wrote:
Edit to add:  I hope next time Erin walks past me at Planet Granite in Portland she introduces herself.  You'd think with all she has to say she'd actually say it directly to me.

Haha, you know that's not how this works!  There's probably 4 or 5 people on this forum that would actually address concerns in person with someone.

It's the climbing community, baby!  Non-confrontational (except online) and passive aggressive til they die!

#megaproud!

hmmm, the last time i heard anything about here she was driving around in an acura, "dirtbagging".  climbing with random folks and then slagging the shit out of them on her blog the next day.  i honestly just feel sorry for her.  she obviously has a lot of issues.

Jason Halladay wrote: TL;DR

Same - Can we get some bullet points here?

Mikey Schaefer wrote: I didn't want to co-opt the name of the route next door, Mother Earth.

Now if you called it Father Nature....

• In the words of the late Sam Kinison: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!"

trice Rice wrote: Taking a pragmatic view on ethics and moral responsibility, it is morally irresponsible to tell Honnold to stop free soloing.

Alex Honnold donates 1/3 of his income to charity. This means that him making the most money that he possibly can is a very good thing for the world. It is actually ethically irresponsible to ask Honnold to stop free soloing when it garners such huge media attention and thus makes him more money which he then is able to donate more to charity.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Climbing trolly problem lol.

Trad Princess wrote:

That's the tough part.

It's easy to look at the ridiculous pictures on her IG, or that crazed look in her eyes, or the hyperbole/nonsense, and totally write her off.

There are some solid points in this writing, but there is so much to distract or give ammo to naysayers, it becomes ineffective.  

Similar thing happens to me.  Example:  One of you writes something dumb online, and I'm properly ripping you to shreds as you deserve.  Because you're cliche and boring, you quickly jump into my profile to look at pictures of me that might be there, hoping to find God Knows What.  The picture of my giant head wiring Monkey Paws screams out "disregard the laser-precise verbal whipping he is giving you!"

It's a tough road.

Even if her article has some good points, she clearly has issues.

- she talks about denouncing her whiteness and follows it by posts bashing white people for doing “white people things. But you see her sipping Mimosas and enjoying her white privilege.
- she also talks about lying to annoy people (sprat how you sent Ironman and it’s soft just to piss off the struggling Cis Males)
- talks as if she is representing native communities with her thoughts. because ya know nothing screams that like a girl who denounced her whiteness until it means moving from PDX to helping people struggling on the area.
The examples can go on forever and all it screams it I am entitled, out of touch and want attention. If anyone flipped the script and used her approach, she would scream
Sexism

PosiDave wrote:

Even if her article has some good points, she clearly has issues.

- she talks about denouncing her whiteness and follows it by posts bashing white people for doing “white people things. But you see her sipping Mimosas and enjoying her white privilege.
- she also talks about lying to annoy people (sprat how you sent Ironman and it’s soft just to piss off the struggling Cis Males)
- talks as if she is representing native communities with her thoughts. because ya know nothing screams that like a girl who denounced her whiteness until it means moving from PDX to helping people struggling on the area.
The examples can go on forever and all it screams it I am entitled, out of touch and want attention. If anyone flipped the script and used her approach, she would scream
Sexism

she even lays out her issues right here ;D  https://www.terraincognitamedia.com/features/how-whiteness-as-a-societal-construct-has-ensured-my-isolation-as-a-racist2018

https://www.terraincognitamedia.com/features/white-people-have-no-culture2018

i tried to read it.   my head hurts.    I still feel ok about being white, though, so at least there's that

J Squared wrote:

she even lays out her issues right here ;D  https://www.terraincognitamedia.com/features/how-whiteness-as-a-societal-construct-has-ensured-my-isolation-as-a-racist2018

https://www.terraincognitamedia.com/features/white-people-have-no-culture2018

i tried to read it.   my head hurts.    I still feel ok about being white, though, so at least there's that

White people have done messed up stuff over time,’Just like every other race. I don’t think any sane person can deny that or ignores that fact.

But how one can exclude their actions as “white privilege” is crazy. Her personal IG has her sharing article about how adopting a Child of color is racist because you aren’t “doing them any favors”. That child would obviously be better off in a neglected home or a third world country where their parents gave them away.
She is in clear need of a heartfelt personal relationship or something

This feels appropriate

Jake Stern wrote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpzVc7s-_e8

This feels appropriate

That was pretty funny! Thanks.

Brad G wrote: John Long nails it I think in this Facebook comment.

“The least effective way to educate is through shame and blame. While there are facile truths in her drift, they often get lost or lessened through vague analogies and sloppy generalizing. Plus you can't shoot all of your arrows - some totally unrelated - at one target and hold any kind of focus and coherence. Important issues, but structurally and thematically flawed. Ranting and crucifying is a social media virus that slays true objectivity, despite the faux objective tone. But stirring to pot is the point of these rambling "articles." Too bad, because the topic is important.”

but did Largo get permission from Beyonce, and the female, african/african american community, to use "slays"?

https://www.terraincognitamedia.com/features/white-women-the-word-slay-is-not-for-us2018

also, brad, I'm looking forward to when she writes an article about you!

Real talk though, if this were broken down into a series of like 3 or 4 essays about climbing history, indigenous erasure, and toxic masculinity, she could have had a shot at saying something meaningful. As it stands, it seems she found an of-the-moment platform in Free Solo and used it to spray. Deirdre made great points about how the tone and lack of focus were the nails in the coffin, but @blakeherrington, if you wanted any legitimate salient points, here's what I found while sifting through the rubble:

Climbing is a privilege (Mainly in opportunity cost, but also gear, gas, etc). Obviously.

Climbing is complicit with the erasure of indigenous people. I think at least it's indifferent to them, if not occasionally outright disrespectful (see the photo of Becky at Ship Rock)

 Climbing is complicit with toxic masculinity: see mountain project.

So sure, each of those could be a compelling essay standing alone. I don't think any of them would be earth shattering news to any of you. But mashed together in a barely coherent essay didn't do her any favors, particularly when any sentence at random reads as poorly as this one:

Free Solo is an attempt to complexify the narrative of not just climbing, but particularly free soloing, and not just free soloing, but the nation’s most recognized free soloist.

Jake Stern wrote:@blakeherrington, if you wanted any legitimate salient points, here's what I found while sifting through the rubble:

Climbing is a privilege (Mainly in opportunity cost, but also gear, gas, etc). Obviously.

Climbing is complicit with the erasure of indigenous people. I think at least it's indifferent to them, if not occasionally outright disrespectful (see the photo of Becky at Ship Rock)

 Climbing is complicit with toxic masculinity: see mountain project.

So sure, each of those could be a compelling essay standing alone. I don't think any of them would be earth shattering news to any of you. But mashed together in a barely coherent essay didn't do her any favors, particularly when any sentence at random reads as poorly as this one:

1. Is recreating (on public land, spending one's private money and time) actually a privilege, as opposed to a legal right? In any case, what's the point of even arguing this and what should one be compelled to do in light of deciding that climbing (or roller hockey or video games) constitutes a privilege or not?  

2. Whether or not climbers and climbing company employees indeed comply with erasing indigenous peoples' legacies, how does it further the flourishing of any currently living descendants of native americans to simply state which tribes occupied Yosemite circa 1840? Will it help any living person if Alex or Brad or Tommy start all their future climbing videos and articles with a PSA about who lived in Yosemite 170 years ago? Its an emergent form of social signaling that communicates "wokeness" to an ingroup of similarly inclined peers. Noting the one-time tribal occupants of a place does nothing that actually ameliorates the condition of current native american groups who suffer from the nation's worst rates of teen pregnancy, school dropout, substance abuse, and life expectancy.  Here's something that might actually help. Fighting to relabel a famous (already completely public) trail system will not. This type of "Atonement as Activism" (credit John McWhorter) runs throughout her writing. Fifty years ago, a white person learning about the race problem came away asking “How can I help?” Today the same person too often comes away asking, “How can I show that I’m a moral person?” 

3. Are climbers insufficiently concerned about the victims of deaths concurrent with soloing, alpinism, and the climbing styles dominated by risk tolerant demographics of the highest testosterone persons? (childless males 15-45yrs old)? Should we pay more attention to the victims and potential victims of accidents and be less willing to glorify cutting edge ascents? In the future, will high altitude mountaineering or exploratory alpinism or free soloing be viewed with the same moral concerns we now apply to teenagers with a gun trying Russian roulette or playing chicken in their cars? This question is, I think, undertheorized.

Trad Princess wrote:

Haha, you know that's not how this works!  There's probably 4 or 5 people on this forum that would actually address concerns in person with someone.

Hi my name is greg have you met me

GDavis Davis wrote:

Hi my name is greg have you met me

I’m getting me some salted edamame and watching these two locos wail on each others’ nuts! Whoo whee!

Does this desire for male violence make me toxic or does the fact I’m completely rigid thinking about it lend a romantic softness to the proceedings?

Jake Stern wrote:
This feels appropriate

so before I watch is this video satire

Jake Stern wrote: Real talk though, if this were broken down into a series of like 3 or 4 essays about climbing history, indigenous erasure, and toxic masculinity, she could have had a shot at saying something meaningful.

I agree with you. I think, maybe, someone else has already written those essays. Here's one on the John Muir Trail rename: 

Hiking the Nüümü Poyo: An Act of Love by Indigenous Women