GQ article on climbing - thoughts?

I liked the part about "laying up" a new route. Augments my vocabulary.

God I wish I could sell out...

M Mobes wrote: Has anyone tried the 940.00 Prada pants? 

I have. They seem to be a fake. I have been wearing 'em for two weeks in a row and still have not free soloed El Cap. Beware fake ads!

mnjsan wrote: Those pictures make cringe. It’s always awkward when a non climbing publication does a climbing article but the fashion ones seem to be really bad.

Here’s another example.

https://www.gq.com/story/fall-fashion-rock-climbing-joshua-tree

This one is cringy. And sexist. Kinda bummed that Elias, Chin, and Woods went along with it.

Alex now

Alex in the future

Dirtbag Climbers is a new fashion - "Derelicte"

sprinter vans with in walk in closet, full of $750 sweaters

After all it should cost you a lot of money to look homeless.

I need a shower after looking at those pictures. And thats all I did. I couldn't bring myself to read the words.

mnjsan wrote: Those pictures make cringe. It’s always awkward when a non climbing publication does a climbing article but the fashion ones seem to be really bad.

Here’s another example.

https://www.gq.com/story/fall-fashion-rock-climbing-joshua-tree

I wonder what the garden hose technician got paid on that photo shoot. Maybe it was the Chin himself?

I need to go gargle with kerosene and take a couple of bong hits of dog shit to get the bad taste out of my mouth.
this is what happens when you don’t have a proper agent managing your public persona.
So what’s next? Can I hire him to climb dressed as Spider-Man at a kids birthday party?
Money is a funny thing, when you don’t have any, a little makes you happy. When you have a lot, nothing makes you happy except getting more. When a plant has that tendency we outlaw it. When a piece of paper does that, we worship it as the one true god.
for some reason “fat Elvis” comes to mind. Glossy eyed and sweaty, going through the motions, a vapid existence of sopping up dated praise and pity money.

The watch alone costs more than everything I owned combined when I was a “real climber.”

This and the Bear Grylls vid have made me come to the conclusion that Alex is in need of funds. For what, I can’t imagine. As for Jimmy’s photo shoot, well, those clothes are a waste of money. Jtree granite eats clothing. I buy all my climbing duds at the thrift store so I don’t cry when the back of my pants rip out because the seam has been abraded by butt scumming.

cassondra l wrote: This and the Bear Grylls vid have made me come to the conclusion that Alex is in need of funds. For what, I can’t imagine. As for Jimmy’s photo shoot, well, those clothes are a waste of money. Jtree granite eats clothing. I buy all my climbing duds at the thrift store so I don’t cry when the back of my pants rip out because the seam has been abraded by butt scumming.

I hear that weddings are expensive in the US.

Also, I find it telling that all of these seem to be TNF sponsored athletes. That company has been selling out to anyone and everyone for decades. It doesn't surprise me that their employees do the same.

In the UK TNF's become the chavs' uniform of choice. I wouldn't be seen dead in their gear.

Just check out the gnarly climbers in these articles:

https://qz.com/quartzy/1545516/the-north-faces-nuptse-puffer-jacket-is-everywhere-again/

https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/32153/1/how-exactly-did-north-face-become-cool

My thoughts? What self-respecting climber reads GQ anyway?

Anonymous wrote: How many of you can get away with free soloing in the gym?

It’s called bouldering? 

Mike Mu. wrote:

Exactly

And Alex—good for you. Get paid young man
And it’s funny how quickly people’s feelings turn on their idols.

Alex Kardashian 

Mike Mu. wrote: 

Exactly

And Alex—good for you. Get paid young man
And it’s funny how quickly people’s feelings turn on their idols.

I don’t think you are reading people’s reactions right.

Alex is quoted in the article:

“At this point, there are a lot of things I do in my life where I'm like, My body is a piece of meat that's being used by others. That's fine, that's interesting, whatever.”

And pretty much everyone understands that. Sure, Alex monetizes his fame, the way many (most) people would, in his place. But the reason WHY he can do so has nothing to do with him being a sellout, and everything to do with where climbing is heading, in popular culture. 

The barfing reaction people are having is for the climbing being the subject of the usual insipid write-up found in publications like GQ. but again, it’s not up to MP to decide where general public goes, and what the next fitness fad is. 

My prediction for the next decade would be that the really serious outdoor climbers would drop the memberships at the mega-gyms with their networking spaces, and birthday parties, and gravitate to small home/co-op places that are intite-only, and just bare bones. No ropes, just a bouldering wall, or maybe even a small home place with a moonboard/tension/kilter board, a campusing wall, and a few hangboards and weights. No yoga, no climbing team, no fancy parkour problems. They will maybe go to the big gyms occasionally to break up a routine, but not enough to pay a gym membership... 

The big gyms will become the place gumbies go, and a select few of them will specialize to become places where little kids get wickedly good at comp-style climbing. The same way as with gymnastics: you have little gyms, and Gymboree’s, and what not, everywhere. Then you have fewer good gymnastics places with competitive teams, maybe ~10 or so, in a large metropolitan area. And then, you have that ONE gym where girls and boys who REALLY show promise in their little competitive teams end up. 

cassondra l wrote: This and the Bear Grylls vid have made me come to the conclusion that Alex is in need of funds. For what, I can’t imagine. As for Jimmy’s photo shoot, well, those clothes are a waste of money. Jtree granite eats clothing. I buy all my climbing duds at the thrift store so I don’t cry when the back of my pants rip out because the seam has been abraded by butt scumming.

Of course he needs funds. 

He needs funds for when his body tells him to fuck off. To my knowledge he doesn't have a degree in anything and even if he did who's going to hire a 40 year  old with no practical experience in anything other than climbing? In other words, how the hell is the man going to make a living when he's too old to pull off the stunts he's doing?

People shouldn't be calling him a sellout, they should be thanking him for ensuring that he has money in the bank so he doesn't become a burden to society in hi golden years.

Or at least tell him to start writing guide books.

Hopefully they let him keep those sweet 3400.00 pants!

But the sport's core values—rugged individualism, self-actualization, performance efficiency, crowdsourced problem-solving—also position it as a uniquely attractive recreation for our tech-optimized, permalancing, late-capitalist moment

It’s true that weddings are expensive.
But children cost a whole lot more

Fritz Nuffer wrote: “But the sport's core values—rugged individualism, self-actualization, performance efficiency, crowdsourced problem-solving—also position it as a uniquely attractive recreation for our tech-optimized, permalancing, late-capitalist moment.“

Ugh. Gag me with a nut tool.

It's all too true, though. Even those of us who are older and got smitten with a passion in the 90s have to ask ourselves how much we channel the Zeitgeist. I teach college, so I get to see the generations passing through and changing. Within the last six months, it seems like half the people around me are climbing--not only undergrads but also younger colleagues. They value much of what I value about climbing (and some of them very quickly move from gym to being well-rounded outdoor climbers). While I could think of them as trendy interlopers, I have to recognize that instead of being a marker of my countercultural identity, climbing now puts me squarely in the middle of the trends that are very well articulated in this article. Some of it I'm happy to represent--community, try-hard--but I'm not as comfortable recognizing other aspects of the appeal--self-actualization, performance efficiency--values I'm suspicious of in the rest of my life but that nevertheless have some sway over me.