The “bouldering is dumb” thing

You’ve all seen the T-shirts. Some background behind the “Bouldering is Dumb” philosophy. I was at a climbing gym the other day that has one of the tallest indoor lead walls in the USA. No one was rope climbing. I went upstairs to the modest bouldering area to find a belayer. I asked the only eight climbers (boulderers) present if they were interested.  All said no. Climber #1 was filming himself boulder with a tripod, #2 said he was concentrating on his “4 by 4’s”  #3 was failing miserably on the moon board, #4 was doing some kind of improvised weighted pull-up contraption in between falling off V2’s,  #5 was religiously writing down his moves in his training journal on beginner level problems. #6 said he was “saving his skin” for what I’d assume was his bouldering “project” (it was my fourth day on fyi) #7 was doing visualization of his V3. #8 appeared to just stare at the spray wall all afternoon. All were climbing at mediocre levels. In retrospect, it was quite laughable. Every small town in the US has a bouldering gym these days making them a dime a dozen. If you are lucky enough to have a World Cup lead wall in your city, use it. 

I bet you're real fun at parties.

Ben Silver wrote:

I bet you're real fun at parties.

Nahhh, the tripod and journal guys must be the party animals. 

So... after you couldn't find a belay, did you boulder?

The “Bouldering is Dumb” t-shirts are an ad campaign by a rope company lol

To each their own.

Better than sitting on the couch watching NASCAR and drinking Mountain Dew

Posts like this are the backbone of mountain project

Climbing areas become crowded

Climbers promote bouldering to spread out new climbers

Climbing becomes impossible because everybody is bouldering

Jens 1 wrote:

You’ve all seen the T-shirts. Some background behind the “Bouldering is Dumb” philosophy. I was at a climbing gym the other day that has one of the tallest indoor lead walls in the USA. No one was rope climbing. I went upstairs to the modest bouldering area to find a belayer. I asked the only eight climbers (boulderers) present if they were interested.  All said no. Climber #1 was filming himself boulder with a tripod, #2 said he was concentrating on his “4 by 4’s”  #3 was failing miserably on the moon board, #4 was doing some kind of improvised weighted pull-up contraption in between falling off V2’s,  #5 was religiously writing down his moves in his training journal on beginner level problems. #6 said he was “saving his skin” for what I’d assume was his bouldering “project” (it was my fourth day on fyi) #7 was doing visualization of his V3. #8 appeared to just stare at the spray wall all afternoon. All were climbing at mediocre levels. In retrospect, it was quite laughable. Every small town in the US has a bouldering gym these days making them a dime a dozen. If you are lucky enough to have a World Cup lead wall in your city, use it. 

I like how you emphasize that they were all on v2-3, but it was your fourth day on. Those boulderers clearly don't know the knowledge and mentorship they missed out on by not belaying you.

Demetri V wrote:

Better than sitting on the couch watching NASCAR and drinking Mountain Dew

Why do you hate America so much?

M M wrote:

Why do you hate America so much?

That's "Amurica" to you feller

Jens 1 wrote:

I went upstairs to the modest bouldering area to find a belayer. I asked the only eight climbers (boulderers) present if they were interested.  All said no. 

Let me summarize -
"Man is bitter because he  failed to find belay slaves, blames bouldering on mountain project."

I'm fully aware that I'm responding to a troll, but here's my defense of bouldering from a primarily trad climber's perspective:

Everyone I know who climbs hard on ropes has spent a lot of time bouldering.

Personally, certain skills are just very hard for me to work on rope. If the crux of a rope climb is a hard move, I have a very hard time convincing my body to try maximally if I've never built those CNS connections in a more focused context. A sport or trad session simply isn't going to be effective in improving my strength in the same way--out of 10 tries, if I haven't been bouldering lately, I might get 1 or 2 where I actually get the focus right to actually hit my physical limits because there's so much else going on with a sport or trad climb. With a boulder problem, I can often get the physical effort to max 8 or 9 out of 10 tries. And building that CNS pathway means I'll hit my max more naturally during a rope climb. Ultimately, I've found that if a move on a sport or trad climb is shutting me down, spending a week or two bouldering is a reliable way to remind my CNS what it feels like to try hard, which usually results in breaking through that barrier.

If you want to improve your rope climbing and have an effective tool like bouldering at your disposal, it's stupid not to use it.

this post is hilarious. good morning mountain project

-1/10 

bouldering makes you stronger. bitching on mp makes you weaker.

God I hope this is a troll otherwise you're just the pinnacle of everything I hate about the climbing community.

But you were still gym climbing so I'm confused what the flex here is

I have not seen the t-shirts. 

got some strange looks today for my shirt but you know what I don't pay attention to the haters 

can't wait for tomorrow going into the alpine

to boulder.

Ha, its all meaningless and stupid until you pound a RED BULL AND CRUSH SOME SHIT!!!

Bouldering is dumb.