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Trends in Climbing: Prediction Thread
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Get ready CO, UT, NV. When the eviction moratoriums expire in the next 1-30 days there may be a modern day wagon train of "future climbers and skiers" moving in for the jobs, 'cheap' housing, and vanlife. |
F r i t zwrote: Your description only applies to a handful of climbs in IC. I've climbed dozens more that do require climbing above gear, placing marginal pro, etc. |
F r i t zwrote: If IC is trad then Santa Claus and the Easter bunny are real. It's not popular because its trad. It's popular because its the easiest way for sporto's to claim they also climb trad. |
Ben Bwrote: I'm at work at my blue collar job and don't have time to dig through your ticklist. Care to post a few examples? And I'm not being a shit, I am genuinely interested and would love to climb a few more non-standard creek routes. The Bridgers are what I would consider to be proper trad at the Creek. |
F r i t zwrote: Jupiter crack, blockhead, sinestra. Just off the top of my head. They're amazing. |
Ben Bwrote: That's a short list to be considered normative of a zone that has several thousand routes. If you want routes at the creek that are*not*plug and chug, you're going to have to look very hard. Also, Sinestra has 10 feet of traversing and 130 feet of generic creek climbing. It doesn't make it any less fun, But the little bit that makes that route stand out is par for the course at any true love trad crag. regarding the popularity of the creek, it has predictable weather, easy route finding and navigation, is very IG-friendly And provides us with an excuse to buy A shit ton of gear. As soon as you can climb a grade at the creek, you automatically know how to climb a huge list of other routes at the same grade, so a little bit of work yields a lot of results. All that to say, everyone should go Bouldering more. And not at the creek. I hear the front range has great Bouldering. Everyone go to the front range. |
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I will predict Tradiban continues to entertain on MP with his revolving door of personalities. |
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Who cares if the creek is "Trad" or "Sport" its rock climbing and climbing is fun. |
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1) More gyms, more females, more urbanites, more kids 2) #1 will make the outdoor areas with the easiest approaches and the safest climbs crazy popular 3) #2 will make those areas more regulated 4) #3 will push adventurous climbers to travel farther and hike farther to have the real climbing experience 5) Privately owned crags and boulder fields will charge admission and/or membership fees 7) A faction of retro purists will climb on passive pro only with no hangdogging, toproping, preinspection or yo yo 8) The best females will try, and fail, to out climb the best males in the same weight and age class, across the climbing spectrum. With the occasional anomaly. 9) The olympics will have weight classes for climbing competitions 10) in 50 years, climbing will be one of the most popular athletic activities on the planet As to IC being sport or trad, my roots include hang dogging as being non traditional, IOW, a sport climbing tactic, including resting on gear as opposed to bolts. I’ve never climbed there, but I suspect a lot of that goes on. |
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Most new climbers respond with: "what's a cam?" when older climbers mention an old concept of "climbing gear." Why? Because all existing climbing routes will have been retrobolted with shiny, gorgeous hardware spaced at three-foot intervals. To paraphrase Aldo Leopold: I am glad I shall never be young without adventurous climbs to be young on. Of what avail are forty freedoms if every route is perfectly, perfectly safe? |
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I predict people will continue to climb. |
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20 years ago windsurfing was mildly popular, added to the olympics in the 80s. Now it's pretty dead/declined in popularity a lot. Trends are ephemeral, a recent spike in climbing doesn't necessarily entail enduring popularity. |
Ben Bwrote: which of these did you have to climb above gear on??? lolz... |
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I’m going to hit up IC this fall. Was going to bring 10 quickdraws, a hammock, and my Bluetooth speaker. I read on MP that’s all I need. I’m good right? |
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OP, cool thread topic but all your predictions are things that are currently happening full bore. i’ll go out on a limb and predict something. climbing stewards and safety associations and the like will begin to add new equipment to big wall climbs that are getting increasingly more crowded. i imagine something like a silent partner type thing at every anchor bolt (or even more) so good climbers can climb freerider / moonlight buttress / nose quickly and “safely”, not creating traffic jams. that’ll become the norm for these trade routes and portaledges will not be seen on them. that equipment will be around in gyms and part of the standard thing you learn once you’re advanced enough, which will not be as uncommon as it used to be. maybe there will be a belay test at the bottom even. idk, laugh away! |
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According to the Bad Beta Podcast, climbing is over |
Daniel Chode Riderwrote: Interesting perspective on the future of remote work. On the one hand I can see a lot of managers wanting their teams back in the office to enhance collaboration, communication, mentoring and maybe innovation. On the other hand I know a few companies that are salivating at reducing their office rent cost and employees who love not commuting and will quit before going back to the office full time. Maybe a two days in the office/week policy will work... My prediction on the future of climbing: Indoor climbing becomes the new racquetball and loses popularity as its novelty wanes. Most gyms are converted to aerial dance studios and skydiving simulators. Outdoor climbing fades as people begin to realize having a hobby that can kill you is stupid, along with grizzled trad dads vandalizing cars at the trailheads when they can't find a spot. The Golden Age is now! |
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i saw recently that the AF is sending a couple climbing stewards to indian creek. if the future involves spending donation money to pay kids to go f___ around at classic climbing areas for seasons on end, then it is also going to involve me not donating anymore. |
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I agree with ilya f in that most of these predictions arent actually predictions, they're just noticing trends already happening. Y'all are playing it too safe. Here are my imaginative and potentially very wrong predictions: 1. We're gonna see some absolutely unbelievable progress in the realm of bigwall linkups and traverses in the greater ranges. I bet that in time the fitzroy traverse will be as much of a trade route as the weather can allow for, with much bigger, harder, and dangerous ascents going up in asia and north america as well. Ultrarunners and former comp stars are gonna spearhead this until the "FAs" get so contrived and ridiculous that people stop caring 2. The athletics of climbing is going to get hardcore analytical. Just like how in baseball the movement of the ball is carefully tracked and recorded as data, somebody or some group of people is going to come up with a new grading system for indoor climbs that is about as objective as it gets, taking into account different body measurements and maybe more. A particular route might have a different grade for two different people. Outdoor climbing grades will stay the same but that wont stop people from trying to rate them with the new system. 3. Debates about indoor climbing ethics/styles are gonna be heated. Comp climbing might even schism over these disagreements. 4. Suction cups as a form of clean climbing smooth slabs and faces. youtube.com/watch?v=nBtSNt7… 5. If people are still climbing in 300 years, bolting is gonna be banned because at that point rebolting has started to leave a seriously visible scar. 6. Free soloing is gonna be banned in yosemite and elsewhere once new people start trying el cap |
Anonymous Userwrote: Yeah, I think indoor climbing will start diverging into its own sport even more than it already has. |
