Hot Takes 2024

Why clothing companies are seeking to profit from climbing is beyond me

Its incomprehensible!!!!!!!!!  

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

^^^ Yep! She who can destroy a thing, controls that thing. Hence the Choppers are the ultimate conservative Iduntolyas.

Nice reference to Mr. Herbert’s lovely body of work. Hat’s off to you Mr. Nunes.

Alex Cwrote:

No need to buy a whole new chalk bag. I made my own strap with nylon webbing and a GearAid buckle for like $5 plus 10 minutes of labor. More secure than the default kind and doubles as bail cord if needed.

Not sure what you mean by your setup, but webbing can be a safety hazard if something gets caught you want your harness catching your fall, not your ribcage or armpits. I’d take a slightly goofy-looking biner over a serious injury.

José Flovinwrote:

Not sure what you mean by your setup, but webbing can be a safety hazard if something gets caught you want your harness catching your fall, not your ribcage or armpits. I’d take a slightly goofy-looking biner over a serious injury.

that's a very strange jump.

If you're talking about something hooking your side and arresting your fall instead of the rope you have bigger problems to worry about, and at very best, your gear loops or the waistbelt on your harness are more likely to catch anyway which is still bad news.  Second, the plastic clip will just break.

Why do you clutch to the chalkbag biner so tightly?  What keeps you in this prison? 

Jaren W wrote:

That is a hot take, as the reason is, please forgive me for being blunt, very obvious.

Wear your sweats on a climb in the mountains and see if you feel like they perform well.

Since when does clothing (other than waterproof, weatherproof, whateverproof stuff) have to perform? I wore sweatpants climbing for a long time, and finally switched to whatever pair of baggy, beat up, holey jeans I could find in my house that day. Unless your clothing is constricting your movement, (tight jeans, super tight shirt) or is getting caught on stuff (SUPER loose sweatpants) it is performing IMHO.

Hot Take: you dont need the newest and most expensive cams/draws/nuts to have a good (and safe) time trad climbing. tons of people have climbed far harder than you and me on rigid stem friends, so when i give you a 30-40 year old rack quit complaining. 

Hot take: there's nothing wrong with enjoying nice gear or clothing. It often makes climbing more enjoyable, which is something I look for in hobbies. Climbing on old gear also doesn't make you badass, there is no need for a purity test.

Double hot take: usually the people saying shoes, gear, draws, etc. don't matter are not climbing very hard routes or are climbing way below their limit. Climbing 5.easy in chacos with hexes doesn't mean gear can't make a difference 

My fav hot cakes:

Connor Dobsonwrote:

Hot take: there's nothing wrong with enjoying nice gear or clothing. It often makes climbing more enjoyable, which is something I look for in hobbies. Climbing on old gear also doesn't make you badass, there is no need for a purity test.

Double hot take: usually the people saying shoes, gear, draws, etc. don't matter are not climbing very hard routes or are climbing way below their limit. Climbing 5.easy in chacos with hexes doesn't mean gear can't make a difference 

fair enough man, and you are right, I 100% do not push myself when trad climbing. I'd rather stay in gumby land loll. I could see how someone like you (5.12 trad leader) would want the cutting edge as far as gear goes.

I guess I should amend my take: you don't need the best of the best to climb 5.9, grab whatever you can get your grubby little hands on and go have fun (:

Connor Dobsonwrote:

Hot take: there's nothing wrong with enjoying nice gear or clothing

What I don't like about clothing companies is that they largely make their clothes in massive factories in Asia and don't treat their workers with respect.  The process of the global garment industry I not good for the environment.  I do think it's more ethical to try and buy your clothing second hand.   Plus I have found cloths I buy from gear companies tend to break down super quickly in harsh environments, if TNF and Arcteryx actually made quality clothing that needed to be replaced less then the alternative, I would be fine with it, but its the same quality stuff you find at Wal Mart

Used gear prices are bonkers. And we're even more bonkers for buying it. Have so few of us have the patience to wait for a sale and get the same price for new gear?!?!

What I don't like about clothing companies is that they largely make their clothes in massive factories in Asia and don't treat their workers with respect.  The process of the global garment industry I not good for the environment.  I do think it's more ethical to try and buy your clothing second hand.

While the plight of garment workers has improved some, by and large you are correct about the human and environmental impact of the industry.

I actually think that buying higher quality clothes (ideally secondhand, but for a secondhand market someone has to buy it first) is better for the environment than buying cheaper lower quality clothing. I've had my atom LT for 8? years now and I still wear it all the time. Same thing with some nice lefroy shorts that I have had for almost the same amount of time.

If anyone is selling any lefroy shorts in size 30 hit me up, I'm sad they got discontinued. 

Hot take, this is what this thread has become.

Hot take, it’s actually 2025 already.  Get with the program people!

another hot take, lockers are not needed on the legs of an anchor, and two lockers for the master point is overkill.

Last hot take, the jump from a letter grade is less than number grades lower down.  Ie 5.8 to 5.9 is a bigger jump than 5.10c to 5.10d. 

A couple more hot takes:

• Shitting on speed climbing isn’t cool anymore now that they’re moving as fast as they are. Is it anything resembling rock climbing? Not really. Is it absolutely insane to watch someone do that in under 5 seconds? Yeah, it’s nuts, and I highly encourage folks to watch the Olympic speed finals
• If you bring a non-duffel opening style bag to the crag im absolutely making predictions about your climbing ability. If you bring an actual haul bag without it being full of development/rebolting tools, I’ll likely avoid you entirely. I’m sure you’re a nice person either way.
• A little bit of gatekeeping in the sport is fine/good. Everyone shouldn’t feel entitled or encouraged to climb every route - it’s a legitimate safety issue. You want to go do a 5.12 R but struggle to onsight 5.11- G? I think that’s a great goal, but I’m absolutely going to clearly communicate that you’re not ready to do so and try to discourage you from trying until you aren’t a liability. This goes doubly-so for zero-sum activities e.g. development. There ARE limited resources in some aspects of climbing and without a mentor there’s quite a few people who shouldn’t dip their toe in. Speaking of…
• Two things are true: self-teaching is totally a valid method of learning pretty much any rock climbing related skill for a subset of people. YouTube videos and books and online discussions can get you far. The “if you have to ask you shouldn’t try” response is dogshit. Do better. AND the mentor-mentee scene in climbing is horrible. Self-teaching is NOT a viable method for many people but they resort to it because, for whatever reason, there’s not an obvious place to find a mentor, and most people feel it’s lame to ask for a mentor
• You aren’t trying as hard or being as intentional as you think you are and your constant excuses are much more likely to make you lose some climbing partners than they are to get you to achieve your goals. Yes, this applies to you reading this as well. Hearing “I try harder than most people at _____” is a great way to get me to fully tune out to whatever you’re following that up with

I actually think that buying higher quality clothes (ideally secondhand, but for a secondhand market someone has to buy it first) is better for the environment than buying cheaper lower quality clothing.

A strong argument to be made here - buy one good garment and use for years instead of 5 throw away cheapies. Love the re-use attitudes these days!

A warm take:

• Any pull-behind camper larger than a teardrop should be banned from entering national parks. Two fridges and a fireplace is excessive, and don't get me started on folks who run their generator to power their led string lights all afternoon. 

Hot takes:

-You can train better for sport climbing on a board than on a rope in the gym

-volume style slabs are good training for low angle granite

-trying hard is hard

F r i t zwrote:

In my opinion, those who say "don't like, don't clip" demonstrate a critical lack of awareness as to what that user experience is.

Can you expand on this? Genuinely curious and not trying to be offensive.  I just don't get how the existence of a bolt on a route that one chooses not to clip will diminish that climber's experience.  It seems more like a person that complains about a bolt they choose not to clip is trying to force their world view on others who might not be so bold.  It seems elitist and like bold climbers are saying that their way of experiencing a route is the only correct way.

Tom Rangitschwrote:

Can you expand on this? Genuinely curious and not trying to be offensive.  I just don't get how the existence of a bolt on a route that one chooses not to clip will diminish that climber's experience.  It seems more like a person that complains about a bolt they choose not to clip is trying to force their world view on others who might not be so bold.  It seems elitist and like bold climbers are saying that their way of experiencing a route is the only correct way.

This is all about the Movement vs Experience battle, sometimes called the Trad vs Everyone else battle