An unpopular take on The Alpinist

“...have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God.”

Alice Walker in The Color Purple 

In her introduction to a later edition she writes about finding god in the wind and trees.  We can all climb for a variety of reasons and I’ll never know what exactly motivated Marc and Ryan that day, but I know there was love in their hearts. Love for people, the amazing place they were in, for the bonds they had established, for all their future hopes and dreams. I mourn their loss and the pain their communities still feel.

I don’t think anyone is learning about climbing or honoring members of our community anymore. I vote to pull this thread and someone start something on more general risk assessment somewhere else. I think Marc deserves a more nuanced, intelligent, heartfelt analysis than this in his name. 

Remember when Eric said he hasn’t ever judged people then in his subsequent post(s) goes on about how people disagreeing with him are projecting their anger. Classic. 

Not Not MP Adminwrote:

Remember when Eric said he hasn’t ever judged people then in his subsequent post(s) goes on about how people disagreeing with him are projecting their anger. Classic. 

Funny how quickly people forgot Eric’s “contributions” to the Charlie Barrett thread. So classic there is no longer a record of most of them.

In that worst falls video of eric's that I linked to above (maybe 5 or 6? in the middle) he smashes into his belayer, driving her head into the cliff (he shows it in close-up, and slo-mo, a few times), then says that his "takeway/tip" is that it turns out that hitting your belayer is good for the climber as it disperses the energy of your fall if you can hit your belayer. 

I honestly could not believe he was saying those words, seemingly sincerely - and then he even gets the belayer on camera to say she chose to belay, she knew the deal, she signed up for it, no harm done, etc. Of course if she suffered a TBI she might feel differently, (but maybe would not have been able to articulate those feelings?) Anyway, I thought the takeaway might have been "be careful about where your belayer stands, so you don't hit or hurt them, because they are a fellow person." But then, I'm not eric. 

I stopped watching/supporting after I watched that. In the climbing world I live in, people dont use each other as human crash pads just to headpoint yet another R/X route they can notch on their belt.

Cushioning a leader fall with a launched belayer's body is generally a bad idea since the outcome is hard to predict.  I sincerely appreciate the belayer owning it.  Still, avoiding that is primary. Counting or relying on it is unthinkable IMO

I can speak from experience here. TBIs do happen precisely that way.  And it can be a long and painful road of recovery, tortured by memory therapy and elsewise.

I am completely done with organized religion after what we have been through since 2016 and what we have witnessed from the so called followers of God. From my experience the more someone claims to know god, the more they advertise that they are Christin, the less they follow the teachings of Christ.  so No I really do Not care that you telle and I do not want to hear how every other type of skiing is for wimps and sell outs... as all the old telle guys switch to AT ;) 

BTW I still telle I just rarely actually do a telle turn .. old knees.... 

And here I thought this thread was about 'The Alpinist'.

Goodness....what was I thinking??

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

I am completely done with organized religion after what we have been through since 2016 and what we have witnessed from the so called followers of God. From my experience the more someone claims to know god, the more they advertise that they are Christin, the less they follow the teachings of Christ.  so No I really do Not care that you telle and I do not want to hear how every other type of skiing is for wimps and sell outs... as all the old telle guys switch to AT ;) 

In fairness, that trait is often true across the entirety of the ideological and cultural board, not just some minority of Christians. Virtue signaling is a human failing and a tell among a vocal minority of us - no matter your purported virtues, the louder you proclaim them unsolicitedly and seek to impose them on others (think all politicians - not just the red or blue ones), the less you probably actually live them inside yourself. To paraphrase some old English playwrite: methinks thou doth protest too much!

I personally truly enjoy Eric's posts and would never tell him to STFU,  I live to hear what my neighbor thinks even if it seems wackadoodle most of the time.  

The whole idea that all threads need to stay on subject  is kinda OCD really, evolution is natural. 

Dean Rosnauwrote:

And here I thought this thread was about 'The Alpinist'.

Goodness....what was I thinking??

You are 19 pages deep on a mountain project thread. Here be demons….and trolls. Mostly people who get bored at work.

telemark has one L.  And its hard, so if you get weak, switching to alpine trumps quitting.

Firmness of thought, cleanliness of heart.  Thoughts become words become actions.  They should all be good.  

Everyone needs to change for the better.  The only person you can change is you.  

M Mwrote:

I personally truly enjoy Eric's posts and would never tell him to STFU,  I live to hear what my neighbor thinks even if it seems wackadoodle most of the time.  

The whole idea that all threads need to stay on subject  is kinda OCD really, evolution is natural. 

Evolution is a bit generous and ironic, don’t ya think?

John Clarkwrote:

Funny how quickly people forgot Eric’s “contributions” to the Charlie Barrett thread. So classic there is no longer a record of most of them.

Which is why it's idiotic for MP admins to delete comments unless its straight up hate speech or what not. Let people see what people have to say for posterity.

Not Not MP Adminwrote:

Evolution is a bit generous and ironic, don’t ya think?

Devolution could have worked as well most likely 

John Clarkwrote:

You are 19 pages deep on a mountain project thread. Here be demons….and trolls. Mostly people who get bored at work.

Completely moronic.

Dean Rosnauwrote:

Completely moronic.

Thanks. I try to bring the discourse down to my level <3

Andy Rwrote:

Which is why it's idiotic for MP admins to delete comments unless its straight up hate speech or what not. Let people see what people have to say for posterity.

MP admins don't delete comments based on their personal opinions of said comment, it's whenever a user clicks the "flag" option that it automatically gets deleted by the true MP overlords.

Heaven forbid just 1 or 2 forum users get their underwear all bunchied up. The whole "redacted" route names debacle was the same deal, 1 person gets triggered and it just goes away automatically.

Hank Caylorwrote:

MP admins don't delete comments based on their personal opinions of said comment, it's whenever a user clicks the "flag" option that it automatically gets deleted by the true MP overlords.

Heaven forbid just 1 or 2 forum users get their underwear all bunchied up. The whole "redacted" route names debacle was the same deal, 1 person gets triggered and it just goes away automatically.

It isn’t automatic.

John Clarkwrote:

It isn’t automatic.

True but

A couple of "my feelings were hurt" may qualify enough to be automatic with these times we live in.