Why do you love rock climbing?

Why do you love rock climbing?

My eyes linger...on the ridgelines and the sun silhouetting a gnarled pine, the survivor of dozens of storms. The cliff residents. Lichen, in all its variety.

Dikes, knobs, crystals. Dihedrals, splitters, flakes, blocks. Moss, ferns, succulents. Flowers, herbs, berries. Frogs, lizards and snakes. Swallows squabbling like they do. Hummingbirds chasing each other. Why can't we all get along? 

Then there is the movement. Feeling strong, in control and at peace with the moves. Gear, toys, so well designed and strong and simple. That smell when cleaning pins. Rock dust on your lips, tightening a new bolt. A perfect nut placement. A cam so good you can feel it when you place it. Ugly tat that creaks when you weight it.

Jugs, jams: Hands, fists, thin hands, fingers. OW, not so much. Flared chimneys, intended to punish the likes of me. Smears, dishes, edges, scums. Knee bars.

Chalk. Sticky shoes. Tape. Exposure, bouldering, high balls, sit starts, tope roping, run outs and close bolts.

I like it all.

it is fun

Because I need something to get REALLY into. Just so happed that climbing was that thing. 

The view at the top is pretty neat

It's changed over the years. At one point it felt good to be a stronger person, at another it helped me cope with the loss of a loved one, for a time I used it to escape from things I'd still rather not think about, and have always been captivated by moving through places in ways few people had gone before. 

I'd like to think that's changed in some way but I just quit a job I was rather content at because I need to feel the air underneath my feet and the breeze on my back again. 

I love climbing for what it's shown me I can overcome, where it's taken me and for the places I've yet to go. 

Also like me a good crimp. 

All the women throwing themselves at me after I stick a double dyno. That’s why. The chicks man.

Got inspired by Messner and Bonatti. A way to have a fun training serious commitment to stay safe when in the Mountains. Train above what you actually climb....and i enjoy teaching climbing as a job.

My mum said it was because I like to climb up high so I can hear the wind blow through the holes in my head!

She was absolutely right.

Mountains are my happy place. The light, peace and quiet, the effort it takes to get to the view, the toys you need to get there.

But above it all because you just need to be in the moment. 

My theory applies to other activities, not just climbing, but it certainly applies. I think people crave a sense of intimacy with more than just other humans; we love having a deep knowledge and familiarity with things. A painter can know every brush stroke, a mountain biker can have a vast knowledge of every curve on a trail, a skiier can know every turn down a couloir, a musician can know every note.. a climber can know every hold on a climb. And then, from that knowledge, that intimacy with that medium, one can predict how things will sound, feel, look. Intimacy drives our passions. 

Seth Bleazardwrote:

Because I need something to get REALLY into. Just so happed that climbing was that thing. 

Similar to what I've heard from some ultra athletes: "if I wasn't doing this I'd probably be a serial killer, this seems like the healthier option"

I feel that as a primate climbing is an inherent activity. I’m driven to climb by biology and genetics. Pulling and hanging on things only seems natural. “Rock Climbing” is the easiest way for me to scratch the itch. The whole upright standing and walking thing seems contrived. 

The process of turning things that I can’t do into things that I can. The payoff from seeing progression. It’s cool doing something that not everyone can/wants to do. It also takes you to crazy places that humans weren’t designed to go. 

I'm obsessed with the infinitely beautiful ways nature organizes itself. The endless variation in formations and boulder size and orientation, the cohesion of the particles, the variations in mineral composition in different areas of a range, the cleavage that forms our different holds and features.

I love getting to physically engage with these ancient structures that've been deposited in wild places for millenia, while doing relatively little damage (compared to other hobbies and human pursuits). As Ira mentioned, I deeply enjoy being able to know tracts of land intimately - valleys, gullies, corridors, random plains - like the back of my hand. I get lost driving in cities. I feel a strong sense of place and home in the tracts of wilderness I frequent. 

People in the climbing communities I've been a part of, the ways that I've grown as a human from climbing, and the structure and drive it provides for my enjoyment are all additional delvings, and rants for another time.

It's an okay way to goof off. 

Climbing is the one sport that I've really been able to stick with in my life. It's like a physical puzzle at times that you have to figure out while you're high up in the air, trying not to fall off. 

I'm also a gear head in general so I love diving deep into all the different gear options and putting my own bag of tools together. There's a certain thrill to being high up on a wall but feeling good because you know your gear and you know how to use it properly. 

It all just kinda combines into something that always leaves room for improvement and working on, and the results are so satisfying when you see them.

Plus the views can be absolutely breathtaking. 

the scale + features of rocks are so cool. being able to displace yourself in that kind of terrain is quite satisfying.

In addition to many of the reasons already listed, my two daughters got me back in after a long hiatus….   Spending tons of quality time out there.  

I'll refrain from repeating a lot of the reasons already listed in the thread and add a big one: the partners and people you connect with along the way. 

The sending is fucking rad but the people ya do it with helps bring it all to life. 

climbing the rocks.