Help out a student climber?

Hey climbers, I've got something a bit different for you all today. I'm a university student researching people's social behaviors in sports, and I've been trying to reach out to climbers irl and online for help. If anyone would be willing to help me out, please check out this survey: https://gvsu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eEvhgC1IWEGuqI6

The survey asks you to rate how much a behavior allows someone to show off/ help others/ improve their social connections while climbing. Thank you for the help!

Also, as food for thought, I wanted to ask a general question related to this topic. Do any of you notice that the behavior of people is very different in different climbing settings? I've climbed casually for 2/going on 3 years now, but only ever at indoor climbing gyms. Is the social vibe very different at outdoor climbing sites? For some reason I imagine it would be more chill    given that the climbing itself is harder outdoors in general.

Cheers all!

Yer gonna die!

Steve Williamswrote:

Yer gonna die!

Jacob, I took a look at your survey, but I didn't answer any of the questions because it was quite confusing in each question if you were referring to the person doing the behavior or the person receiving the behavior. I also was pretty unclear on the concept of "strengthening social connections".  I gather this has something to do with the process of going from strangers to facial recognition to acquaintances to friends? But that is a process that occurs with time and repetition, and a lot of interactions I have with other climbers in the wild are one off, but can be quite warm and useful.  Or quite unpleasant and make me say "I f*%king hate climbers".

Sorry, it does seem like there's plenty of room for interesting research in the area of bonds and friendships in the climbing community. There certainly has been some great writing in the climbing literature on these topics.  Good luck with your research.

As to your question about the social vibe at gyms vs the outdoors: The vibe can vary from gym to gym, so there isn't just one social vibe. It probably varies based on the time of day.  I climbing midweek during the day, with the other retired folk, and the vibe is pretty friendly since so few of us are there.  But I imagine it might be different at night after work when it's crowded and people may still be carrying all the tensions of the work day. Outside varies tremendously too.   My ideal climbing situation is no one else around, except maybe another party of two in the distance somewhere.  I really am not looking for social interactions.  Megalopolis sport climbing areas on a weekend will have their own flavor and the social interactions will be different depending on the grades available.  Pretty complex topic.

How much does “Entering a climbing competition” allow a climber to show off?

I stopped with that one.  What type of competition are we talking about?  Professional?  Regional?  A fun one the gym hosts?

Heck… I thought you were going to ask for donations of extra gear.

No better place than MP to have a survey judged and torn apart

I made a good faith effort to answer the questions as I understood them. Just trying to support our young folks. But, yeah, the questions could easily be understood in different ways and the topic is quite complex as others have stated. I am wondering what the faculty advisors counseled as the student was designing the study and the questions. 

Survey complete! Go Lakers!!!!

Wear as little clothing as possible while climbing outside - this has been my go-to climbing 101 advice for a long time now.

It is not showing off. It always strengthens social relationships and it is very, very helpful to other climbers.