Hot Takes 2025

By the time you are 40 half of your climbing friends will have given it up.  

A small group will no longer climb with you because they make huge sacrifices to climb harder.

You will constantly fight to keep your remaining partners from bailing to go skiing or mountain biking.

Taps Last Rites was pretty weak. Too much ground that’s been well trodden. I didn’t find myself overly in disagreement with a lot of it…it’s just all been covered in the past.

Waaaay too much time devoted to Devlin’s rationalizing and redirecting. He woulda been much better served by just copping to an unfortunate momentary goof, and walked away from the keyboard. 

trad and sport are much less scary than high boulders

Chris Ka-loose-lips should cut ties with the Runout Podacst and double down on Enormo.

Bisherat's whiny cynicism weakens Chris's brand and is depressing to the listeners (who only listen for more Kalous anyways)

Speed climbing is contrived. Running is a big sport with a lot of events & variations because it’s innate to our bodies makeup. Speed climbing the same route is just silly to me

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Every body has pros and cons in climbing.

Short climbers have an easier time with high step footwork and dihedral corners because their femur length gives their hips/body proportions more range of motion.

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Showboating/Bravado/Ego in climbing is a red flag shooting fireworks.

A turn off in any setting outside climbing too, the climbing brand of showboating is just uniquely cringe. The loud constant warm up 'tsaaaaa' 's, climbing shirtless but sporting a beanie, 0-100 hasty screams to belayers, dropping big industry names or grades a few minutes into new conversations with strangers. High on your own supply much... O_O'

apogee wrote:

Taps Last Rites was pretty weak. Too much ground that’s been well trodden. I didn’t find myself overly in disagreement with a lot of it…it’s just all been covered in the past.

The final discussion was that guy going around in circles for 5 minutes arguing that you can't "Taps" Taps.

Hilariously, Taps had already been "Tapsed" for 45 minutes at that point, Chris having explained that the episodes are called Last Rights instead.

Unfortunately. It has kind of all been covered. Climbing has changed a lot, podcasts have changed a lot. The internet has changed a lot. Ironic to be discussing this on MP as its even more irrelevant than Last Rights 2025. We're all irrelevant to the flood of indoor boulderers on r/bouldering reddit who have been climbing for 3 months and are, "totally addicted lol".

I've criticised them pretty harshly here but it is out of love a bit, the Enormocast and yes even Andrew Bisharats opinions (we know he lurks, hi Andrew) have been a constant in my climbing life. I remember listening to one of the early single-digit episodes with Hayden Kennedy driving down to Nowra. I had a massive moment of deja-vu a few years ago, driving down to Nowra again and listening to episode 200-and-something.

Caleb wrote:

A small group will no longer climb with you because they make huge sacrifices to climb harder.

This is crazy to me.  

Hot take: decreasing climbing time with friends to climb more difficult routes is missing the forest for the trees

TJ Bindseil wrote:

This is crazy to me.  

Hot take: decreasing climbing time with friends to climb more difficult routes is missing the forest for the trees

Friends are cool but have you ever downgraded someone’s project?  

Different strokes for different egos and all that

TJ Bindseil wrote:

This is crazy to me.  

Hot take: decreasing climbing time with friends to climb more difficult routes is missing the forest for the trees

It's a balance for sure. Time spent with friends is obviously one of the best parts of climbing, but it's also rewarding to do what inspires you personally. Sometimes your current friends have different motivations than you, and that doesn't necessarily mean you should give up on your own goals to always do what they do. The best case scenario is you still spend time with existing friends while making new friends who you can achieve your goals with. 

almostrad wrote:

Friends are cool but have you ever downgraded someone’s project?  

Different strokes for different egos and all that

I’ve downgraded most of my own.  Does that count?

Matt Wetmore wrote:

It's a balance for sure. Time spent with friends is obviously one of the best parts of climbing, but it's also rewarding to do what inspires you personally. Sometimes your current friends have different motivations than you, and that doesn't necessarily mean you should give up on your own goals to always do what they do. The best case scenario is you still spend time with existing friends while making new friends who you can achieve your goals with. 

I think I was picturing someone training in isolation/misery (basement hangboarding or similar) and never climbing with their more casual friends. I can totally see how linking up with new people to push the envelope a bit more is a great opportunity.  

Also, reading the initial post made me realize I had probably done that at some point. It gave me perspective to the other side I guess. And vice versa when I remember times I didn’t take / make the opportunity to go for something else and felt resentment. All around just a very thought provoking post 

Hot take:  climbing’s sole purpose is to kill time until it’s dark enough to light the fire and roast the brats.

Mark Pilate wrote:

Hot take:  climbing’s sole purpose is to kill time until it’s dark enough to light the fire and roast the brats.

the dude abides

Bouldering: 10% trying hard, 90% laying on a pad eating snacks.

Mark Pilate wrote:

Hot take:  climbing’s sole purpose is to kill time until it’s dark enough to light the fire and roast the brats.

Hotter take: Fires while camping are overrated unless you have someone in the group who wants to take full responsibility in the creation, maintenance, and extinguishing of them

Toasty take:

People with vans and campers spend too much of their camping experience inside. One of the main points is to spend time in nature with friends, not watching movies in a tin-foil box.

Caleb wrote:

Toasty take:

People with vans and campers spend too much of their camping experience inside. One of the main points is to spend time in nature with friends, not watching movies in a tin-foil box.

On that note, a beater car you can gleefully slide around corners, scratch the hell out of, and crawl rough roads on with a solid tent or hammock setup is way more enjoyable than even the nicest sprinter with full amenities. 

On that subject, when did climbers become terrified of the very idea of sleeping in a tent? Actually not just climbers, but the public in general. Among most people I know, young or old, they look at me like a crazy person when I say I car camp with a tent instead of some fancy vehicle set up. I am literally the only person in my friend groups who still does this. 

Did I just miss the memo at some point? I have been sleeping in tents since I was 1 year old (my parents have a photo) and I have never felt the need to spend money to change.

As a dedicated ground bivy-er, I’m still trying to figure out when people got so damn attached to tents.

apogee wrote:

As a dedicated ground bivy-er, I’m still trying to figure out when people got so damn attached to tents.

one time I was cowboy camping behind the car and had to break out the tent because even with a mosquito net over my head, there were so many of the fuckers that their buzzing drowned out the noise of people watching movies and frying sausages by their sprinters.