Walkie Talkies Have Ruined Climbing for Me

"Old man shakes fist at Cloud".

John Tuttle wrote:

"Old man shakes fist at Cloud".

Are you making fun of me?

It's ok if you are. A good day for it in fact.

When the rope comes tight, start climbing.

Walkie Talkies are dumb. 

I climb based on vibes.

Good vibes? Climb 

Bad vibes? Take

Medium vibes? Watch the climber 

Spooky vibes? Take off belay 

Etc

The second to last radio-climbing experience I had:

We'd finished P2 of Purblind Pillar and my partner was leading the third.  The leader of the pair behind us made his way to the ledge, anchors in, and quietly - almost a whisper - calls on the radio "off belay".  Made me a little embarrassed about having yelled at that same point "Off Belay!" 

We continue up the climb, unexpectedly creating distance between us and the party behind us.  Not a flex there - we are not fast.

After the descent and picking up our dropped packs, we can hear that party on the last pitch of the route yelling back and forth - loudly.  For whatever reason, the radios weren't working.  I've experience this the last time I used radio where anchoring back in an alcove made the radios almost useless. Or maybe dead battery.  Or dropped radio.

Radios are great if used in a reasonable way.  Just be prepared to communicate or intuit without them.  Whatever it is, it will happen. 

Theyre a tool.  Like a PLB.  Can be abused.  Can be used wrong.  Can be useful.  Can be a crutch that gets pulled from underfoot.  Another piece of phaff to add to the kit.    

Kindly be conscious of not allowing your experience to impact my experience, eh :D  

And l shall conscientiously perform the same kindness, Brothers and Sisters of the Rope

I love how this whole thread is about being annoyed at overhearing someone's conversation at the crag. We should all just recreate in total silence

Jason wrote:

I love how this whole thread is about being annoyed at overhearing someone's conversation at the crag. We should all just recreate in total silence

Hear, hear!!

Jason wrote: We should all just recreate in total silence

And flow like water. 

 I love how this whole thread is about being annoyed at overhearing someone's conversation at the crag. We should all just recreate in total silence

Right, stfu!   

We’re all entitled to leave a climbing area and avoid other climbers, but some folks are really piling on the bad vibes.

There’s a lot of annoying things people do at crags.  But my experience isn’t sacrosanct.  Sometimes I need to pet the crag dogs, chill with the babies, listen to the crag speakers, and maybe take some beta from a stranger.  There are good parts to all those things.  

Ease off on the petty grievances.  That’s the spirit of selfishness at the route of your own complaints.  It just ruins it more.

Caleb wrote:

We’re all entitled to leave a climbing area and avoid other climbers, but some folks are really piling on the bad vibes.

There’s a lot of annoying things people do at crags.  But my experience isn’t sacrosanct.  Sometimes I need to pet the crag dogs, chill with the babies, listen to the crag speakers, and maybe take some beta from a stranger.  There are good parts to all those things.  

Ease off on the petty grievances.  That’s the spirit of selfishness at the route of your own complaints.  It just ruins it more.

This is the attitude that has ruined climbing for me! This activity was built on petty grievances!!!

James Harvey wrote:

After 34+ years of climbing you will rarely find me climbing near ANYONE anymore.

Except for my wife. 

And if we are cragging alone and someone shows up, that’s usually our exit cue. There is NO safety in numbers at the crag.

Someone climbing our intended route? Plenty of others to choose from elsewhere. Or we should have been there sooner.

Rocky-talkies don’t bother me as much as people do.

You must be fun at parties. 

Caleb wrote:

We’re all entitled to leave a climbing area and avoid other climbers, but some folks are really piling on the bad vibes.

There’s a lot of annoying things people do at crags.  But my experience isn’t sacrosanct.  Sometimes I need to pet the crag dogs, chill with the babies, listen to the crag speakers, and maybe take some beta from a stranger.  There are good parts to all those things.  

Ease off on the petty grievances.  That’s the spirit of selfishness at the route of your own complaints.  It just ruins it more.

Best post here.  If I’m on these forums too much I forget how awesome it is to be out climbing.  Climb on my friends 

James Harvey wrote:

Every house needs a resident contrarian.

Or maybe several resident contrarians. Oh, and parties are for adolescents. 

Contrarian views for the sake of being contrary are annoying AF. However, contrarianism (as a term) is too often applied to any view that steps outside of the so-called 'conventional wisdom'. C'est la vie.

I have Rockie Talkies and use them at the Gunks as well as other places.  Between all the channels and the privacy codes, I have never once had someone else on my system.  I think a lot of folks use the out-of-the-box, and so they all end up on the default channel with no privacy codes activated.  No surprise you're getting crosstalk under those circumstances.

I spent many years heaping scorn on radios for climbing. Then karma caught up with me--my hearing deteriorated in my seventies, and I now need hearing aids. But hearing aids are very expensive, and I'm not going to wear them when climbing, so radios it is. Now that I'm using them, I have to grudgingly admit that they are really quite useful for a host of circumstances. Yeah, I used to belong to the "when the rope comes tight, start climbing" school of minimalism. Been there and done that, and it works most of the time. But even in relatively pleasant conditions, the ability to say something like "the stopper with red tape is fixed; don't bother trying to get it out" can be a time-saver. And once the conditions are no longer pleasant, radios make an enormous difference in supporting a safe and efficient outcome. This can be true on the approach and descent as well, when the party sometimes gets separated. That said, you'd better have your no-radio game on too, because the things might fail when you need them most.

Of course, once you put a tool in people's hands, there will always be folks who make you wish the tool had never been invented. Climbing in many areas is now a crowded activity, partially frequented by an urban demographic that arrives with a sporting-arena mentality.  It would be nice if people were thoughtful about how their behavior intrudes on others' experience, but that just doesn't seem to be the way humans are built, otherwise we wouldn't have dog poop bags left all over the trails. In any case, those who are hoping, increasingly in vain, for peace, quiet, and solitude are probably a dwindling minority, subject to "oid guys shaking their hands at clouds" derision while the party rages on.

I love it when rgold chimes in on threads with his wisdom. Walkie Talkies are great, and I can't be convinced otherwise.

I have solved the annoying radio problem by;

1. Climbing where other people “don’t”.

And I have been able to successfully mitigate all the other problems you encounter in climbing by;

2. Climbing where other people “won’t”! 

Salamanizer Ski wrote:

I have solved the annoying radio problem by;

1. Climbing where other people “don’t”.

And I have been able to successfully mitigate all the other problems you encounter in climbing by;

2. Climbing where other people “won’t”! 

👍👍

I haven't experienced any annoyance from other people's use of walkie talkies. Maybe when/if my hearing deteriorates I will adopt them. Until then it's just another thing to interfere with the climbing experience. 

Edit added: I only have very vague recollections of not having radios being an issue, so it would seem the issues were solved with out that much difficulty. I actually can't remember any specifics whatsoever about any such event. It isn't that hard. Lucky? No doubt that's part of it, but your luck improves drastically when you stack the odds in your favor. But I get it. I get why.