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Mount Taylor, 13,127'
East Face routes - Central Buttress is dead center below the summit
Milford Sound, New Zealand 1998
the Mitre (L) and Mt. Pembroke (far rear R)
Pembroke Falls
the author @ Pembroke Fall, New Zealand
About Me
- Greg
- the most memorable vacations are climbing. however; I also enjoy skiing and ski mountaineering, scuba, and hunting.
1 comment:
It’s a very interesting sport. It is perceived as “high risk”, yet those who partake know it simply as their relaxation. It is labeled “crazy” yet many of my most dedicated climbing associates are often conservative and painstakingly safe. It may appear that one just grabs aimlessly at the rock yet a good number of climbers are mathematicians and the sport is very calculated and planned. It is lumped in with other “adrenaline sports” yet most often is slow and methodical. Climbing to those who climb is a personal adventure and occasionally shared with one other person. It is not wild but conducted in the wilds. It is not dangerous when practiced within the security that technology has developed and the power and skill developed by training. The unfortunate part is that it’s misunderstood by those who are unfamiliar with it. Recently I gave a show-and-tell demonstration to some friends who thought us climbers were crazy and risky. Once they saw the operation of the hardware and its strengths, they were much more at-ease with the subject.
Climbing is a huge umbrella that takes in many subsets of activities. They range from bouldering to rock and ice climbing, to mountaineering or big-wall ascents that may take days, even weeks. One of the more recent major branches is ‘sport climbing’. To those in the know, this is either indoor climbing on a man made artificial rock wall or out doors on typically shorter cliffs that have been bolted with protection hangers and require little to no ‘hardware’ like traditional climbing requires. The difficulty is typically higher as the routes are short and often on overhanging rock requiring gymnastic moves. Traditional climbing is associated with the use of passive protection; that which can be easily removed from natural cracks in the rock. These spring-loaded caming devices have four retractable legs that once placed properly within a small fissure in the rock not only will hold a persons fall but are rated for loads beyond 1000 pounds. Hammering in steel pitons is generally a thing of the past as new technology has provided a non-destructive method of safety.
The locals of Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park know that traditional climbing and mountaineering has a very long history here starting with Enos Mills in the early part of the last century. Longs Peak has always been and will likely always be the main attraction in this area. Technical rock climbing in RMNP is a huge allure for Americans as well as foreigners. The quality of the granite here is suburb on an international scale. Lumpy Ridge north of downtown Estes Park holds over 400 technical routes, most of which are considered crack climbing. (Face climbing is another popular reference name for types of rock climbing; both are self-explanatory). Lumpy Ridge is one of the finest high country climbing areas in Colorado, and the views are nothing less than spectacular. The snow capped high peaks of Glacier Basin and the southern exposure make Lumpy Ridge a prime summer destination. It is not uncommon to hear European or Asian languages calling out the rope signals between climbing partners.
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