In Summary...
I've been thinking a bit about summarising stuff lately and the beauty of simple messages. It came out of realising how much useless information is thrown at us and we try to absorb with a western lifestyle. Don't worry, I'm not going to go all hippy on your ass, I just got onto thinking about this after getting rid of my TV permenantly after I moved house a month ago, which has been great - thoroughly recommended!!.
Not many people understand the climbing I do, least of all other climbers. They are constantly asking me why I like sport climbing and headpointing and what is wrong with me for not hating everything except onsight traditional climbing. Obviously people will always project their own autobiographies on others, thats their problem. But I do enjoy communicating my inspiration, and if possible, getting better at this.
I climb what I do for lots of reasons, there are many details. What I've observed is that the discussion rarely even gets onto these. It's stuck at the outset because when discussions about comlpicated ideas are centred around details rather than simple principles, people can only navigate using their own paradigms and will rarely understand others.
So here is a summary of why I like to work super hard routes for a long time, instead of onsighting all the time:
'Working out sequences of moves over time and perfecting them to make impossible moves possible is me. It fits with my creativity'
Understand that, and the conversation about the details will be an easy one.
Have you heard any beautiful summaries that helped you to relate to something you previously didn't understand? If so, can you tell me about them in the comments?
Hi Dave – Surely there has to be some great summaries in Mark Twights book’s Extreme Alpinism or Kiss or Kill- that guy loves his summaries or even the Gym Jones site.
ReplyDeleteEinstein said 'Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler'.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Albert ever did much on the boulders or the crags, but I've always found it great advice when working out a sequence.
Dave,
ReplyDeleteHurrah! A like-minded soul at last! I said to Caroline only yesterday that I've given up trying to onsight climbs. It's unnecessarily stressful. I get much more pleasure out of repeating things I know I can do, taking the time to enjoy them rather than just hanging on for dear life, or for the sake of just completing a problem first shot.
I too ditched my TV more than a year ago, and haven't missed it at all, not since they stopped showing Celebrity Love Island, anyway! Well, ok maybe I felt tempted to reinstate the goggle box last night just to watch the new Mountains series on the beeb.
Hi Dave. My daily challenges are rarely climbing in nature sadly, but there is a wonderful summary which I use often, and I thought of when reading about your 'dip'.
ReplyDeleteSounds a bit tree huggin', buy you just have to remember that thoughts are just thoughts. They are not truths. They are just random chemical reactions in your brain. When you think "I can't do this", that is not a 'truth', pure a unsubtantiated statement by you mind - so don't believe it!