No To politics
I just received the October 2004 issue and after reading a few of the smaller articles, jumped right to one of my favorites, Vantage Point. Generally I love these articles. I feel like I can relate to them and they have a “feel good” connotation. This issue’s Vantage Point sucked. I subscribe to Climbing because of the exciting stories, great pictures, Beta, and overall excitement to get out on the rock. If I wanted political spray I would pick up Mother Jones. I don’t mind Patagonia paying for a “Vote the environment” page, I’d expect that. But in comparison to more recent Vantage Point articles, this was sub par (and I greatly respect Jim Bridwell). I think of climbing and reading about climbing as an escape from all the media hype and political crap, and it’s frustrating when the two meet.
Thanks for being a magazine that allows me to express my opinion!

Yes to Politics
It’s good to see Climbing expressing some op-ed on the current mess we’re in. Please thank Tad for his article and nominations. I accept! You’ll be hearing from my campaign manager, John “The Verm” Sherman, soon.

Summersville
Yo. About two months ago me and a couple of my friends bought a magazine from you guys and there was an article about deep-water free soloing in West Virginia [July 2004]. It looked awesome so on a whim we decided to go for a few days. If I could I would move to West Virginia. Summersville Lake was the most incredible climbing experience I’ve ever had (admittedly I haven’t been that many places). Me and my three friends took a canoe out on the rockiest lake in the world, slept on the hardest ground ever, and it was still the best weekend of my summer. Thank you guys so much.

(A)BS
Thanks for the supplement on the American Bouldering Series [included with our October issue]. Seeing as how I feel bouldering is the lamest form of climbing, your supplement made it very easy throw away almost all of issue #234 coverage on this ridiculous “sport.” Please package all future coverage of bouldering in this convenient form.
On a positive note, your coverage of Steph Davis was exceptional. Excellent reporting and insight from the climber herself, accompanied by superb photos, shot from great camera angles and with excellent lighting.

Come climb my crags
A little over two years back, I moved out of the Washington, DC, area, moving west two hours towards the mountains. I now live halfway up the side of a mountain. There is potential climbing at the top of my mountain — 50-foot routes — and bouldering within 100 yards of my house. A few miles down the road there is a 60-foot waterfall that freezes during the winter. I have scouted out many areas and rock formations and found many possible climbing areas, including a 120-foot rock face.
My question is this: What has happened to the climbing community that no one wants to try to develop some of these areas? Where is the sense of adventure that I once knew when I first started climbing? We appear to be spawning a generation of climbers who want to do hard routes but don’t want to work for it. I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to get people to go with me to climb a new area and wound up going by myself. I have encountered loose rock, snakes, and the occasional black bear, but I have also encountered the same at areas like the Gunks, Seneca, and the New, so I don’t see what people are so afraid of. Have they all forgotten that climbing itself is a dangerous sport?

Say what?
I’ve been climbing for almost two years and I absolutely love it. I’ve had plenty of people teach me how to climb, but no one has ever fully explained all the climbing lingo to me. Spending time at the gym and reading your magazine has really helped, but sometimes I wish I had a climbing dictionary to refer to. Climbing does have a lot of weird terms: Beta, hangdogging, jib, chicken wing, sloper, crimper, dyno, flash, redpoint, free, etc. … plus all the French terms. A lot of words I have come to understand, but some I’m just not sure. Perhaps you can refer me to a book already out there, maybe even a word-a-day climbing calendar, or put a list in your magazine. Anyway, thanks for such an awesome magazine and keep up the good work.

Editor’s note: Ryan, we’ve considered printing the definitive climbing glossary in an illustrated 600-page special issue, but we’ve been … too busy climbing. For now, here are a few choice vocabulary terms from our in-house Betamaster, ex-Gunkie Mike Freeman:

Block party — section of a climb threatened by hanging rubble
Blade Runners — a new pair of edging shoes
Blap — to swing violently into the rock
Boink — a method of regaining the rock after falling into space on a steep route by pulling up on and then snapping taught the lead rope
Dark Lord — an unsavory local climber
MacGyver — to be creative with gear placements
Sports action — a long leader fall in front of a group of spectators
Sprinter — an upcoming young climber
Wallenda — a flying, all-points-off lunge move (named after the famous circus family)

Zen ways to leave your lover
Reading about all those ego- and testosterone-charged, death-defying solos cranked by our love-jilted climbing heroes [“Broken Hearted Ascents,” September], my take was similar to Peter Croft’s: Why on earth would anyone want to use soloing as a channel for negative energy?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that there’s no place for committed climbing in the aftermath of an ugly breakup. I can even understand the therapeutic value of soloing’s demand for total focus, bringing temporary relief from the anger, guilt, and regret gnawing at the backs of our brains. But, assuming we’re not spiritual masters living in a state of constant unrippled bliss, can we move beyond that temporary Zen-like state and use hard/committed climbing to help us come to grips with our loss and move on?
Based on the personal experiences of a pretty average climber I happen to know (he, err, asked me to write in for him), it seems that in the final harsh reckoning of failed relationships, climbing tends to end up in the balance as major incriminating evidence. Which begs the question of whether a focus on the activity is, in fact, selfish and emotionally unhealthy. Yet I can never quite get around the fact that climbing is one of the most tangible things that define me as a human being and make me feel more completely alive. When I rock up over an improbable smear, latch a key crimper, or better yet, take half an hour to enjoy a sunset view from the top of a favorite crag without having to worry about being late for dinner, I never fail to slide back into my old mantra of, “Damn, life is good.” And if it takes the crumbling of a less than perfect relationship to reaffirm my commitment to an activity that brings so much positive and all-encompassing energy, to hell with it, baby, I’m outta there, too. I’m going climbing, and I’m doing it for my own good.