Atheist forum refugee

Discussion in 'New Member Introductions' started by Capn Awesome, Mar 13, 2019.

  1. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2008
    Messages:
    28,370
    Likes Received:
    9,297
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Usually...then there is Yosemite.
     
  2. Capn Awesome

    Capn Awesome Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2019
    Messages:
    776
    Likes Received:
    428
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Gender:
    Male
    Learned to trad climb there. Yosemite is actually relatively safe compared to many other traditional climbing areas because of the solidness of the rock and the continuous nature of the crack systems. It just gets a lot of traffic and attention. There are more deaths in Yosemite related to tourists slipping off trails or taking selfies next to waterfalls than there are rock climbing.
     
    tecoyah likes this.
  3. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2008
    Messages:
    28,370
    Likes Received:
    9,297
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Granted...I'm a bit jaded after being on SAR for while there, A couple Mop Ops really hits the psyche.
     
  4. Doug1943

    Doug1943 Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2015
    Messages:
    3,741
    Likes Received:
    1,748
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Well, À chacun son goût, as they say. Certainly rock climbers can give the rest of us ... not sure if the word is "pleasure" but the occasion to direct our fascinated attention away from our daily cares. I recall several times, in Zion and Yosemite, standing amidst a crowd of people, watching tiny figures going up Angels Landing and Half-Dome, I think it was.
     
  5. Doug1943

    Doug1943 Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2015
    Messages:
    3,741
    Likes Received:
    1,748
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I think I can guess what a 'Mop Op' is ... what's an SAR?
     
  6. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2008
    Messages:
    28,370
    Likes Received:
    9,297
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Search And Rescue.
     
  7. Doug1943

    Doug1943 Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2015
    Messages:
    3,741
    Likes Received:
    1,748
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Ah, got it. My nephew did that in Eastern Washington. He said the worst part was carrying out the bodies from light airplane crashes in the mountains.
     
  8. Capn Awesome

    Capn Awesome Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2019
    Messages:
    776
    Likes Received:
    428
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Gender:
    Male
    Just do all future climbers you might meet a favor and don't ask them if they free climb. It doesn't mean what you think it does.
     
  9. Doug1943

    Doug1943 Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2015
    Messages:
    3,741
    Likes Received:
    1,748
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I think it means climbing without ropes. Am I wrong?
     
  10. Capn Awesome

    Capn Awesome Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2019
    Messages:
    776
    Likes Received:
    428
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Gender:
    Male
    That's Free-soloing.

    Free Climbing is just climbing with your hands and feet but with a rope on, as opposed to climbing by pulling on gear. It's a big naming fail on the part of the climbing community but also probably the most frequent and annoying question that tourists ask.
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2019
  11. Doug1943

    Doug1943 Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2015
    Messages:
    3,741
    Likes Received:
    1,748
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Ah so. Learn something every day. So another question: is "feeding the rat" a genuine climbers' expression?
     
  12. Capn Awesome

    Capn Awesome Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2019
    Messages:
    776
    Likes Received:
    428
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Gender:
    Male
    Never heard that before. What's it supposed to mean?
     
  13. Capn Awesome

    Capn Awesome Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2019
    Messages:
    776
    Likes Received:
    428
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Gender:
    Male
    Crazy that you were on YOSAR. I was friends with all the yosar people about 8 years ago. They sort of turn over though and I don't spend as much time in the valley as I used to.
     
  14. Doug1943

    Doug1943 Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2015
    Messages:
    3,741
    Likes Received:
    1,748
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    A friend of mine (who is not a climber) told me that it meant the powerful drive to climb one more peak, presumably one more difficult than you've already climbed.
     
  15. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2008
    Messages:
    28,370
    Likes Received:
    9,297
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I left when the floods shut us down...used to run the mountain shop. I lived in the valley for ten years and actually started with Curry Co.
     
  16. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2013
    Messages:
    41,184
    Likes Received:
    16,180
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    My understanding is that Mountain Climbing was regarded as utterly insane by anyone who didn't have to do it (because they lived there) until the very later part of the 18th century. I always wondered what changed.
     
    Sallyally likes this.
  17. Doug1943

    Doug1943 Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2015
    Messages:
    3,741
    Likes Received:
    1,748
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    When we have finally sorted out how the brain works, I believe we will find that there is some sort of evolutionary advantage -- a group advantage, not an individual one, although I know many people in the field contest the idea of 'group selection' -- to having, in your tribe, a certain number of young males with a high appetite for risk. You lose a few but in return a rival tribe is frightened away from a desirable hunting ground, or you establish that those red berries are indeed not to be eaten. Brain research will eventually establish a biological basis for this.

    You can go onto Youtube, if you're feeling a bit morbid, and find endless videos of young men (always young men, no diversity here) trying to walk across narrow girders laid between two buildings ten stories high, descend a mountain by taking a 'short cut', responding to a 'neknomination' by drinking a litre of pure alcohol, lowering themselves over the side of a building and trying to do pullups, strapping themselves to the bottom of an airplane with just a belt which then breaks (Google 'Jim Bailey') -- with tragic results. Sometimes the outcome is not tragic and you don't feel bad about laughing at these attempts to win a Darwin Award.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2019
    Sallyally likes this.
  18. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2008
    Messages:
    28,370
    Likes Received:
    9,297
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Safety Equipment, the 5. rating system, Route mapping, Sport climbing and adventure sport craze in general.

    Oh...and the Patagonia Company.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2019
  19. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2013
    Messages:
    41,184
    Likes Received:
    16,180
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Did you ever read "Class Six Climb"? by William Cochrane? It's a SF story about climbing a tree the size of Everest.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2019
  20. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2008
    Messages:
    28,370
    Likes Received:
    9,297
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Nope...I may have sold it though...rings a bell.
     
  21. Professor Peabody

    Professor Peabody Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2008
    Messages:
    94,819
    Likes Received:
    15,788
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Welcome Cap'n. I grew up in Connecticut and Rhode Island. They are beautiful states, but if you visit bring your Visa Card. Everything is expensive and heavily taxed.
     
  22. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2013
    Messages:
    54,812
    Likes Received:
    18,482
    Trophy Points:
    113
    It's not just a young male thing .. it's a white First World thing. More specifically, it's almost exclusively privileged First World white males.
     
  23. Doug1943

    Doug1943 Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2015
    Messages:
    3,741
    Likes Received:
    1,748
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Okay ... not sure about the "privileged" part ... depending on how you define that ... I would have guessed that the education/intelligence level of the risk-takers is not that high, but perhaps that's just prejudice .... but what follows from this? I am not sure of your point.
     
  24. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2013
    Messages:
    54,812
    Likes Received:
    18,482
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I'm only referring to extreme adventure types, not kids who drive too fast (that's actually more a feature of your trash types). Extreme risk taking (in adventure form) is very much a 'rich man's sport'.
     
  25. Sallyally

    Sallyally Well-Known Member Donor

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2017
    Messages:
    15,834
    Likes Received:
    28,238
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Female
    Do you think it might be replacing the old rites of passage? Like killing a lion, existing in the outback off the land, or winning your spurs in some other way?
     

Share This Page