All for Fun and Fun for All!

highballin' and funhoggin'

Alex Lowe once said that "the best climber in the world is the one having the most fun." Well Mr. Lowe never had the good fortune of watching Adam Ondra power scream his way through the world's hardest sport routes, boulders, big walls, and soon the summer Olympics. The next best climber is obviously Tommy Caldwell and then probably Ashima Shiraishi. At any rate, if you are reading this, you're pretty far down the list of "the best climber in the world." So far down, in fact, that having fun is just about all that we can do. Which is good because rock climbing is fun.

But sometimes that's easy to forget. Like when you're on your seventh try of a sit-down-start boulder problem and you can't even get your butt off the ground; or you fell just before the anchors on your sixteen-bolt sport project; or you're gripped, three pitches up, fifteen feet above your last C3. It's moments like these you wonder why you started climbing in the first place.

Maybe rock climbing is your "fun," your "zen," your "solace" as you squeak out an existence in your soul sucking, labor alienating, 9-to-5 day job. But in your quest to maximize climbing's "funhogging" potential you've become a slave to the grade chase or to sending that project you've worked on all season -- so much so that climbing itself has become just another task rather than a life-giving exercise and you've forgotten the unadulterated joy rock climbing brought you long ago.

Whatever the situation, I think we all, from time to time, need to be reminded of how fun rock climbing is and why we gave ourselves to this "conquest of the useless" in the first place.

 

A few weeks ago, me and some of the Choss Boys AKA the Chosstafarians AKA the "Three Chossineers" went bouldering at Zahnd but instead of working Razors Edge and other Phantom Area classics, we ran around the woods climbing and giggling on Zahnd's contrivances, oddities, and triflings -- The "Zahnd Tour de Weird," so to speak. It was a reminder of just how purely fun rock climbing can be. 

According to Tony Alva, "You didn't quit skateboarding because you got old. You got old because you quit skateboarding." And the same could be said about climbing or playing in the woods because here we were, three 30 year olds, goofing around in the forest like a bunch of school children. It's hard to quantify your "most fun day in the mountains" but this is certainly up there for me. I didn't send anything noteworthy or difficult, I just felt like a kid again.  I hope I never forget days like this one.

And as weird as it is, Andrew and I both talked about how "Annie's Full Moon" got us both psyched to get out there and try hard-for-us boulders this season. So, just by getting out and having fun I feel motivated to project. Which is not something I've ever felt toward bouldering.

Rock climbing is fun.

THE TICK LIST:

Cheesecake Arete: V0
One of the best of the grade anywhere. Despite its height, it just doesn't climb long enough. Enjoy it while it lasts. A classic.

"Cheesecake Arete"

Around the World: 12a, "V-Long"
In the Middle Blocs area, traverse the entire block. Very chill until you turn the second corner. On the back side of the massive boulder, hang on for the red point crux of overhanging jugs with a substantial amount of the Zahnd "curse."

"Around the World"

No Hands Slab: "V-Fun"
Immediately behind "Cheesecake" is a well featured low angle slab.V-Fun if you climb only using your legs. Never skip leg day...

no hands slab

Annie's Full Moon: "V-Next Level"
In the Land of Aretes zone, climb into the hole and sit down. This may be the best "end of the day" boulder problem of all time. Classic.

Other Bizarre Must Do's: Hotdog Hole, The Channel, Classic Warmup (nothing bizarre, except its height). 

"All for fun and fun for all!" -- The Three Chossineers