JMC: Talking

You know what Jams my Cams?  Talking. Lets talk about climbing.  More specifically, lets talk about talking about climbing.  Some of us do one more than the other.  Time to dive into the spectrum:

Humble Crushers: “Humble, modest, never really sprayed much, in fact I can’t recall hearing him say much“.  These guys climb hard.  Like really hard.  Sponsorship and comp wins hard. But they never say much about it, and getting them to talk about it is like pulling teeth. Guys like [name redacted] and [name redacted] (did you really think I was going to dime them out?) I call these folks ‘Climber’s climbers’, you don’t see them in the magazines or on the news feeds, but if you ask the pros you’ll see their face lose all expression as they stare into the middle distance, “Yea…. That guy is strawng“


AHP (Ancient Hard Persons): Fred Beckey didn’t have time to talk about climbing, because he was too busy getting the first ascent of everything, stealing your project, and stealing your girl. Did he write books? Lots, but they were almost entirely guidebooks. Royal gets a nod here as well – even though he wrote a trilogy about his life’s story, “Basic Rockcraft” outsells those 100:1 I’d wager.

Warrior Poets: These are guys like John Long, John Sherman, and John Gill (I see a pattern here!).  These folks are well spoken enough that their ability with florid prose kept them in the magazines with thoughtful editorials long after they were no longer the hardest cats on the scene.


Pro Climbers (Pre-Social Media): In the golden age of pro climbing, the pros didn’t have to spray. They just had to hang out with the crew of Big Up, Sender, Chuck Fryberger, or Mike Call, and send hard. Without social media, the article would drop a month later, the video 3-6 months after, and unless you did something really egregious, the peanut gallery was quiet. Short the blurb you gave after the send, you didn’t have to say much.

Pro Climbers (Post-Social Media): Businesses have found a new way to determine Return-on-Investment for sponsorship deals, and that’s social media reach. Now, you’ve never been able to get sponsored just being strong – you have to have the right attitude and represent the brand well.  But since the advent of Facebook and YouTube, and then Twitter and Instagram, wearing the shoes and the shirts isn’t enough.  You have to attract followers, spray about your awesome sends, and #getoutside #nofilter #sendage #sponsor1 #sponsor2 #potentialsponsor #send(me)shoes

Podcasters: Ok, hear me out.  I know their lifeblood is literally talking about climbing, so they should be at the bottom of this list.  But there are only a few major climbing podcasts, and Chris K is a legitimate climber with some awesome ticks to his name.  To stay in business these folks talk the talk, and to know what they’re talking, most of them walk the walk.


Bloggers:  I can tell you from experience, we don’t climb.  You know how I know?  Because I am sitting here writing this, and not climbing on my day off.  Not even talking about climbing, talking about talking about climbing, meta spray if you will.  I’m more than willing to turn that lens on myself, as I churn out article after article analyzing  the climbing that other people are  doing. There are none so far to this side of the spectrum as we….  Wait a minute, whats that over there?

Vloggers:   I don’t even know how this is possible, but even when granted the actual ability to show moving pictures of people on routes, over 50% of the time for any given video is someone’s face talking about climbing, or voiceover over some climbing.  Whhhyyyyy? I don’t pen these articles at the crag or the gym, there’s climbing to be had! I know I bore fellow patrons with streams of “remember that time that dude did that thing” between burns, and maybe I’m just jealous because I have a face for radio, but vloggers, consider yourselves on notice.

So there you have it.  Where do you fall?  More importantly, do you care?  You shouldn’t.  Do what makes you happy so long as it doesn’t impact anyone else’s good time.  If someone thinks you’re a weenie for how you enjoy the sport, that’s their problem.