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Corin Brown
Professor Gretchen Pratt
UWRT 1103-H03
12/3/14
Why Do We Climb?
Homegrown
Just a little further... I thought to myself, as I reached for a ledge about as thick as my
phone. I both felt and heard my fingers scraping against the rock as I latched on, making a
grating sound not unlike that which chalk might make against the same rock. Now, just find the
invisible foot, stand up, and it's gravy. I smeared my foot against the almost imperceptible nub of
rock that Mike had chalked up for me. Today's the day, I thought. So I stood straight.
*scraaaape* "Shit" I had time to mutter as my foot slid from the 'knob', fingers violently sliding
off the rock, making a sound like an arrow loosed from a bow. Freeze frame.
So, you may be wondering, why start with your own failure? Well, my good reader, Im
glad you asked. You see, that is the very essence of climbing; you fail, but you find strength to
carry on. Even the greatest fail. But you dig deep, and send it eventually.
You seem like the inquisitive type, so you may also be wondering what the heck I was
doing up on a rock in the first place. If you were, youre todays winner! You see, in asking why
I was climbing that day, or indeed any day, you stumble face-first into my question of myself
and the world: Why do we climb? Now, my goal in this project is to answer that question for

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everybody out there, but perhaps a less ambitious start is in order. Ill give a go at answering it
for myself before I try and speak for all the other climbers out there.
On My Own Sanity
Some people, and perhaps you among them, may just hear the term rock climbing and
assume that anyone who does it is crazy. Now, I may be a few fries short of a happy meal, but
thats hardly certifiable. Ive never been thrown in the loony bin in my life, and if youll just hold
judgment for a few minutes, I can perfectly well explain myself, and why I love to climb.
Ill start by admitting that climbing is in no way the most popular extreme sport out
there, and it occurs to me that you, as a reader, may have little or no investment in it. But perhaps
I can draw a comparison for you. Take your pick of the extreme sports, whether it be racing,
mountain biking, skydiving, parasailing the list goes on. Pretty much, take your pick of
anything potentially life threatening that you do recreationally, no matter what. I can almost
guarantee you that youll find at least one of these dangerous activities appealing, that is if you
havent tried it out already. My point is, Im not crazy for climbing hundreds of feet up on a 10
millimeter nylon rope attached to the rocks by bits of aluminum and hanging on by the very tips
of my fingers. If you cant relate to me as a climber, simply replace every instance of the word
climbing with your chosen extreme activity. Viola! Instant interest, just add reader preference.
So now that youre interested, we can get back on track. You see, in exploration of my
question, for a few weeks I made an endeavor to climb at the universitys gym four days every
week. Because of my course-load, Im afraid that idea was quickly shot dead, but I made it
through about eleven days, and did find out a thing or two about my own motivations for
climbing.

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In my little self-imposed experiment, I discovered that, on different days, I climbed for

different reasons. If it had been a rough day, I would climb hard to blow off steam. After one
particularly demoralizing day, I immersed myself in both the climbing and the camaraderie of
others at the wall to escape my troubles. On good days, I sought out the wall for a challenge;
after all, lifes no fun without some obstacles to overcome, even if you have to put them in the
way yourself. Okay, maybe that last ones not helping my case for relative sanity. But anyways, I
did the 4 days a week experience for a while, and found out a few things.
Now, I promise, Im not going to leave you with some ambiguous answer like I climbed
for different reasons based on my mood. Im not that cruel. No, because, believe it or not, each
and every one of those days and reasons has a commonality. After climbing, no matter how my
day had been before, or how the climbing itself went, I left the gym happier for it. So I make my
case: I find, through experience, that we climb because at the end of the day, we are happier for
having done it, whether we sent that gnarly new route or not. It may be a very simple reason, but
simple generally lines up with accurate.
So now youve got my piece. Take it at face value, assign me a bias, and know that in the
rest of my examination, Ill do my best to be as objective as I can. But I digress. Now, perhaps,
your appetite is whetted, but Im afraid Ill have to let your mouth water for a while yet before
we come to the true meat of my research. Because first, we must pass through the land of the
dreaded secondary research.
Book Learnin

There comes a point in the life-cycle of every great research essay where it must face the
obstacle of the painful but necessary secondary research. Though I bemoan it as much as the next

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guy, I power through just as I would on a hard climb. Trust me, Ill make this as painless as
possible.
Ill begin with what was perhaps my favorite primary source: 'Laughter' in the crags:
exploring discourse during rock climbing (Human, L 12). It was an intriguing study conducted
on a group of rock climbers during multiple climbing days. Researchers focused on the climbers
use of various discourse throughout their time climbing, eventually zeroing in on laughter and its
many and varied uses at a climbing site. While much of the source discussed discourse in a very
technical fashion, I was able to extract some of the situations in which laughter was used. Not
only does the data from Kriek, Human, and Potgieters observations serve to confirm my idea
that climbers take immense joy in their sport; it also implies the No-Pain, No-Gain mentality
that I have observed in many climbers. This was shown as laughter levels tended to increase
when a climber was struggling with the crux (most difficult section) of a climb. This is
something I have experienced before, and Id like to relate a quote from the essay to my own
experience.

"Laughter is portrayed for the purpose of this article, not because it was
employed more often than the other discursive resources but because within the
context of rock climbing, which has within it an inherent difficulty, it was
employed to accomplish various tasks and actions beyond the everyday
expectation of its use".

I find that last really compelling because when a friend of mine, Mike Trew, runs into a
tough spot on a climb, he starts laughing. When I ask him why, he simply says "It's so good
man!"

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Other sources cited did little to really prove anything new in my research; one confirmed
that climbers are motivated primarily intrinsically (I.E by internal factors instead of external
rewards) and that climbers also tend to have thrill seeking personalities (Asci F.H. 15), which
anyone might infer from the simple fact that they participate in an extreme sport.

My final source, another research project, actually confused me a good deal. One of the
experiments findings was that previously injured climbers tended to have a negative outlook on
their climbing ability and future in the sport (Function of Risk Exposure 3). Being a previously
injured climber myself, and knowing many who have suffered similar injuries, my experience
has been completely opposite of the source! While I do not in the least doubt the sources
validity, I have found previously injured climbers to have incredibly positive outlooks on their
sport, wanting to get back in the game ASAP. This discrepancy definitely made me wonder if
the climbing community that I have grown up in may be an overly positive outlier amongst a less
positive norm.

Hopefully you can gauge by now that, while my secondary sources were not completely
and utterly useless, they really did not contribute that greatly to my research, or indeed my
conclusion. So, keeping in mind the few high points of my Book Learnin, lets move on to the
meat and potatoes, the real basis for the answer to my question: lets converse with the climbers.

Let the People be Heard!

Now for the fun stuff. The finale ultimo. The gravy on top. The main chunk of my
research for the project was a survey. Conducted anonymously over the web, it asked climbers to
provide information ranging from their favorite type of climbing, skill level, where they climb

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most often, and what they find enjoyable about climbing. I extensively examined the more than
30 responses to the survey, and was surprised to discover absolutely no correlation between skill
level, where they climbed, what they climbed, why they climbed any of it! The results were so
scattered that no correlation could truly be drawn between any two questions and their answers.

So, that makes the survey a complete failure, just like me at the start of this essay, right?
Wrong. Remember, kind reader: Even the greatest fail. But you dig deep, and send it
eventually. Yes, while the responses of the survey were spread further than a shotgun blast from
a hundred yards, we can still find where all the pellets land, if we look hard enough. Or, in this
case, discover some greater theme within all of the responses. So why dont we just take a dive
right in?

To begin, I posed two fairly simple questions to my survey takers: What did they enjoy
most about the physical aspect of climbing, and what their reasoning behind climbing was. The
responses to these two questions were fairly similar, so Ive included them together for the sake
of space. Many of the individuals surveyed answered that they climbed for the thrill, the physical
challenge, or the accomplishment at the end of the climb. These responses would definitely apply
to many climbers whom I know that did not take the survey, and I surely know that they apply to
me. However, the split of responses, as earlier, is problematic; I still refuse to give a
noncommittal answer to the question that I set out to solve.

To that end, we may also examine some of the more lengthy, in depth comments that
survey takers provided in an open ended question at the conclusion of the survey. On individual
responded with Climbing is just one way for me to escape the boredoms and struggles of living
an everyday life. It is an out for me to be free once in a while., another commented that

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Climbing is about personal growth and freedom. Though, that growth can be a group activity
and facilitate a strengthened relationship with another person. There were many other such
responses, some even longer and more in depth that I wish I could include here but cannot. And
while these folks definitely echo some of my thoughts and observations about climbing, were
still in the same boat we were just a minute ago! Once again, we have responses that are all over
the place, with no single conclusive answer. Or, perhaps theres another way to look at it

If we look back at the responses examined here, as well as the many others recorded by
my survey, I think we will again notice a commonality in the ultimate message behind peoples
words. Whether responding to their reason for climbing with It is fun, exhilarating, and
rewarding or stating that their favorite thing about climbing is Looking off the cliff
afterwards, these people, like me, walk away from every day of climbing happier for it. Yes,
even the lovely individual that, when asked what their favorite thing about climbing was,
responded with (and Im going to paraphrase this for decencys sake) looking at girls butts,
even he walks away from every days climb that much happier for it.
Even with our question nicely resolved, I still feel that were missing something Ah!
What ever happened to our friendly narrator in his attempt to climb Homegrown? Well, Im ever
so glad you asked.

Sending It
Last climb man I said to myself as I chalked up my hands, scattering the white dust into
the fading light. My cold hands tingled as I slapped them together, removing the excess chalk.

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This winter weather was great for the rock quality, but your hands sure went numb real fast. The
light, and with it the little bit of ambient heat were fading fast. Now or never.
Ive said it before, and Ill say it again: This is the day. I started up again. Easy start, with
nice big holds. Now scoot left along the ledge, grab the nice side-pull in the crack to your right.
Now its just the three ledges, and youre done.

I fell last time on the third ledge, and this time the light was fading. What I refer to as the
three ledges are actually three incredibly difficult, but similar moves. You reach up, lock your
fingertips off on tiny, sharp ledges to maintain balance, and then stand up to better handholds on
neigh-invisible footholds. Crimp, stand, then good holds. Rinse, lather, repeat.

I surprised myself. I made it back to the third ledge. I could still glimpse a smudge of
chalk on the invisible foot, and I placed my foot again. On a hunch, I repositioned my foot so
that, instead of smearing my toes against the nub, I placed the more solid ball of my foot as
firmly on top of it as I could. Yeah I thought, this feels right. Todays gonna be the day after all.
I scraped my left hand again on the tiny crystal edge at head height, and saying a silent prayer I
stood up. My foot stayed firm! I grasped wildly at the top with my right hand, finding the perfect
hold to pull myself up on. I began to shift my weight Dammit! I yelled this time as my foot
slipped out from under me, once again sliding on the nub. My hand held firm, but there was no
chance that I could get my foot back on the nub from my new position. Not today, I sighed

I had Mike lower me down after that, and we collected our gear. Ropes were coiled,
harnesses removed, packs loaded, and the day was over. I headed down the trail and threw my
pack in the car, then keyed the ignition and got the heater running, warming up my now numb

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hands. Well, look on the bright side. I thought. If at first you dont succeed Try, try again I
muttered to nobody in particular. Still, I was one step closer to sending it. One move closer to
perfection. I thought about that while I warmed up, and when I drove back towards Boone, there
was a smile on my face.

Works Cited
Asci, F. H., Giyasettin Demirhan, and S. C. Dinc. "Psychological Profile of Turkish Rock
Climbers: An Examination of Climbing Experience and Route Difficulty." Perceptual
and Motor Skills 104.3 (2007): 892-900. Ammons Scientific. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Function of Risk Exposure Amongst Rock Climbers."Psychology of Sport and Exercise 10.1
(2009): 193-200. ScienceDirect. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Human, L., PhD, D. Kriek, PhD, and S. S Potgieter. "'Laughter' In the Crags: Exploring
Discourse During Rock Climbing." African Journal for Physical, Health Education,
Recreation and Dance (AJPHERD) 13.4 (2007): 368-79. UPSpace. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.