First Documented Report of Ageism

This is about climbing The Nose on El Capitan but it could be about any very popular area anywhere in the world. Twenty years ago, on a weekend, we climbed Dierdre, the classic six pitch 5.8 (15/16) layback crack on the Apron of the Stawamus Chief. Unless you start climbing at four in the morning, it’s impossible to get on the route first and we spent more time hanging at the belays waiting for parties ahead to clear the route than we did climbing, or at least that’s how it felt. All the popular routes on the Stawamus Chief are like this nowadays, chock a block with people queued up to climb. The route itself was slimy and polished with the traffic of thousands and thousands of climbers. Granite is a hard rock but you run several hundred climbers up a route year after year, many of whom are beginners, and even granite polishes until it is a slippery as an eel.

The massive corner crack on Dark Shadows

Sometimes, I think waiting in line for climbs is worth it. I’ve climbed Cat in the Hat in Red Rocks twice and had to wait both times for the party ahead of us, but the five pitch (mostly long pitches) 5.6 (14) traditional route is so much fun it’s worth the line up. Same with Dark Shadows. It’s an absolute beauty and, after climbing it, I thought it was worth the hour or so wait time to get on.

Pitch 3 on Dark Shadows

These days, however, I really would rather avoid the crowds. It’s a big deal for Australians to fly to Europe and climb in the Alps where the gondolas and trains give easy access to amazing climbing, but, also masses of people. Instead of the Alps, you could go climb in the Sierra Mountains of California on the big granite mountains there, or, head to Canada, and, once you walk away from the Stawamus Chief into the remote backcountry, there are dozens and dozens of potential climbs still waiting for a first ascent. There is not the ease or convenience of huts and gondolas and trains to over 3,000 metres that are found in the Alps, but isn’t a bit of hard work worth escaping the crush of crowds? Cheaper too. Even though Canada is not a cheap country, you could still be like John Clarke and spend six months climbing in Canada for the cost of a month in the expensive European Alps.

In John Clarke country

The old story about John Clarke is that none of his routes were above 5.7 (14/15) because John said that was his upper climbing limit (he never used any specialised gear, never even wore a helmet) so any peak or route he had ascended must be no more than 5.7. The joke, of course, was when a bunch of young gun climbers went out and tried to climb some of Clarke’s routes and found them pretty sporting 5.7’s.  This might have been the first documented example of "ageism."