I'm not sure how many climbers are
motivated by grades, but I certainly know some climbers whose
climbing is all about grades. While I can completely appreciate the
desire to improve at climbing - or whatever endeavour you are
pursuing - I find the obsessive compulsion to climb at a certain
grade detrimental to improving performance.
These are the people who thrash and
flail their way up a route, of whatever grade, declare it climbed,
and then move on to the next thrutch-fest. Apart from ingraining
poor control, footwork, body positioning, etc., it's not clear to me
how this improves your climbing. I guess, you could, at a stretch,
say "Oh yeah, I climbed 'Triple X Route, rated 13c' - or
whatever", but, did you really?
One of the benefits of climbing as
poorly as I do, is that you just don't care about grades. 5.4, 5.7,
5.10, it's all the same to me. Either I enjoy climbing the route
because it feels easy, or I enjoy climbing the route because I had to
work at it. I'll work hard to complete a route, but, I won't
endlessly thrash on one that is clearly too hard for me. Climbing
out of control, as one does when thrashing, is not something I want
programmed into my schema of movement. I'd much rather lower off and
let someone else have a go.
Having Fun at Prophesy Wall in St. George, Utah
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