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| Un-natural Acts | |||||||||||
| By | |||||||||||
| Ray Purcell | |||||||||||
| I wonder if anyone has ever made a study of it... whether more duals or acts of rage occur during the too hot days of summer or the too long days of winter. Regardless, blood has been shed uncounted times on no more than the effrontery of a phrase or the less, a slight word. Many's the time a life was taken on the turn of a boorish ignorant comment. But have you ever noticed that people are never spontaneously whipped up, fomented, or incited into acts of affection- it's just not natural. | |||||||||||
| Now I've only been one place where I've seldom heard a discouraging word and it isn't at home or on the range- it's the crag. In fact I've only ever witnessed one act of idiocy which resulted in a testosterone intoxicated pissing match between two parties. Tempers flared over the proximity of two bolted lines and the result was an absurd kind of high noon, high angle face off with the antagonists drawing down on each other with Bosch drills, a lot of swearing, and bouncing around like Project Bandaloops on speed. Oh sure, I've heard stories of real ugliness, I've just never seen it. Maybe I don't get out enough, maybe I'm sheltered, or worse perhaps I'm just obtuse- naw. There's no escaping it climbers are generally tolerant, accepting, and mutually supportive. | |||||||||||
| No! I have not been chained to the toilet and forced to watch the definitive collection of Mister Roger's Neighborhood and I didn't say climbers weren't opinionated or prone to spray same. It's just that I've seen logarithmically more mean spiritedness in the check outline at Toy's R Us. That's why I was so taken back by a single comment written by Rob Buchanan, in his article on Dean Potter, Climbing at The Speed of Soul, in the December issue of Outside magazine. In his article Buchanan describes the scene following Potter's speed assent of The Nose on El Capitan with Tim O'Neill. Potter and O'Neill have cracked a celebratory beer at the parking lot of Manure Pile Buttress, a "novice climbing crag", where Buchanan observes "goggle-eyed weekend hackers" who "linger in the periphery". "Hackers"!!!? | |||||||||||
| I'm not upset with Rob Buchanan, he's simply a non-climbing pundit who would soil himself on Nutcracker, and Dean Potter requires no defense, merely pity for the embarrassment that Buchanan has caused him. I call Outside magazine to the floor, or better yet out after school for publishing an article that even remotely portrays my sport as having an elitist hierarchy like the mainstream sports. It's not that climbers are above hero worship, and we have many, it's just that whether we've just top-roped our first 5.4 or free-soloed in Patagonia we each recognize the excellence that we've each achieved. Because no matter what level we climb at we know what kind of determination that it took to get there, and it's the leaders honor to bring up his second. | |||||||||||
| November, 2002 | |||||||||||
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