ExcitableBoy wrote:Ha, ha. I described the West Buttrash as being mostly pretty dull on an interwebs chat board. Boy, did people get upset.

I thought from 16 to 17K was kind of cool if you do not use fixed ropes(it had sections of up to 50 degree neve and some exposed 3rd class rock scramble some places), 17K/some other spots have good views, and summit ridge was cool. But in term of a personal challenge, something that you are glad you survived or anything similar- it was nothing worthy. I am happy that at least I got my feet wet, and went to check out a different range. To be honest when the plane dropped us on the glacier it was overwhelming to see all the towering ice filled, ugly-glacier surrounded monster peaks- harder routes on Foraker/Hunter are really impressive. Now need to get strong and come back for better routes the range has to offer. And there is a lot!
Don't get me wrong, Denali is a beautiful mountain etc, but 17K camp on West Buttress does not represent creme of the crop of American mountaineering. Mostly just people who wanted to climb this peak. Which offers a lot of challenges to people who do not climb mountains all the time, or can't afford to.

One thing for sure, it's never been easier to FIND OUT where to go and what to do and what style to do it in. The information around us now for such a specialized "sport" is staggering.

I've never been a fan of Hemingway actually, but that quote is fun. As far as I know he wasn't a climber, but the Vorarlberg region in western Austria is really proud that he spent winters and springs there and learned to ski tour, doing all the local classic tours in the 1920s, staying in huts, etc.

I pity anyone who thinks mountaineering isn't a sport. There is so much involved!
From managing your time to actually be able to climb mountains for months at a time to having the skill to put up new 5.11 routes
on high peaks...in winter and even down to the casual scramble.

There is a huge competitive atmosphere to the sport of mountaineering.
Who can bag the most peaks, who can climb the hardest route, who can ski the most peaks, who can climb the most days in a row, who can climb in the most countries,
...the list is endless.

I consider mountaineering a sport for life and it doesn't end until you have died....and your stats cease.
I just hope I can be competitive enough to climb many many peaks (10,000+) globally and die of old age rather than ending my career short in an accident.

Julius Kugy, maybe the biggest name in the Julian Alps adversed the idea of mountaineering as a sport and as a competitive activity.
For him it was a way of live, a passion, a love.