SummitPost.org

Aren't they called the "Olympic Games?"

Just sayin' ...

The best athletes in the world are doing things like climbing 3 big walls a day, not throwing javelines or bouncing around on a mat or pushing big granite weights around on ice with brooms.

The hell with the Olympics, they would never understand...

I think good climbing routes are too un-structured to fit into an Olympic-style regulated event.
And the climbing activity is too natural and personal to measure in hundredths of a second.

So you can recommend some kind of sport climbing for the Olympics, but...
- I won't work for the comptetition
- I won't watch the events
- I won't pay attention to who wins or whines.

Man would I love to arrange a nice little California climbing tour for the first Olympic gold medalist in climbing...

I'd have her (him?) start in Idyllwild, home of the Yosemite Decimal System.

The Pirate, Caliente - Suicide Rock
The Edge (TurboFlange variation) - Tahquitz Rock

Then up to The Needles for a go at the new testpiece Pulp Friction and the old masterpiece Scirocco.

From there, up to Courtright for some serious face climbing. How about SeamStress and Gold Standard - the bookends of Voyager Rock.

Then up to the Meadows for the Bachar Yerian. And of course any Olympian climber would have to go to The Valley and do one of the big free routes on El Cap. Climbers choice there.

By then it would be time to finish up in Joshua Tree. I'd suggest Games Without Frontiers, Seizure, and Toxic Waltz.

These are mostly not the very hardest routes in each area, and there are no sandbags on the list (for example New Deal and G String in Josh are still unrepeated.) They are just representative of high end climbing in California. So how do you think our Olympian would fare?

Ah yes, if that guy were the medalist my list would not even slow him down. How many of the routes would he solo?

I just talked to a dude I know who used to be in the US climbing team, who apparently leads 5.14d. I was talking to him about my trip a couple of weeks ago to the Valley, and apparently he's never been out there.... so dunno how he would fare on a big multi-pitch crack climb.