Bergshrund wrote:Curious what your thoughts are on the next generation of young climbers. Has the dwindling standard of living in North America (for the middle class) affected this sport for the next generation?
I'm not talking about rock/crag climbing. I'm talking about Mountaineering as in expedition stuff...Denali stuff. The photos I see from recent Denali seasons look like freshly divorced guys in their 40's looking for something new.
Where have all the mountain climbers gone?
I think that all we have to do is look at the plethora of mass-mailing gear companies and websites in both the Americas and Europe to realize that climbing is exponentially rising in popularity, as is 'expedition' mountaineering/technical mountaineering as well. I would agree that a large percentage of younger climbers are more interested in bouldering and sport climbing than aid, trad, ice, or mixed, and even less so if it involves altitude or more committing approaches - but that is a vast generalization, and also I think just a matter of time (meaning, the longer you stick around climbing circles, the more diverse a group of people you meet, and you gradually become drawn into other aspects of the sport as your own experience, training, and knowledge of what is possible and available broadens.)
Look at Denali Base or high camp today; did it look even remotely like that in even 1980? How about 1960? What about the popular bases in the Ishinca Valley in Peru or around the Fitzroy massif or Mont Blanc? The numbers are staggering compared to a few decades ago, and it's not just snow-slogging mid-life crisis guys in their 40's and 50's. The world's ranges and valley walls are filled with people who can climb at a level in any branch of the sport you could wish that would stagger the previous generations, in both skill and number. The skills, tools, and training that were obscure and difficult to obtain thirty or fifty years ago are a pretty big business these days.
As for age - and there are of course very many very notable exceptions - I think that a lot of us only feel like we can 'take on' expedition style stuff after making a big leap of faith or being invited on trips by more experienced friends. It takes many people a long time to 'work up' to that kind of thing, and there are a lot of illusions about things like cost (it can be, if you climb in the Usual Suspect Spots, but it sure doesn't have to be - it can be astoundingly cheap, in fact) and difficulty (in California, for example, where there are no glaciers and little ice, but plenty of out-of-the-car world-class climbing spots, the percentages of people who are willing or are even knowledgable about the range of possible climbing styles available to them are even slimmer. The climbing world for very many of us here looks like this: Bouldering - Happy Boulders and Buttermilks. Ice - Lee Vining canyon. Trad - Yosemite. Sport - JT and the Gorge.
I think what I'm getting at with that last digression is the one area where I am genuinely disappointed in the younger generation (my own included) - for the love of all f*ck: go explore more! The number of people I know who are capable of climbing almost anything, anywhere in the world is pretty big, actually - but they seldom put up new lines, seldom show much interest in Adventure. If you can climb trad at 5.11 and aid at A2+ and climb ice at at least AI2, you should be putting up new routes as a matter of course, and picking up the guidebook when you just want an easy day
In my perfect little insular world.