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Posted by Bill S on July 5, 2007 at 9:20:05 pm EDT
In reply to Beginning climbing posted by Climbing (Guest) on July 4, 2007 at 3:14:33 am EDT

I won't repeat my history of learning to climb. That's because, after over 50 years of trying, I'm still trying to learn. And that's despite having some excellent mentors and examples, including some of the Famous Gods of Climbing (note I didn't say "Rich and Famous" - the word "Rich" does not apply to real climbers - except for ones named "Richard", "Rick", "Rich", "Dick", "Ricardo", Ricky", and similar variations).

But I will make a couple comments on the "certification" question. There have been numerous attempts to "certify" climbers. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the National Park Service had a "Qualified Leader" list (which I was on). If you wanted to climb in a National Park, you had to register, and at least one member of the party had to be a Qualified Leader. Except that hardly anyone registered - standard dirtbag climber attitude, namely, climbers are anarchists at heart ("Rules? We don't need no stinkin' Rules!"). Even earlier than that, there were registration requirements. Some climbing clubs had (and some still have) requirements of demonstration of skills before you could be a full member of the club. When I was a lad of 17 or 18, I wanted to join the Sierra Club's Angeles Chapter's Rock Climbing Section. To do so, you had to pass a test, including a demonstration of your dynamic belaying skills (remember, there were no belay devices back then, and some people were still using the standing shoulder belay, though some of us were taught the seated hip belay as being preferable). The test consisted of getting ready to belay (including anchoring in - you tied into the rope with a single wrap of the laid nylon or goldline around your waist, secured by a bowline, perhaps backed up). The bucket (a roughly 5 gallon bucket filled with concrete) was hoisted 20 feet up and you were allowed 3 or 4 feet of slack. The bucket was dropped, with the belayer yanked into the air, trying to let the rope run and gradually brought to a stop without the bucket hitting the ground. There were various knots to demonstrate, and so on. In the years after I moved from Southern California, the section leaders apparently made the test a lot more formal and rigid. There was a hilarious article by John Long about his taking the test sometime between 1970 and 1975. He and his buds decided to go off on their own (standard climber reaction - "We don't need no stinking club!").

When David Brower and his companions (yes, THAT David Brower) set out to scale Shiprock, they had to get special dispensation from the Navajo Nation (except that there were some politics involved, with one group granting permission and another denying it). Same thing when Devil's Crag was first ascended. Same thing in the early 60s when my math TA Dave Rearick and Bob Kamps wanted to put up the first route on the Diamond (they managed to wangle permission, acing out the local Colorado climbers).

In Europe, there were areas in the Alps where the local guide bureaus required climbers to be accompanied by one of the certified guides ("certified" meant they belonged to the local guides' guild). Even today, there are parts of the world where you must hire a local guide to do a climb. But that does not seem to have lessened the accident rate.

Luckily, climbing is scary enough for most people that they seek out skilled mentors, usually friends, or someone they met while hanging out in Camp 4 (Yosemite), or the AAC Climber's Ranch (Tetons), or maybe going to a climbing intro course run by a climbing club (Seattle Mountaineers, Mazamas, Appalachian Mountain Club), a climbing store or gym, or a professional guide service (some guide services, like Yosemite Climbing School and American Alpine Institute in Bellingham, WA, do a major part of their business in teaching climbing).

So, yes, regulating climbing has been tried. Sometimes people get arrested and have to pay fines, but mostly, the number of climbers just ignoring the regulations and going climbing leads to the authorities just giving up, and maybe climbers self-regulating through peer pressure ("We don't need no stinking Formal Rules! But violate local custom, and we will chop your bolts!")

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• Re: Beginning climbing - calamitybrook 22:07:49 07/05/2007

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