The Goal & the Way to get there...
It's a widespread cliché climbers want to climb mountains (or frozen waterfalls, whatever) "because they are there".
For outsiders this most probably is a very vague and insufficient answer. Although the question is not more (or less) obvious than why people collect postage stamps, why people play football, or why people try to meet other people at places where the music is so loud you can't even hear what they're screaming in your ear. I'm giving my personal point of view here.
"Climbing" is not the goal itself, it's a way to get there. "There" is not the top of the mountain, because there you are only half way and the most difficult or scary part in many cases, the descent, still has to come. It's also no such a thing as "been there, done that". Ah well, maybe that plays along too.
In my eyes, climbing is a way of travelling, or perhaps a reason for travelling. And as many travellers say, not the destination is the goal, but the travel.
During the years I climb, I've tried to get to lots of different places to climb, not sticking to the obvious southern French sport climbing spots, or Chamonix for alpine stuff. They're excellent for climbing, and I did have great times over there, but there's more in the climbing world... like Canada.
As for the iceclimbing, living in Belgium, the Alps are not too far away, and offer plenty of good climbs. So why on Earth would one go to Norway? Or Scotland, which is not only farther away and more difficult to get to than France or Switserland, but also is well known for its rain ten days out of nine?!
Or... why Canada? Because Sean and Will told us to? Because we were so hopeless and frustrated about last warm winter with terrible -or unexisting- ice conditions at the Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival? No, yes, not only. There's always not only the ice, the rocks, the mountains, there's always the country too, and the local people you get into contact with. Briefly said: it's about the whole travel experience built around the climbing.
And for some reason the climbing stuff with all its peculiar logistic challenges, like material, routefinding, transport, more than often obliges you to go off the beaten touristic path and go to less known places. But you always have a goal, a purpose of going there..
So, is climbing the goal or the way to get there? It's both, and it's none of them!
But for sure it's more than a sport.
For outsiders this most probably is a very vague and insufficient answer. Although the question is not more (or less) obvious than why people collect postage stamps, why people play football, or why people try to meet other people at places where the music is so loud you can't even hear what they're screaming in your ear. I'm giving my personal point of view here.
"Climbing" is not the goal itself, it's a way to get there. "There" is not the top of the mountain, because there you are only half way and the most difficult or scary part in many cases, the descent, still has to come. It's also no such a thing as "been there, done that". Ah well, maybe that plays along too.
In my eyes, climbing is a way of travelling, or perhaps a reason for travelling. And as many travellers say, not the destination is the goal, but the travel.
During the years I climb, I've tried to get to lots of different places to climb, not sticking to the obvious southern French sport climbing spots, or Chamonix for alpine stuff. They're excellent for climbing, and I did have great times over there, but there's more in the climbing world... like Canada.
As for the iceclimbing, living in Belgium, the Alps are not too far away, and offer plenty of good climbs. So why on Earth would one go to Norway? Or Scotland, which is not only farther away and more difficult to get to than France or Switserland, but also is well known for its rain ten days out of nine?!
Or... why Canada? Because Sean and Will told us to? Because we were so hopeless and frustrated about last warm winter with terrible -or unexisting- ice conditions at the Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival? No, yes, not only. There's always not only the ice, the rocks, the mountains, there's always the country too, and the local people you get into contact with. Briefly said: it's about the whole travel experience built around the climbing.
And for some reason the climbing stuff with all its peculiar logistic challenges, like material, routefinding, transport, more than often obliges you to go off the beaten touristic path and go to less known places. But you always have a goal, a purpose of going there..
So, is climbing the goal or the way to get there? It's both, and it's none of them!
But for sure it's more than a sport.
Labels: climbing, filosophy, reflection
posted by Nonkel V at
6:14 PM
