How interested in rock/mountain climbing are you?

[Quaco]

Vote above from very interested down to no way, not interested at all!

Note: I don't mean hiking, but rather climbing on the faces of rocks (with or without ropes and equipment).

And if you have done this kind of thing, tell us some experiences you've had.

[Quaco]

I voted the last option, absolutely not interested and it scares me to death. My worst nightmare would be to be magically teleported to the side of a cliff and have to get down. I'd probably just jump.

I did do one of those climbing rocks once, and it was fun and challenging. Up to about 15 feet, after which I started to get very stressed out.

[Charlie O.]

I chose the fourth option. You could pay me enough if you really wanted to, but I don't see how that would be good value for your money.

[Guy E]

I have zero interest in it.

When I visited LA 7 or 8 years ago I had one day to myself and went to Joshua Tree Park. I spent a few minutes watching a group of people climbing a rock outcropping, it must have been 200 feet high. I really couldn't wrap my head around the motivation to do it.

Maybe if I were a smaller man I'd enjoy the physical challenge, but there has never been a time since adolescence where I would have felt agile and wirey enough to enjoy pulling myself up a cliff.

[The Modernist]

I'm interested in it -without wanting to do it myself!

I always watch any documentaries on it. BBC4 had a really good one on the Eiger which has claimed so many lives. It's fascinating to see what propels people to do it.

[Your Friendly Neighbourhood Postman]

I have zero interest in it.

When I visited LA 7 or 8 years ago I had one day to myself and went to Joshua Tree Park. I spent a few minutes watching a group of people climbing a rock outcropping, it must have been 200 feet high. I really couldn't wrap my head around the motivation to do it.

Maybe if I were a smaller man I'd enjoy the physical challenge, but there has never been a time since adolescence where I would have felt agile and wirey enough to enjoy pulling myself up a cliff.

Is it true that you once drove to the liquor store with your lawnmower?

No small feat.

[Minnie the Minx]

Walking up mountains - very steep mountains even - I am deliriously happy to do.
Those crawls up sheer drops - absolutely not, and it makes me feel physically sick just to think of it. Like Quaco I have an abject terror of waking up to find myself on a cliff ledge or somesuch, though the worse thing for me would be to wake up on a nose on Mount Rushmore, or on the Statue of Liberty, as big statues frighten me even more. But I am digressing.

When in Yosemite recently I watched climbers ascending El Capitan, Half Dome etc - this sort of stuff



and they erect beds overnight halfway up and sleep in them till the next morning. Oh god, I wanted to vomit just looking up. I have incredible admiration for their bravery but I even if I was physically able to do it, I wouldn't.

[Quaco]

Pretty much exactly how I feel. Anything I can walk or climb up with just regular hiking shoes, great! But anything vertical (or worse, overhanging), I can't even watch it on TV.

[Witchypoo]

I'm on the no fuckin' way camp. I'm very happy to hike up mountains, but rock climbing makes me break out in a cold sweat just thinking about it.

But I'm very happy to look at pics like this for hours.

[Quaco]

Look at that manly man. Only five feet off the ground!

[Insouciant Western People]

I'm interested in it -without wanting to do it myself!

I always watch any documentaries on it. BBC4 had a really good one on the Eiger which has claimed so many lives. It's fascinating to see what propels people to do it.

It's the same for me - although I did do some rock climbing and abseiling when I was in the Air Cadets, as a teenager. Like Minnie, I love hillwalking, but I've no desire to do the scary climbing stuff.

I'm fascinated by what drives people to do it, and I love reading about it. I think it stems from reading Heinrich Harrer's The White Spider when I was a kid, and being absolutely mesmerised by the stories of those guys attempting the North Face of the Eiger in the 30s.

I've got quite a collection of mountaineering books now, I love reading people like Boardman & Tasker, Chris Bonington, Jon Krakauer, Anatoli Boukreev, and especially Joe Simpson. I went to a reading that Simpson did circa 1997, and he was a really interesting bloke. Some of his stories though... just terrifying.

[Your Friendly Neighbourhood Postman]

Look at that manly man. Only five feet off the ground!

What a weasel, hey?

[John Mc]

Not at all, thank you very much.

I ain't messing with no law of gravity.

[Witchypoo]

Ground? What ground?

[Livet]

I like scrambling. This is Breakneck Ridge which I hiked last May. There was one overhanging part that I took a little side path to circumvent. I also never wanted to get into ropes and equipment.



When I was hiking Mt. Olympus in Greece, before you climb the last few hundred feet, you have to scale across the mountain side with about a 3,500 hundred foot drop. I couldn't believe people were doing this without ropes. So we didn't make it to the very top.

[the hanging monkey]

I've been rock climbing a few times and enjoyed it, although it was only beginners standard, not the Eiger or anything. The amount of gear you need is a bit off-putting for me. I much prefer scrambling.

I have abseiled precisely once and never intend to do it again. I shat my pants.

[Quaco]

Ground? What ground?

Actually, not being concerned with the ground is the key to good mountain climbing!

[The Modernist]

I'm interested in it -without wanting to do it myself!

I always watch any documentaries on it. BBC4 had a really good one on the Eiger which has claimed so many lives. It's fascinating to see what propels people to do it.

It's the same for me - although I did do some rock climbing and abseiling when I was in the Air Cadets, as a teenager. Like Minnie, I love hillwalking, but I've no desire to do the scary climbing stuff.

I'm fascinated by what drives people to do it, and I love reading about it. I think it stems from reading Heinrich Harrer's The White Spider when I was a kid, and being absolutely mesmerised by the stories of those guys attempting the North Face of the Eiger in the 30s.

I've got quite a collection of mountaineering books now, I love reading people like Boardman & Tasker, Chris Bonington, Jon Krakauer, Anatoli Boukreev, and especially Joe Simpson. I went to a reading that Simpson did circa 1997, and he was a really interesting bloke. Some of his stories though... just terrifying.

I remember him from Touching The Void.
I also have a memory of going to a talk given by Chris Bonington when I was a kid. My dad saw it advertised in The Standard and decided we should go along. It was an odd thing for him to take us to as he hates heights, he doesn't even like having to drive over the Dartford Bridge.

[andymacandy]

I've got quite a collection of mountaineering books now, I love reading people like Boardman & Tasker, Chris Bonington, Jon Krakauer, Anatoli Boukreev, and especially Joe Simpson. I went to a reading that Simpson did circa 1997, and he was a really interesting bloke. Some of his stories though... just terrifying.

Mick Burke's books on the Everest attempts are excellent.I always hope he made the summit before he died.

[Magilla]

Through Sir Edmond Hillary, all NZers have at least a basic idea of it, even if it's just that he was the first to climb Everest.

Personally it's not my cup of tea, but some of my friends are into it, so I've got a basic knowledge of it, thanks to them.

To them, ascending a mountain is about getting away from it all, about enjoyment, about satisfaction, about the rewarding feeling it gives you. They get from it what we get from music or sport or whatever.

A friend of a friend climbed Everest about nine years ago. He gave a talk at the Otago Museum about it after he returned and it was really interesting. The preparation is massive, it's expensive and there's absolutely no guarantee of summiting.
It's also fairly risky - about 20% of climbers perish on Everest. Far too many get "summit fever" and don't have the good judgement to stay put or descend when bad weather arrives. (The nearby K2 has an even higher death rate).

But the really famous climbs aside, it is a very safe sport, overall. NZ's highest peak, Mt Cook, is 12,000ft high and has very few fatalities despite being regularly summited, for example.

Mountaineering is much like any other sport - if you train for it well, have good equipment and think smartly, you'll have a great time.

Rock climbing is good fun, the times I've done it. I haven't been for years, but in the mid '90s I'd go with a few friends that were really into it. I enjoyed it, but it didn't grab me enough to get into it, it was more of a "oh, that was interesting" experience for me.
I did climbs ranging from about 20m to 50m and I felt completely safe the whole time. If you're harness is correctly set-up and you're safety ropes are clipped into the holds bolted in to the rocks, you'll be fine.