The most recent controversy to emerge is David Lama's return to Cerro Torre. Having already run into a hornet's nest of controversy regarding the placement of bolts and leaving equipment on the mountain, Lama still wants (needs?) to finish his free ascent of the Compressor Route. Having pledged to avoid the excesses of the first trip, he has now announced that if necessary he will get to the summit and rappel down to place any needed gear. This is according to Colin Haley's excellent blog post on the topic.
Naturally, given such a controversial backstory, this latest move has even spawned an online petition, with over 800 signatures at last count, urging Lama's sponsors to "Stop their Support of his Bolting Actions on Cerro Torre."
At some point I am wondering when somebody, besides myself, is going to see that the nub of the controversy is not Lama's alleged intention to "rap-bolt" Cerro Torre. After all suppose he aided up and put in the bolts on lead? This distinction was not enough for some in California in the early 80s who chided John Bachar for using hooks to put in the bolts on the Bachar-Yerian instead of from non-aid drilling stances. No the Lama spectacle is about something else.
It seems to me that there is an instinctual understanding out there that we are truly at the end of the frontier phase of climbing. Not everything has been climbed, but now everything can be climbed. It is not the murder of the impossible as Messner puts it but more like Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols. The belief in the "shining mountain," to borrow Pete Boardman's phrase is no longer sustainable, or at least not in the current context of late-phase alpinism. I think there is a kind of despair out there at the recognition of the truth of this.
Do I think Lama is behaving appropriately? Not particularly. But I think the whole project of a "free ascent" of an immense wind-buffeted rime-encrusted spire seems petty and media-driven in the first place. What is missing is not adventure but purpose. We are at the saturation point, squeezing what we can out of the most spectacular walls and summits while we can. What does a "first ascent" mean when anything can be climbed, even by so-called "fair means?" That is a debate that successive generations will have to deal with in real terms, not merely hypothetical ones. It is the legacy the present is leaving to the future.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Sponsorship with Moon Climbing
I have been crazy busy finishing up the manuscript for the bouldering book I am writing for Mountaineers Books so have not been able to post recently. But I wanted to announce my new sponsorship with Moon Climbing.
I have never been sponsored by a climbing company before, although I had support from Powerbar a while back. I am particularly psyched to be sponsored by Moon because to me they focus on core activities in climbing and especially bouldering. The Moon website has a great deal of very useful training information and ideas, perhaps unmatched by any other in English that I know. Visit the School Room to see it.
There is also a consistent series of reports from climbers from places such as Switzerland, Hueco, and elsewhere along with photos and video that make a great resource for learning more about hard boulder problems around the world.
Finally, I have always been a big admirer of Ben Moon, even after driving with him in a sketchy car up to Northumberland to go bouldering in the 1980s. Long story:) Ben has always been focused on achieving the hardest moves, routes, problems, you name it, in climbing, and has kept solidly in the game well into his 40s. There are few more important contributors to the sport out there.
Too many seem to think that receiving "free stuff" is the point of getting sponsored. To me, being sponsored means having an ally to hopefully get some interesting things done and put out there. My interests lie in helping climbers of all ages, but especially the very young and the older ones out there reach their fullest potential. If having the support of a climbing company helps in those goals, as I think it will, all the better.
I have never been sponsored by a climbing company before, although I had support from Powerbar a while back. I am particularly psyched to be sponsored by Moon because to me they focus on core activities in climbing and especially bouldering. The Moon website has a great deal of very useful training information and ideas, perhaps unmatched by any other in English that I know. Visit the School Room to see it.
There is also a consistent series of reports from climbers from places such as Switzerland, Hueco, and elsewhere along with photos and video that make a great resource for learning more about hard boulder problems around the world.
Finally, I have always been a big admirer of Ben Moon, even after driving with him in a sketchy car up to Northumberland to go bouldering in the 1980s. Long story:) Ben has always been focused on achieving the hardest moves, routes, problems, you name it, in climbing, and has kept solidly in the game well into his 40s. There are few more important contributors to the sport out there.
Too many seem to think that receiving "free stuff" is the point of getting sponsored. To me, being sponsored means having an ally to hopefully get some interesting things done and put out there. My interests lie in helping climbers of all ages, but especially the very young and the older ones out there reach their fullest potential. If having the support of a climbing company helps in those goals, as I think it will, all the better.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Two Videos from Flagstaff Mountain
The snow is melting fast and I am hoping to get some climbing done outside this weekend. Here are two videos of problems I did in the last few months. The first is a repeat of a two-move problem called Glass Plus, a likely V9 FA I did a couple of years ago. The crux is pulling off the ground and holding the swing.
The second video is an ascent of Right Finger SDS, a cool little V7 down the ridge from Crown Rock, at the Candel Area. This problem is very sharp and crimpy with good movement. There are a number of other excellent problems nearby as well.
Some day when I have more free time, I will climb somewhere else but for now, it's the place to be!
Glass Plus V9 from peter beal on Vimeo.
The second video is an ascent of Right Finger SDS, a cool little V7 down the ridge from Crown Rock, at the Candel Area. This problem is very sharp and crimpy with good movement. There are a number of other excellent problems nearby as well.
Right Finger V7 SDS from peter beal on Vimeo.
Some day when I have more free time, I will climb somewhere else but for now, it's the place to be!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Interview with Kevin Jorgeson, President of Professional Climbers International
There has been a lot of buzz on the climbing world about the public unveiling of a new professional climber's advocacy group, especially with its website now available. Professional Climbers International is the first organization of its kind that I am aware of specifically formed to speak on behalf of and provide resources for climbers who are receiving compensation from climbing companies. This development has not been received entirely positively by all.A media partnership announcement posted by the Climbingnarc caused some stir in the comments section of that site while Deadpoint Magazine commented that "Some (including PCI) believe that the PCI will be beneficial to both athletes and sponsors while others believe that the organization is nothing more than a ‘union’ for pro athletes."
I wanted to go directly to the source, past the press releases, to find out more about the vision for the organization. Kevin, already widely known for his adventures on 5.14 El Cap free routes and Buttermilk giant highballs, shared his thoughts on this recent adventure, perhaps the boldest of them all.
Can you give some background on the history of the PCI?
PCI got started in general conversations between the chairman of PCI, Rusty Klaasen, and myself when I was about 16. The conversations revolved around my own personal climbing career, sponsorships in general, what happens to athletes in their long-term careers, the structures of athletes as icons in sports, and how all of this can affect their careers.
Over the years, it became apparent there was opportunity present in our industry. So first, we spent a year doing research. We began by focusing on a comparative analysis of the climbing industry with snowboarding and surfing specifically. For each industry, we looked at growth cycles, growth catalysts, participation trends, consumer spending levels, sponsorship structures, industry health, media exposure, major events and a variety of other factors. What we learned from this data was that climbing is still super young. It’s had a really strong following, healthy growth, and is poised to grow in the future. PCI was formed to help guide as best it could, the growth of climbing for the benefit of its athletes, its industry and its place, our climbing areas.
By the growth of climbing, how do you see that actually playing out? Because the sport is different from skateboarding or snowboarding…
Climbing is one of the most non-condition and non-location specific sports out there. Whether it’s raining or snowing or you’re anywhere in the world, there’s a major climbing gym near you. You don’t have to live near an ocean to do and you don’t have to wait for the perfect weather window. Looking at just the numbers of participants versus enthusiasts, there’s a lot of potential for converting people to doing it more often. The pool of people that are aware of the sport, who have tried it, is huge. It’s massive. I am of the mindset that climbing is going to continue growing whether PCI has anything to do with it or not. The last thing I want to see is our climbing areas get trampled. I don’t want someone to come in, some corporate entity, and totally capitalize on climbing’s growth potential with no regard for the athletes, the industry, or the environment, but just the dimes. This is our effort to help climbing’s growth along in a way that‘s best for everyone. This is why we incorporated as a non-profit and not an S-corp or a C-corp.
Let’s just talk briefly about the kinds of things you can offer to athletes. I noticed you had the different levels, grassroots and pro-am and so forth. Can you be more specific in terms of the kind of services you can offer to someone just getting into that whole scene?
A lot of this is reflected in personal experience and in conversations with other athletes. I know personally that when I started looking into climbing sponsorship, I had no idea what I was doing. There was no roadmap how to approach it. I had no idea how to do any of it. I literally scotch-taped 4X6 photos on 8 1/2 x 11 pieces of paper and stapled it together and made a portfolio. I went to OR and introduced myself to people and at first it didn’t work. That’s fine, I had no idea what I was doing. The reason we divided up the membership levels is to target our resources to athletes at each stage of development. Grassroots athletes are going to need something totally different than a seasoned Professional. So for example, the grassroots athlete probably needs more help with developing a portfolio and understanding what sponsorship is about, what’s expected of them, and what’s realistic. If they climb V10 and feel entitled to a paycheck, we can say, “Look, here’s really a snapshot of what this looks like and how it works.” It’s designed to inform and provide the tools for them to get off on the right foot.
Hopefully the sponsors in the industry will see that and get more and more professional presentations from athletes when being approached. So it’s not, “Hey I climbed V10 and I want free shoes!” The goal is to raise the standard in a way so we’re not fueling any sense of entitlement but rather raising the standard of what it means to be a supported and sponsored athlete in this industry. So, on the grassroots level portfolio development and education is a huge part. So with your membership dollars you are going to get both a web and print quality version of your portfolio that our graphic designer will work with you on to develop. In addition, you’ll be able to call on the advisory services of Eric Hörst for training. If you have a problem with an injury you can call Noah Kaufman, MD. He’s even offered some pro bono medical services. You can talk to someone like Steven Jeffrey, who’s been in the game for a long time and understands what sponsorships are about. If you’ve climbed at all, you know who he is. He’s not just some young gun getting by on his fingers; he knows what it’s about, really bright guy. He can provide a lot of perspective and insight to a new athlete who may be super talented but has no idea what this is all about.
Has PCI looked into health insurance as a benefit?
It’s on our radar.
What about benefits for athletes further up the career ladder?
Say you are an athlete that has a contract and they’re getting a little bit more than free product. Maybe they have some incentive-based compensation built into the contract, so it’s not just a handshake. You’ve been with someone for a little while and you want to take your career more seriously, get to that next level. You’re likely going to need more exposure in order to do that? What we’re going to offer this year is a grant program. What it’s going to do is offer sponsored athletes grants for rock climbing specific objectives. We will pair the athletes with media professionals in all disciplines (film, photos, print) to tell that story and distribute it as widely as we can. We’re exploring a variety of different media partnerships to help make that happen.
At the professional level, you’ll have all the things that we offer everyone else, but we’ll also have a PR partner in-house. We kind of stumbled across this when I was in Boulder over the summer. Tommy Caldwell and I did a slide show at Neptune Mountaineering. We went out to a bar afterwards and Matt Segal and John Dickey were there and they were like “I didn’t even hear about it! Why didn’t I even know about this?” We came to the conclusion that climbers suck at PR. They just want to go rock-climbing and you know what, they shouldn’t have to be good at everything. In large part PCI was founded to help athletes with those things to further their careers.
Would PCI act in any way as negotiators or agents between athletes and industry?
We work on behalf of a class of athletes, not individuals. We work for our members collectively. We will provide a contact sheet if they’re interested in getting in touch with a particular company, but we’re not going to pick up the phone and say, “Hey Five Ten, you need to look at our member so-and-so.” That’s not our job, or say to an athlete, “Hey, so they offered you this, you need to go at 20% above that at these terms.” That’s not us. That’s up to the athlete and the company. We’re just trying to create more valuable athletes for the company so they’re getting more out of their marketing dollars and the athletes are offering something that’s more valuable to the company without ever getting in between.
One of the funny things about professional climbing is that unlike in other professional sports there is no discussion of how much money anyone is actually making? In the NFL it is straight up, everybody knows that so-and-so got signed for 10 million dollars. In climbing you have no idea what people are actually making.
I’d love to release that somehow, just to quell the perception that there is all this money out there. It’s like no actually, that’s not it. I’d love to get to the stage where it was somewhat uniform, where you could say, “Hey, you know if you’re delivering X and climbing Y, it’s not uncommon to see a contract that looks like this.” Like a Kelley Blue Book for climbing.
How would you describe the arrangement you have with climbingnarc.com?
PCI has partnered with Brian Runnells of ClimbingNarc because he does a great job assimilating global climbing news with a positive, refreshing editorial voice. Brian's effort to bring all the news to one place is very helpful to us (and all news junkies). Through our partnership, we aim to accomplish two goals. One, is to enrich the news content by helping Brian get first hand information from our members. Two, is to link Brian's ever growing archive with PCI's athlete profiles, allowing viewers of PCI's athlete profiles to quickly see the headlines relevant to each athlete. There is no exclusive arrangement between PCI athletes and Climbing Narc. Athletes are free to do whatever they want with their news. We just aim to centralize the news relevant to them onto their profiles and enrich the content we have all come to love from Climbing Narc.
What sorts of obstacles do you see in terms of the organization taking off or gaining widespread acceptance and hopefully popularity?
The main obstacle I see is misconception, people jumping to conclusions and not maybe reading all of what we are all about. We’re taking a very multi-faceted approach to this. We’re not taking a “push it from the accessibility side “only, or a “pull it from the media side” only. We’re taking a very holistic approach to our goal and I think it could be easy for someone focus on just one thing. Some might think “Oh you’re just a consulting firm” or “You’re just an agency” instead of keeping the big picture in mind because everything is related. Without the accessibility, the visibility means nothing and vice versa. And, without looking out for the climbing areas, where are we going to go?
Having as much face time with as many people as possible is really important. I am trying to do that as best I can with as many people as I can because this is a people proposition. We’re just looking out for the people in our industry. We’re trying to take care of our athletes, our business partners, and our climbing areas. That’s as simple as it is. If it gets muddled or if people miss that and think that it’s some money-making venture, it’s not.
How do you see the future path of PCI development?
I want to focus on memberships and industry partnerships because without the athletes and without the industry, this thing isn’t going to go anywhere. Those are two of our primary beneficiaries from this effort. If we can’t get climbers to see the benefits of joining and the industry can’t see the benefits of what we’re trying to do with their athletes, it’s just going to go stale. But I’m not too worried, it’s just a matter of time and working with people and signing people up.
I wanted to go directly to the source, past the press releases, to find out more about the vision for the organization. Kevin, already widely known for his adventures on 5.14 El Cap free routes and Buttermilk giant highballs, shared his thoughts on this recent adventure, perhaps the boldest of them all.
Can you give some background on the history of the PCI?
PCI got started in general conversations between the chairman of PCI, Rusty Klaasen, and myself when I was about 16. The conversations revolved around my own personal climbing career, sponsorships in general, what happens to athletes in their long-term careers, the structures of athletes as icons in sports, and how all of this can affect their careers.
Over the years, it became apparent there was opportunity present in our industry. So first, we spent a year doing research. We began by focusing on a comparative analysis of the climbing industry with snowboarding and surfing specifically. For each industry, we looked at growth cycles, growth catalysts, participation trends, consumer spending levels, sponsorship structures, industry health, media exposure, major events and a variety of other factors. What we learned from this data was that climbing is still super young. It’s had a really strong following, healthy growth, and is poised to grow in the future. PCI was formed to help guide as best it could, the growth of climbing for the benefit of its athletes, its industry and its place, our climbing areas.
By the growth of climbing, how do you see that actually playing out? Because the sport is different from skateboarding or snowboarding…
Climbing is one of the most non-condition and non-location specific sports out there. Whether it’s raining or snowing or you’re anywhere in the world, there’s a major climbing gym near you. You don’t have to live near an ocean to do and you don’t have to wait for the perfect weather window. Looking at just the numbers of participants versus enthusiasts, there’s a lot of potential for converting people to doing it more often. The pool of people that are aware of the sport, who have tried it, is huge. It’s massive. I am of the mindset that climbing is going to continue growing whether PCI has anything to do with it or not. The last thing I want to see is our climbing areas get trampled. I don’t want someone to come in, some corporate entity, and totally capitalize on climbing’s growth potential with no regard for the athletes, the industry, or the environment, but just the dimes. This is our effort to help climbing’s growth along in a way that‘s best for everyone. This is why we incorporated as a non-profit and not an S-corp or a C-corp.
Let’s just talk briefly about the kinds of things you can offer to athletes. I noticed you had the different levels, grassroots and pro-am and so forth. Can you be more specific in terms of the kind of services you can offer to someone just getting into that whole scene?
A lot of this is reflected in personal experience and in conversations with other athletes. I know personally that when I started looking into climbing sponsorship, I had no idea what I was doing. There was no roadmap how to approach it. I had no idea how to do any of it. I literally scotch-taped 4X6 photos on 8 1/2 x 11 pieces of paper and stapled it together and made a portfolio. I went to OR and introduced myself to people and at first it didn’t work. That’s fine, I had no idea what I was doing. The reason we divided up the membership levels is to target our resources to athletes at each stage of development. Grassroots athletes are going to need something totally different than a seasoned Professional. So for example, the grassroots athlete probably needs more help with developing a portfolio and understanding what sponsorship is about, what’s expected of them, and what’s realistic. If they climb V10 and feel entitled to a paycheck, we can say, “Look, here’s really a snapshot of what this looks like and how it works.” It’s designed to inform and provide the tools for them to get off on the right foot.
Hopefully the sponsors in the industry will see that and get more and more professional presentations from athletes when being approached. So it’s not, “Hey I climbed V10 and I want free shoes!” The goal is to raise the standard in a way so we’re not fueling any sense of entitlement but rather raising the standard of what it means to be a supported and sponsored athlete in this industry. So, on the grassroots level portfolio development and education is a huge part. So with your membership dollars you are going to get both a web and print quality version of your portfolio that our graphic designer will work with you on to develop. In addition, you’ll be able to call on the advisory services of Eric Hörst for training. If you have a problem with an injury you can call Noah Kaufman, MD. He’s even offered some pro bono medical services. You can talk to someone like Steven Jeffrey, who’s been in the game for a long time and understands what sponsorships are about. If you’ve climbed at all, you know who he is. He’s not just some young gun getting by on his fingers; he knows what it’s about, really bright guy. He can provide a lot of perspective and insight to a new athlete who may be super talented but has no idea what this is all about.
Has PCI looked into health insurance as a benefit?
It’s on our radar.
What about benefits for athletes further up the career ladder?
Say you are an athlete that has a contract and they’re getting a little bit more than free product. Maybe they have some incentive-based compensation built into the contract, so it’s not just a handshake. You’ve been with someone for a little while and you want to take your career more seriously, get to that next level. You’re likely going to need more exposure in order to do that? What we’re going to offer this year is a grant program. What it’s going to do is offer sponsored athletes grants for rock climbing specific objectives. We will pair the athletes with media professionals in all disciplines (film, photos, print) to tell that story and distribute it as widely as we can. We’re exploring a variety of different media partnerships to help make that happen.
At the professional level, you’ll have all the things that we offer everyone else, but we’ll also have a PR partner in-house. We kind of stumbled across this when I was in Boulder over the summer. Tommy Caldwell and I did a slide show at Neptune Mountaineering. We went out to a bar afterwards and Matt Segal and John Dickey were there and they were like “I didn’t even hear about it! Why didn’t I even know about this?” We came to the conclusion that climbers suck at PR. They just want to go rock-climbing and you know what, they shouldn’t have to be good at everything. In large part PCI was founded to help athletes with those things to further their careers.
Would PCI act in any way as negotiators or agents between athletes and industry?
We work on behalf of a class of athletes, not individuals. We work for our members collectively. We will provide a contact sheet if they’re interested in getting in touch with a particular company, but we’re not going to pick up the phone and say, “Hey Five Ten, you need to look at our member so-and-so.” That’s not our job, or say to an athlete, “Hey, so they offered you this, you need to go at 20% above that at these terms.” That’s not us. That’s up to the athlete and the company. We’re just trying to create more valuable athletes for the company so they’re getting more out of their marketing dollars and the athletes are offering something that’s more valuable to the company without ever getting in between.
One of the funny things about professional climbing is that unlike in other professional sports there is no discussion of how much money anyone is actually making? In the NFL it is straight up, everybody knows that so-and-so got signed for 10 million dollars. In climbing you have no idea what people are actually making.
I’d love to release that somehow, just to quell the perception that there is all this money out there. It’s like no actually, that’s not it. I’d love to get to the stage where it was somewhat uniform, where you could say, “Hey, you know if you’re delivering X and climbing Y, it’s not uncommon to see a contract that looks like this.” Like a Kelley Blue Book for climbing.
How would you describe the arrangement you have with climbingnarc.com?
PCI has partnered with Brian Runnells of ClimbingNarc because he does a great job assimilating global climbing news with a positive, refreshing editorial voice. Brian's effort to bring all the news to one place is very helpful to us (and all news junkies). Through our partnership, we aim to accomplish two goals. One, is to enrich the news content by helping Brian get first hand information from our members. Two, is to link Brian's ever growing archive with PCI's athlete profiles, allowing viewers of PCI's athlete profiles to quickly see the headlines relevant to each athlete. There is no exclusive arrangement between PCI athletes and Climbing Narc. Athletes are free to do whatever they want with their news. We just aim to centralize the news relevant to them onto their profiles and enrich the content we have all come to love from Climbing Narc.
What sorts of obstacles do you see in terms of the organization taking off or gaining widespread acceptance and hopefully popularity?
The main obstacle I see is misconception, people jumping to conclusions and not maybe reading all of what we are all about. We’re taking a very multi-faceted approach to this. We’re not taking a “push it from the accessibility side “only, or a “pull it from the media side” only. We’re taking a very holistic approach to our goal and I think it could be easy for someone focus on just one thing. Some might think “Oh you’re just a consulting firm” or “You’re just an agency” instead of keeping the big picture in mind because everything is related. Without the accessibility, the visibility means nothing and vice versa. And, without looking out for the climbing areas, where are we going to go?
Having as much face time with as many people as possible is really important. I am trying to do that as best I can with as many people as I can because this is a people proposition. We’re just looking out for the people in our industry. We’re trying to take care of our athletes, our business partners, and our climbing areas. That’s as simple as it is. If it gets muddled or if people miss that and think that it’s some money-making venture, it’s not.
How do you see the future path of PCI development?
I want to focus on memberships and industry partnerships because without the athletes and without the industry, this thing isn’t going to go anywhere. Those are two of our primary beneficiaries from this effort. If we can’t get climbers to see the benefits of joining and the industry can’t see the benefits of what we’re trying to do with their athletes, it’s just going to go stale. But I’m not too worried, it’s just a matter of time and working with people and signing people up.
Friday, January 7, 2011
New Year's Predictions
Well the New Year has started and it is time to think about the future direction of rock climbing again. A few thoughts as I take some time between completing my book on bouldering.
First, in bouldering it is clear that we are mostly in a phase of consolidation. Numerous rapid repeats and downgrades have happened recently but little innovation outside Daniel Woods's ascent of the Game and Angie Payne's pioneering effort on Automator. Attention is being garnered for ascents that would have been minimally interesting 5 years ago or more. More media focus on the tactics and mindset that allow for real breakthroughs would be nice, not just repeats or minor variations, and by media, I don't just mean magazines.
Lincoln Lake will be big again next summer and there will be some fallout as a result. I can't speculate on what the Mount Evans rangers will think when every parking space on the road above the area is filled up day in, day out, but there may be some concern expressed about human impact at some point. The other issue (for some) will be whether the problems there hold their grades much longer, especially at the upper end. Some fresh faces and new attitudes may have that result, time will tell.
In sport climbing in the US, someone besides Joe Kinder has got to start bolting hard new routes. Amazing to note that virtually no major new sport climbs have been done in the Front Range in Colorado in close to a decade. By major, I mean 5.14c or harder and independent lines. Link-ups at Rifle or the Primo Wall do not count. This is mostly the case elsewhere in the US as far as I can see. It is telling that the strongest Front Range sport climber right now, Jonathan Siegrist, gets the job done in Kentucky, not Colorado.
In trad climbing and soloing, nobody is remotely in the same league as Alex Honnold whose endurance and steady head are unmatched by anyone else I know of. Again, holding pattern seems to be the paradigm right now. Whether new routes done in the headpoint style, whether crazy tall "boulder problems" or gear protected, continue to be popular is an open question. Some impressive lines have been done for sure but I sense that the wave is beginning to subside.
The impression I have is that the scene, especially in the US, is wide open for whoever wants to make an impact, especially in a legitimate way.
First, in bouldering it is clear that we are mostly in a phase of consolidation. Numerous rapid repeats and downgrades have happened recently but little innovation outside Daniel Woods's ascent of the Game and Angie Payne's pioneering effort on Automator. Attention is being garnered for ascents that would have been minimally interesting 5 years ago or more. More media focus on the tactics and mindset that allow for real breakthroughs would be nice, not just repeats or minor variations, and by media, I don't just mean magazines.
Lincoln Lake will be big again next summer and there will be some fallout as a result. I can't speculate on what the Mount Evans rangers will think when every parking space on the road above the area is filled up day in, day out, but there may be some concern expressed about human impact at some point. The other issue (for some) will be whether the problems there hold their grades much longer, especially at the upper end. Some fresh faces and new attitudes may have that result, time will tell.
In sport climbing in the US, someone besides Joe Kinder has got to start bolting hard new routes. Amazing to note that virtually no major new sport climbs have been done in the Front Range in Colorado in close to a decade. By major, I mean 5.14c or harder and independent lines. Link-ups at Rifle or the Primo Wall do not count. This is mostly the case elsewhere in the US as far as I can see. It is telling that the strongest Front Range sport climber right now, Jonathan Siegrist, gets the job done in Kentucky, not Colorado.
In trad climbing and soloing, nobody is remotely in the same league as Alex Honnold whose endurance and steady head are unmatched by anyone else I know of. Again, holding pattern seems to be the paradigm right now. Whether new routes done in the headpoint style, whether crazy tall "boulder problems" or gear protected, continue to be popular is an open question. Some impressive lines have been done for sure but I sense that the wave is beginning to subside.
The impression I have is that the scene, especially in the US, is wide open for whoever wants to make an impact, especially in a legitimate way.
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