Ways of Writing / The Future of Hard Sport Climbing
The reason I am writing here is to let everybody know that the future of hard sport climbing is here, and I am developing it. My name is Joe Kinder and my tag sign is K21. Now the ripe old age of thirty, I’ve been consumed by climbing ever since I was thirteen years old.
Yes I’m consumed by climbing, but not just climbing, I’m also consumed by bolting. Bolting is the act of creating your own route up the mountain, it is being a pioneer, it is drawing your own map. I am forging a path that other climbers are eager to follow.
Examining How I Move Up the Mountain from Dustin York on Vimeo.
A record of the holds used in a writing system made up of basic symbols.
Choices Made Along the Route
When I author my own path up the mountain, I am setting in stone bolts that are used to tie in to for safety, and climbers must follow these paths where they lead. The future is here now, because I am able to imprint messages that I leave to my climbing colleagues using sensor-embedded bolts. Climbing past these sensors downloads these messages onto my fellow climbers’ mobile devices, so the higher they go the more access they have about my feelings on the route, what makes it special and why I chose to lead it the way I did. The sensors also display a record of the choices I made in the holds I used when making my own ascent. This was done by placing sensored bands around my wrists and ankles. These devices detect the holds I use and the speed I move, churning out a record dotted with symbols that correspond with a particular hold. I have included a video here that illustrates examples of symbols corresponding with holds. Us climbers are as concerned about technique as we are about paving new routes, because climbing is a choreography that we perform with the mountain.
Authoring a Path
I’m showing here portions of what I wrote along the route that I have named “Living Astro.” At the beginning portion I wrote: “If you are thinking about it GO FOR IT!!!! The end boulder problem is about a 15 move V10 or so. The bolts aren’t really that spaced but it really is a big runout.” Later, toward the top I wrote: “The good ‘ol Black and Tan Wall. It is an 8b boulder problem to 13+. The boulder prob is a HUGE one mover. I would love for ANYONE who was primed on this kinda thing to let me know how you did it.” I make my comments when at the mountain, allowing for a period of reflection on what I have created, but I have to be in the presence of the mountain in order to add what I have to say about it. What I have to say is very specific to the situation and to the audience I am addressing, that is, other climbers. If you would like to know what all the jargon means, then start climbing, you’ll pick it up.
Turning a Mountain into a Conversation
Climbers that add their own impressions and comments can only do so by climbing the mountain. Climbers clip onto the mountain personally identifiable tags attached to bolts embedded in the rock. This instills a purity in the conversation, and the mountain becomes the conduit from which flows the experiences that belong to it.
What is Left Behind
As the climbers add their tags over the seasons the conversation builds into an archive of experiences. As original author of the route, my role is as the keeper of the knowledge that the mountain holds. The archive is realized as an electronic database that I have the option of sharing with others. I share it with you because as I’ve said the future is here, and it’s rooted in stone, destined to withstand the passage of time.