Why do hard and dangerous climbs?

Learning moves on a project. Photo: Steven Gordon

We can all readily appreciate the beauty of rock and the shapes it gives to the world, we just have to travel through the landscape. If we want to dig deeper, we can travel over mountains and look at them. A visual interaction with the rock.

Rock climbing is a deeper interaction with the rock. The medium of movement on rock allows us to crack open the beauty of rock not fully visible to the eye and get more back.

The harder the rock climb, the more we have to understand the rock to move, the more we learn. The more dangerous the rock climb, the more we have to understand the rock so we can stay alive.

The hardest and most dangerous climbs are the most meaningful, but they come at a cost most rock climbers wouldn’t dare to pay. Every climber finds their own balance of cost and reward.