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General Climbing Discussion

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The most dangerous time of your life!!? 16-Mar-2012 At 7:02:54 PM davidn

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On 16/03/2012 miguel75 wrote:
>On 16/03/2012 oldtraddad wrote:
>>It ponders the question; When is the most dangerous time in our lives
>>as climbers??
>
>The drive to the crag?

I know that is tongue in cheek, but Will Gadd disagrees and for good reason:

http://www.cbc.ca/ontariotoday/2012/01/31/tuesday-will-gadd-gives-risk-a-rethink/

I've personally always been of the opinion that alpine mountaineering is just rolling craps. Where weather can kill you at any moment you are running a risk above and beyond the risk of being incapable of doing what you need to do to get up the climb. Others will disagree, without doubt. They may actually be good enough to avoid the stats. Tim McCartney-Snape is one person who seems to be immortal, for example. I hope he continues to be.

As for soloing, climbing sketchy run-out trad climbs with dangerous fall potential, etc... When compared to climbing for fun rather than risk, it's like playing roulette versus bridge. If you play roulette enough, you will lose, period. If you play bridge well, you may not lose. Hence why so many people give up soloing and climbing stupidly dangerous things as they age. Life's good. Think Alex Honnold is going to solo 5.10+ when he's 60? Maybe he will. But should every 60 year old follow?