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What got you started?


nmonteith

25-Feb-2011
8:32:24 AM

On 25/02/2011 freesolo wrote:
>was living in greece, working at a potato processing factory, living in
>one room, but my tv got some english programs. saw a documentary about
>a french guy who climbed all time "8 hours a day on the vertical". this
>was about 15 years ago.

I know that program! That was about Patrick Edlinger (famous 80s French climbing god). That show also had a big impact on me about the same time - my VHS copy got a got workout prior to the wonders of the Internet. It was broadcast in Australia on 9's Wide World of Sports.


BoulderBaby

25-Feb-2011
8:58:06 AM

The abundance of fit young men kept me climbing.... but before that I got dragged to Hardrock and enjoyed it.

kieranl

25-Feb-2011
9:55:28 AM

On 24/02/2011 Wendy wrote:
>On 24/02/2011 Miguel75 wrote:
>
>>
>>Further south, in the four corners area where the borders of Colorado,
>>Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet, there are quite a few FLDS, Fundamental
>>LDS, church members. They're the ones that still practice polygamy.
>
>Are they doing as well as this guy?
>http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/23/3146295.htm?section=justin
>
"..., the sect believes it will soon be ruling the world with Christ and has a membership of around 400 families." giving a total congregation of approx 6,000 people.
They obviously don't realise that the world is run by the people who turn up with the heaviest artillery; something it sounds like the FLDS are working on.

Wendy

25-Feb-2011
10:06:22 AM

Surely these religions have to be running short of women? And have young men killing each other off in order to have less competition?

kieranl

25-Feb-2011
10:12:59 AM

It seems to be fairly standard in polygamous societies for the young guys to be initiated into the warrior sect at puberty. The older men keep the women and power while, as you say, the younger men go around killing, or at least battling, other young men and try to steal women. And if the young men get too uppity they get driven out.

kieranl

25-Feb-2011
10:16:20 AM

And, so the thread doesn't get totally hijacked into a fundamentalist polygamist orgy :
I wanted to go on a walking trip after first term exams at Uni, but the only trip going was one to Arapiles.

Wendy

25-Feb-2011
10:26:05 AM

On 25/02/2011 kieranl wrote:
>And, so the thread doesn't get totally hijacked into a fundamentalist polygamist
>orgy :
> I wanted to go on a walking trip after first term exams at Uni, but the
>only trip going was one to Arapiles.

That must have been a steep slippery slope then!

pharmamatt

25-Feb-2011
12:33:11 PM

On 25/02/2011 davidn wrote:
>For my part, what got me started was simple. Fences. And my mother's
>willingness to deal with the resulting splinters...

you mean splinters like this track cyclist splinter

gfdonc

25-Feb-2011
12:34:03 PM

I was seconded (in form 4) to help on some school camps, that were being run at first by Ian Barr and later his older brother Neil. I was helping them launch form 1 and 2 kids down abseils, made more comfortable with the advent of CMI figure 8's. I still remember Neil showing me the hammer marks on the inside of an italian-made 8.

During some spare time we found some climbs near the abseil zone and top-roped them. Later the Barr Brothers ran an Arapiles trip for some members of the school bushwalking club, and I was in.

We drove to Arapiles one Friday via a stop for fish&chips at George's (do I remember correctly?) in Ballarat. When we got to Araps it was dark, and we pitched camp by the stars.
I had no idea of scale in the dark. I recall gazing at the Bluffs by starlight from my tent door, thinking "That's nice. A 70-foot cliff that's only a short stroll away". When the sun came up the next morning I was gobsmacked.


roca

28-Feb-2011
5:40:04 PM

Macgyver....

And then abseiling/climbing when I was 8 at a summer camp - that was awesome. It felt so natural to be on the rock :)


Paulie

1-Mar-2011
10:23:51 PM

An evolution from scrambling around granite tors and an early edition of R&I I think. I remember going into Sportsco and asking if they sold climbing shoes, they promptly sent me into Mountain Sports where I purchased my 1st pair of Scarpa hi tops :-)


gordoste

2-Mar-2011
12:35:33 PM

a bit boring but i started at the ledge at sydney uni, graduated to barrenjoey and then a 2-week trip to the grampians and arapiles.

PDRM

2-Mar-2011
1:43:24 PM

On 2/03/2011 gordoste wrote:
>a bit boring but i started at the ledge at sydney uni, graduated to barrenjoey
>and then a 2-week trip to the grampians and arapiles.

Similar:
- Summer Hill
- Lindfield
- Barrenjoey/Berowra/Blueies
- NZ TMC then bigger stuff


IdratherbeclimbingM9

4-Jul-2017
9:30:29 PM

Bump ... for the 14 year anniversary of an oldy but a goody thread, given the number of new ~~inmates~~ Chockstoners here!

jacksonclimbs

4-Jul-2017
10:20:52 PM

Cool thread.

Parents took me to KP in Brisbane when I was about 11, and I saw the climbers there. Started traversing back and forth across the rock to see if I could do the entire length of KP. After a few trips there I could do most of it, with the exception of the blank part at BARFJ, and I think one other part. There used to be a I heart JS or some initials on the right wall. My dad convinced me to climb up and touch the heart - I got up real quick and then spent a half hour on the down climb. Possibly my first high ball eh.

Fast forward 20 years and I'd only ever done the occasional gym trip, did a couple of 10 punch passes at Urban climb, etc. but never really got solidly into it enough to learn the skills to climb independently. Then moved to the US and met some climbing people who became close friends, and every weekend and holiday we were traveling to some different crag somewhere.

PeterW

5-Jul-2017
12:27:01 AM

I probably wasn't on here back when this thread started, so better late than never.

I was always interested in camping and bushwalking (or at least the idea of it, less so the hard work part). One summer when I was about 15 I went on a YMCA summer camp where people would focus on one activity from a list such as archery, scuba diving, and bushwalking. I signed up for the bushwalking stream.

It turned out the leaders for this stream were several guys from 2 Commando Company. (I think - it was along time ago.) Apart from an actual overnight walk, we got to do all sorts of cool stuff. A ropes course, firing rifles (can you imagine that today!!!), and abseiling at Moorooduc quarry. Given I was actually a bit scared of heights back then, I can't think why the abseiling clicked with me, but it did. To help take people's minds off the height, they set up two ropes and held races. I discovered (pretty much for the first time in my life) that I was good at something physical, and I actually managed to beat one of the commandos on my last race!

At that stage I was hooked, but since I was still at school things went slowly. I haunted the library for books about climbing and mountaineering. I bought myself 120' (36m) of No. 2 (7mm) hawser laid rope, plus (based on the commando gear) 20' of 3/4" linen rope as a waist loop and a Stubai steel screwgate. No leg loops back then! Having talked a mate into getting some gear too, we went back to the Moorooduc quarry where we a) survived, b) had a ball, and c) discovered just how stretchy it can be at the end of a thin abseil rope!

During that year I started haunting the Bushgear store in Melbourne, buying aid gear and practicing on building, bridges, trees, and telephone and stink poles! Eventually the staff got so sick of me they pointed me at a VCC meeting in November. I met several people there, including Iain Sedgman (only a year older than me) who talked me into the VCC beginners' course in February/March. My first real climb was Bridge of Sighs at Hanging Rock with Iain.And the rest is history!


Grinder

5-Jul-2017
1:29:21 PM

MUMC beginners weekend at Mt Arapiles. I caught the first train from Glen Waverley on a Sat morning to meet up with Steve Howden and his girlfriend in the then uber-cool Fitzroy before being picked up by another beginner in his VW beetle.
We were shown how to make a harness out of seat-belt webbing since club harnesses were in short supply. We cranked up a few single pitches in Dunlop Volleys at Dec Crag, then got on to Trapeze and Swinging on Castle Crag on the Sunday. Got a lot of encouragement from the trip leaders, Steve, Craig Nottle and Roddy McKenzie and loved every minute of it.
I went back for a follow-up trip a few weeks later with my very own strip of seat-belt webbing!

prozac

5-Jul-2017
8:52:10 PM

Another gym story. Was into my early 30s, having injury problems playing soccer and was single. I thought indoor climbing kills two birds with one stone. Gave the game away and joined a meetup group. Started outdoors about six months after.

baz74

6-Jul-2017
7:42:32 PM

In 1992 I found no surf at Mona Vale so started climbing rotten seacliffs. Stopped at a dirty road cutting on the way home and got trapped 5mts above the road. Finally made my way down and drove to Maccas. Enroute heard an ad on the radio saying all climbing gear half price at Paddy Pallin tomorrow only - it was destiny. Rallied two mates and spent every cent we had on gear.

My friends dad (a sailor) taught us how to tie a figure 8 and we set off to the crags (Wahroonga Rocks) and self taught. I hated it but stuck with it as I had spent every last dollar on gear.

In the end I got a heap of mates into climbing (and made a heap of new ones too), they were exciting years that took me to the USA, Nepal and Pakistan. Lots of near misses and epics but I still love climbing 24 years later and I hope my kids will enjoy it too. These days I surf mostly but as I sit between waves I scan the headlands for new lines, I guess I will always be a climber first.


JamesMc

6-Jul-2017
10:18:39 PM

Similar story as Grinder, only one year earlier it would appear. Earliest memory of climbing rock was clambering on Stonehenge at about the age of 7.

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