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General Climbing Discussion

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Live to Climb or Climb to Live


Imaclawfan

24-Mar-2015
11:00:36 PM

Tell ya wot fish face ... Ill meat ya half way...

This will get it all in perspective for all of us...

http://www.howrichareyou.com.au/


shortman

25-Mar-2015
1:03:27 AM

That thing is gold.

That girl always looks so happy.


shortman

25-Mar-2015
1:07:06 AM

On 24/03/2015 Imaclawfan wrote:
>>Not really
>
>Yeah really...

U need to have said something to make a point.


Imaclawfan

25-Mar-2015
2:38:12 PM

>U need to have said something to make a point.

Well obviously I was giving you too much credit for intelligence Short-of-a-sausage-on-a-bbq-man....


shortman

25-Mar-2015
3:07:39 PM

On 25/03/2015 Imaclawfan wrote:

>
>Well obviously I was giving you too much credit for intelligence Short-of-a-sausage-on-a-
>bq-man....
>
>
Story of my life.

Wendy

25-Mar-2015
10:18:13 PM

Wow, Gina earns my annual income in 3.3 minutes. Still, i manage to fund about 4 days climbing a week at one of the best crags in the world, an annual winter escape and regular Australian and overseas climbing trips on that, so i reckon i have way more fun.

Working full time and commuting 3 hours every weekend to go climbing is not living, but maybe people need to actually stop doing that to realise it.

Guiding in the Blue Mtns is crap. It's either poorly paid, long days of hard work with high uncontrollable risks (canyons) or poorly paid, dead boring days of lobbing punters off abseils. I wouldn't do it again.

Guiding in Nati is certainly an improvement, being mostly actual climbing, normal hour days in nice reliable weather conditions with very low uncontrollable risk. And better paid. I'd dabble in it again if I get burnt out with nursing.

Both are highly seasonal and not necessarily reliable sources of income but can be made done on, usually with some govt assistance.

Or there is outdoor ed. Also poorly paid, taking you away from home for days-weeks on end, being responsible for other people's kids 24hrs a day whilst only really paid for 8. But there can be a fair bit of work. Not doing that again though.

Guiding never ruined climbing for me, and, other than hating abseiling days (which is entirely natural), it's just another job. So you do Tip Toe Ridge and D major a gazillion times. If that's as bad as a job gets, well, you're pretty lucky really.

Supporting a family? Well, it depends on what you and your family demand. I support me and my cat in great comfort by my standards .... Most people spend way more money than they need to. Moving somewhere cheaper closer to climbing cuts down a few of those ... as does having a small efficient house and car, resisting the urges of consumerism, assessing what you actually really need, realising that the public school and health systems are actually very good and so on.

I'm finding nursing to be pretty bloody conducive to climbing. If you are rural, or willing to work in t aged care or mental health, work is going begging. Shift penalties make it possible to live very comfortably off 2 days a week, or less if I really don't feel like working. Being in demand means you can negotiate rosters and extended winter holidays and they are just happy you will keep working for them when you get back. Once you have some experience, there's a bunch of short term remote contracts going if you want to just work in blocks.On the harder side of nursing though, I am about to go to night shift. Still, I've already been climbing today and will earn over $400 for my 1 nights work. 1 of those a week gets me by nicely.

In all honesty, many professions, skills and trades are in demand out in woop woop. If you have some of them, you don't need to rely on guiding. And (like with rural nursing) being in demand means you have a lot of bargaining power to arrange suitable work/climbing balance. Even jobs like personal care, disability care, residential youth workers, whilst your base pay is sadly underreflective of the nature of the work, add casual and shift loadings and you can live off that easily. I once had a great roster in youth work where I did 4 shifts over 1 weekend and the rest of the fortnight off. lots of time for short climbing trips, and taking 4 days of annual leave gave the better part of a month off.

I haven't lived in a city or worked full time for nearly 20 years. and it's been bloody great. Move to where the climbing is and work parttime/casual/short contract. It's the only way forward.

There are 26 messages in this topic.