I was reading a book and halfway through, I came to a passage I might have skipped and had bunch of things to nitpick. What’s a better way to ring in the New Year when you have a blog? Let’s go…

When you come to a passage, or even a chapter, in a book recapping the history of something you’re familiar, do you try to skim and skip over it? Usually, I do, so I can read faster. An example would be coming across the origin story of Rob Hall and Gary Ball of Adventure Consultants, and Ball’s tragic death. It’s in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Ed Viesters’/David Roberts’ book (at least I am pretty sure it is,) No Shortcuts to the Top. It’s a mainstay of the genesis of commercial guiding on Mount Everest.

When I am reading a book to review, and it’s clear the author’s perspective is injecting the story with a new lens, rather than laying a foundation of background knowledge available elsewhere, I muddle through and try to grab the nuance. I am currently reading and reviewing Will Cockrell’s book Everest, Inc. (2024). Shy of midway through his book, Cockrell explains that climbers need to constantly add constraints to their climbs to keep it interesting, especially because it’s a game of firsts.

He’s right. Once the first ascent is done, he points out that climbers seek out the hardest line, or the winter ascent, or the first in a particular approach.

But I think he misses the notion of style, though he uses the word style in his brief example, we don’t use it in the same way. Cockrell substitutes it for approach, involving the expedition size, team, support, and tools, and sometimes the means or ethics. But style in climbing is all about the means and ethics foremost, and it dictates the route, tools, support, and other factors. News stories often talk about a news of a first ascent in terms of approach, or sound like they are talking about approach, but they are usually reporting on the information from the climbers and the style and values of those climbers placed on themselves. It was underlying the reporting or the Instagram post content.

Of course, not all climbers are style purists. I hear some interviews of climbers on podcasts while I am driving around Pennsylvania, and many were strong and free climbed routes, but that style wasn’t what drove them; they wanted to climb and that route inspired them and they were fortunate to free it. (Good job, you strong bastards.) And on purity, I am referring to a purist view of one’s own climbing. Applying one’s own values on other climbers wholesale is plain wrong. Judging whether a climber met his own self-described standard of style is different.

This also goes back to why climbing, fundamentally, is an experience done individually and shared through stories later. (Well, all outdoor climbing, these days. I guess that bears pointing out.) It’s all in our heads. Who you aspire to be as a climber is about our self image, dreams (if we let it,) and how we, well, would paint ourselves. The way we choose to climb, outside of competition climbs, perhaps, is art as much as the story we tell ourselves and our friends when we introduce ourselves to strangers.

But don’t get carried away with thinking you have to climb the hardest. I am over 45 and just want to climb for myself, belay my kids and my new climbing buddies. I don’t think our style has to be high caliber; I get great joy from my day-to-day adventure of working and being dad, and climbing is a the creme. Getting away from the office and my damn pocket device to do something physically harder than swinging a golf club, is my aim and maybe it will make me feel good because I impressed or inspired somebody, too. I am not in shape to do so yet, but I’ll get back to that.

Well, wow that it’s January 1, 2025, read fast, but carefully, and get outside and move all year. Heck, get outside every day rain or shine, even if you don’t climb. But whatever you do, be you and bring your style, and don’t be afraid to try to reach a little higher.

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