Climbing Grades and Free Parking

9/19/23

Missoula, MT

Today’s entry includes two thoughts, completely unrelated, and both not entirely thought out.

The first is relating to rock climbing, as I’m sure very few, if any, of my readers will find much relevancy in. In my experience rock climbing outside, of which I have a considerable amount, very rarely do I climb the same route more than once. This might have something to do with the abundance of rock available in the places I’ve lived or traveled, as well as the amount of time I've spent in each place. But it might also come from a one-and-done mentality with rock climbing. Try a route, move onto the next one.

I think this is completely fine, given the reality that there is only so much time one can set aside to rock climb, and so many established routes. Not just that, but the fact that, unless your team is extremely dialed in, you likely won’t be setting up and cleaning a single route in less than 45 minutes, not including the approach and route finding. However, the issue with it involves the climber’s perception of ratings and ability.

If a route goes at 5.9, and the climber thinks they climb at a 5.9, the route should result in good fun. But because the climber has never seen the route before, and therefore doesn’t trust all the holds, and experiences the nervousness of falling on lead, the perception is that either the route should be graded harder, or the climber incorrectly judged their ability. After all, a 5.9 should be cruiser.

So then the climber lowers, their partner cleans, and they walk away, never to return, as is the normal (and most efficient) practice when climbing on a tight schedule.

In the climber vocabulary, this is what is called flashing a route. Climbing for the first time without knowing the beta. Therefore, the climber, and I’m speaking largely to myself, has an idea not of their ability to climb, but their ability to flash. And, flash on lead, which is, while a purer type of climbing, not the definition for what free climbing is.

All that to say, I believe that given the difficulty of defining exactly what type of climbing one is doing at a given grade, the grades themselves become pretty meaningless. Anyone who knows me will know that this is no knew notion of mine, as I’ve never been a fan of grades in general. But to simply disregard, or think more loosely about, the grades is not the point I’m trying to make.

The point I’d like to make, for my unconfident and intimidated climbers out there, as I often find myself, is that every route you do should be climbed at least twice, if not more, time permitting. Only then will you begin to feel confident in your ability to climb, and see where your limits truly are. Additionally, the extra laps will build your strength and endurance far faster, if that’s important to you.

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My second thought, which I’m not sure now I have the energy to go into in as much detail, is regarding free parking. For the modern camper, and especially the modern budget road-tripper, camping is largely done where one can access with a car. As opposed to backpacking, where you would still need to leave your car someplace overnight.

I won’t go into the nuances in this post about how to best find places to park, or camp, for free, but only speak to how difficult finding them is.

Twice today I found myself searching for a place to park for free in order to recreate close-by. First, to rock climb close to the University of Montana stadium, and second, to car camp in a national forest southeast of Missoula. The parking around UM was all either student permit parking, or permitted public parking. Even in the Albertsons across the Clark Fork river, the signs were very clear that parking was purely for customers (as I’m sure football fans often take advantage of it).

It wasn’t until driving down a long dirt road to get to the nation forest, seeing a small empty lot on the side of the road, and reading a sign stating “no camping or overnight parking” that I really thought about how annoying it is to not be able to leave a car somewhere.

I get it, there’s private property, there’s city governments trying to make money, there’s history of unwanted activity from the unhoused populations, and whatever else. But I find it ironic, that camping, an activity that was part of human life for thousands of years, is now basically illegal in many places.

Again, not an entirely thought out idea.

Without talking too much about rules and regulations I know nothing about, it made me wonder what things were like before anyone owned any of the land, and what made someone think they could. I imagine, for much of this land’s history, to park yourself on an unfamiliar plot of land required nothing more than the permission of whoever lived in that territory already.

The observation also added to my thoughts on the accessibility of nature, something I think about a lot these days. The common perception of nature is that it's not free at all, and therefore not always worth the cost. Trailhead parking lots often cost money, camp sites cost money, national park passes cost money, not to mention the specialized gear.

My friends and I talk about this term called Dirtbag, which is simply defined as someone who finds a way to have the most fun possible while spending the least amount of money possible. Thinking this way has been, while difficult, a good exercise overall. Without changing anything about the way our culture currently operates, can we have more fun, and spend less money doing it. Unfortunately, with the inaccessibility of most wilderness area, that concept takes more work than it needs to.