Why Climbing Needs a Villain
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- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
- This is basically an announcement that I'm going to start publicly talking shit more. Drop a comment for any topics or people you want discussed. As always leave an angry comment if you disagree
Or not. You don't need to try to drag others down into your hole with you. People get paid for this stuff because of their ability to create content for marketing a sponsors product. If they choose to seek out "soft" problems or go out on a limb suggesting a grade it causes no harm for others. This video reeks of envy. Hope you find something positive to steer your energy towards.
If they have to seek out the easiest climbs to achieve something then they haven't actually achieved anything and aren't worthy of the attention they receive. Your opinion that they should be paid solely for their ability to create marketing content is part of the issue, and you clearly lack the ability to discern between content and *content. You are the type of person that thinks Twitch should become a hub for live streamed feet, yes that draws eyes but if we allow that to exist it will choke resources away from actual climbers like an invasive species away from natives. Eyeball retention shouldn't be the only KPI and if companies aren't going to take responsibility for driving attention in the right direction then someone has to.
I've found people with questionable ethics and a less than standard approach (or inflated communication of their feats) are kept in line well and have a relationship with "villains" that keeps the sport fair. Very few fair or in it for the fun climbers will bother to keep people cheating or not quite playing by the rules in line. Villains have played a part in keeping us all playing the same game in my community at least.
Based on all of the “positive” feedback you got from this post you are obviously in tune with a niche population that I do not have the pleasure of interacting with. Enjoy your quest.
stop projecting ...no pun intended
Nah, I see no envy. This is positive for the sport. People used to come out with a hammer and chisel to make their point, but now we as a community are to afraid to offend anyone. We need a modern day compressor route.
as long as there’s never any foul-mouthing of jimmy i’m all in for this ride
Tristan, I ask you kindly to not only focus on bouldering, but also route climbers who have done the same thing. Additionally, don't forget to shine more light on climbers on the positive side of the spectrum. For every climber you call out, give some ups to climbers like Griffin, Isabelle, Litz. Go 50/50 negative positive and I think people will dig that shit. Good luck man this is much needed
I’ll let you go through my scorecard, I volunteer as victim number 1
I won't be gentle
Phahaha brilliant, looking forward to it. Topic ideas -
1. Who you think is really out there pushing the limits no BS - dudes like Aidan, Will, Drew and Shawn?
2. Boulders that you think are actually hard for the grade or just hard regardless of the grade like lucid dreaming + railway
Let’s start by analyzing the list of people who have taken 10 big ones for Sergeant Hightower.
Red Rock, land of the "vacation" grades
100% that thing is the worst climb ever!
This is one of my favorite comments ever. did that deep diver a few weeks ago. found this gem. ruclips.net/video/EDZEtvDaOFQ/видео.html&ab_channel=PeterLi
😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
😂😂😂 gotttt em
this has got me more hyped than any mellow vid
"Armchair climbers are almost always correct in their assessments of climbs" really made me wonder if I was missing some kind of very involved satire. Nonetheless, the gossipy part of me is pretty interested by the whole thing
Commercial gym setting especially at large gyms have gotten insane. I am able to finish v10s at a large gym near me but I’ve been projecting a v9 outside for like a year at this point. It is painfully obvious when you watch a climbing video if it’s soft, especially when you are experienced. People who say it’s hard to judge based on the climb age right, but that’s how you know they aren’t actually good climbers. It’s not about the climb itself, usually you can tell just based off the climber’s movement in the video.
*I meant to say finish (“v10s”) in a few tries
You either die a villian or live long enough to see yourself become the hero
Not the villain we need, but the one we deserve…
“Alphane is going to stay V17 unless we say otherwise” and “You might want to examine your 8a scorecards before I publicly go through them” had me 💀
the real admin of @backseatgrading. I would love to see you go through 8a logbooks 😂
I don't skate, but I follow Gifted Hater's channel and it's enjoyable. Recently, a pro skater he talked about had a questionable camera angle on a trick he did over a picnic table, and after Gifted Hater's video came out, the pro went back and filmed the same trick, at a not-so-ambiguous angle. I think cases like this make it seem like some degree of criticism, within reason, could help the sport.
Crossover episode comment lmao
I think I recall hearing Aiden saying on a podcast that he spent 30+ sessions on Alphane and had made a replica, V17 seems plausible based on that and him saying it’s the hardest and longest project he’s had.
Burden of Dreams has been both a more difficult and more long term project for Aidan from what I know, but I agree that Alphane could very well be a genuine V17 despite this
@@LukeMais888 he’s only had 1 short trip there but your right that it’s hard for him, he’s said it’s not his style which when your pushing the boundaries really makes a difference
in the immortal words of Morgan freeman featured on heroes vs villains by our beloved young metro boomin,, "you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain",, way to make it thru bossman
When you say people need to get called out, do you mean like when you fell off the top of livin astro, but just took it anyway and called it a victory whip? For example.
Laff
Subaru, Solutions and soft shells 😭😭😭😭💀💀💀
Fantastic, love to see you full of energy
Or maybe climbing just needs people to honestly grade things with a no bullshit, no hard feelings attitude. It's that simple. Seb Bouin does that. Adam Ondra does that. All other approaches are ego trips: Inflating grades for the attention is an ego trip. Being smug about downgrading is an ego trip. Not commenting on grade because you don't want to hurt feelings is playing into the ego trip. Yes, it's not about the grade. But also, since it's not about the grade, no one should get offended when things get concensus up/downgraded. Aidan and Will not grading Alphane wasn't annoying because it didn't give the grade enough attention. It was annoying because it gave the grade too much attention: If they didn't think the grade was a big deal they shouldn't feel bad about proposing an opinion.
people starting climbs incorrectly. Especially when pulling on is a crux....
The worst...
You have me wondering if I've done this recently now
@@TChenRockif you did put yourself on blast with everyone else
People jump or campus starting boulder problems makes my skin crawl and I hate that I care.
@@TChenRockyour F5 footy in the NRG vid starts with your left hand above the established start. I’m not saying you didn’t do the boulder because you might have started the video 1 move in, but a lot of people might watch your vid and believe that start is kosher but in reality it removes the hardest physical move of the problem. All of a sudden the quality of the problem gets diluted, especially when you label it as soft. Just wanna highlight the importance of communication in a word of mouth sport.
Says the dude talking about “going for desp” is v15. Talk all you want. Talk is cheap. I’ll fist fight you anytime you want. Next?
I'm here for the drama, the best sports stories come out of rivalries.
Beef should be made public for our entertainment.
I can definitely understand your point here and I'm glad you mentioned the mindsets of climbers being understood before such actions of the said villain in climbing are taken.
bro you say like more times than a beverly hills girl. abyways i have never watched a climbing video in my life and youtube just recommended this to me so go for it man.
This guy is the living embodiment of r/climbingcirclejerk. I respect your hustle posting bombastic click-baity videos to try to grow your channel.
Gatekeeping location beta
yessssss....its soooo annoying, especially when they pretend to give info half-way
@@tynanhewes1368 especially especially when something is posted on social media about their super epic send of this god tier amazing climb
While spraying on instagram... then they whine when area gets popular
You say people won't know unless it's pointed out to them that dicktopia is easier than lucid dreaming, but you also say that an average weekend warrior can look at a climb and judge its difficulty solely based on its internet presence or whatever. Which is it? Can people tell climbs are soft without climbing them or no? Also, you say that they need to be open for criticism as a public figure, but you never offer any real reason as to why this is necessary? You're welcome to give your honest opinion about a climb and call it soft if it is, but what's the benefit in specifically calling others for climbing soft? How does it benefit the climbing community in any way by downplaying others' achievements? And they are achievements even if you suggest it's not in one of your comments. People are inspired by climbs because of the line or other aspects of climbing, not just solely the grade. But let's entertain the idea that the grade is the only thing that matters in climbing just for the sake of your argument. Climbing a soft v15 will still be better than the overwhelming majority of climbers. We can also entertain the idea that the people who climb soft don't deserve their brand deals, recognition or sponsorships just for the sake of your argument. Instead of trashing them, have you thought about the other side of the spectrum of uplifting those more underrated climbers and bringing attention to them?
Let’s talk about Head Route Setters who cannot climb more than V6. Instagram setting is only bat hangs and knee bars.
Yes finally! Like a content cop for climbing!
ACAB applies to content cops also
@@buff8995 bro lol 😂
While being rightfully skeptical/critical of the industry is fine, it also necessitates the creation of cooler, more in-trend media to replace it. People will still consume at a variably constant level (if climbing popularity doesn't die), so if the fantasy of the climbing lifestyle isn't portrayed in a way that entertains the masses, I fail to see how this exercise will amount to much outside of creating an outspoken sandbagging culture from a disgruntled niche of the community without much lasting value.
Easiest way to get coin is through grade chasing, highballing/dangerous climbing (see the difficulty through irrationally dangerous visuals), or competitions. Majority of people cannot understand what difficulty actually entails at the highest grades, similar to the original mania over climbing the tallest mountain (why Everest was/is considered to be the “crowning achievement” of mountaineering over much more technically difficult routes). Rockentry is significantly more popular than 99% of pro climbing channels cause he caters his content to the lowest common denominator. In a perfect world, high grade channels should outstrip any success that Oswaldo has had. However, this isn't a perfect world, so we must compromise where we can to transfer the ethos of hard climbing in a way that doesn’t bore the climbing masses (or a subset of them that can garner $ from sponsorships).
Cutting down the froth in the insanity of climbing sponsorships is a solid first step, but your ideal reality cannot be created unless you find a way to make it that *content is as entertaining as slop content. Or, accept that the community you want to foster will be small in inception.
What’s up with you not clipping the chains on livin’ astro? Isn’t that an example about what your talking about?
Oh spicy, I like it. Did you dig through all my old stuff or did you already know that?
And that's absolutely a fair point, I wouldn't do that now and the next time I'm home and sport climbing I'll repeat it. I would've that summer but I injured my wrist, and then after Jaws I did China instead so didn't have time for Astro.
It’s just a well known thing.
Man at some points i thought this was satire. Honestly, i agree. The whole point of the grading system is to show the difficulty, and if some of the climbs aren't graded correctly it fucks the system. You climb mega hard, you use it to make money, and then actually the 8C FA you just did was 8B but no one is going to come and do it because it's a standalone in the middle of no where, i call bs. Call people out, just don't go over board. Man 6:07 absolutely killed me, savage.
I honestly think that climbs can be different grades for different people due to different morphologies (just be good faith and state so, otherwise being criticized is fair). Also what are your thoughts on Paul Robinson upgrading lucid dreaming to v16?
Paul downgraded lucid from 16 to 15
@@alexbiale I've heard that he said that based off of current grading scales it would fit more in the v16 range. There was a whole kerfuffle with the V15 standard back in the day iirc
@@SpartaSpartan117 Ahh, I didn't hear that. I'm off social media these days so I miss some stuff.
Lying about grade is one thing, but don't you think your comments on grade hunting are a bit out of touch? If there is a climb that one can do that is notoriously soft for the grade, then I feel the better conversation would be surrounding changing the grade rather than bashing the climber for attempting it. After all, the people you are calling out supposedly do this for a living, so if they are incentivized to climb seemingly harder boulders then why wouldn't they?
Why shouldn't the grade bashing be done by the person that sent it? Take some personal responsibility and downgrade that bad boy. Also some climbs are inevitably going to be soft, the issue isn't when you just do a couple, or even if you know you can't do a hard one of that grade and just do the easier ones, its when you intentionally only seek out the softies and then hype yourself up as being hot shit for sending that grade.
I guess I'll start posting my training, even tho it's gym training. It'll be a start, wont be pretty either. But you said bring hard climbing to the masses, let's give them the opportunity to view it.
It is a shame that a lot of people take advantage of low hanging fruit to get publicity, but I don't think turning yourself into a social pariah is going to change anything. I hate the phrase "they're just doing their job," but I think it partially applies here. Nobody is getting catfished into buying a Subaru. Buying a Subaru is entirely your choice at the end of the day... even if that boulder that so and so sprayed about sending really is just V14 and not V15 that's still significant enough to anyone that would actually be influenced to buy the products advertised. And for the people that aren't making any money off of it, then it's sad that they think that they need so much attention to be happy but I don't think blatantly calling them out is going to do anything other than make them double down. They're not hurting anyone but themselves, the more they think themselves to be hot shit, the less they will find that they enjoy life holistically.
totes down for what you're seeking out to do in this video, but i do think that some of this correction at the top trickles down into sandbagging culture at the weekend warrior grade band, which i find is it's own brand of exhausting behavior in climbing. Kilter and tension grade comments are worse than 4chan.
Kilter grades are super inconsistent imo. Soft af below v10 and sandbagged af over v11.
Alphane could still be 17, yeah 4 repeats but 3 we’re from some of the best atm. Very keen for the call outs though.
lol. Who are you excluding?
I mean Shawn did the moves on Burden in like what, 3 days? If he sends in like 10 sessions then he is THE authority on V17s. He will probably send a V18 in the next couple of years... Its always hard for one generation to grasp what the new generation is doing, same way everyone was disregarding the first 9b's.
Doing moves and connecting them is different thing, I am not saying Shawn will struggle on it next time, but we will see. In every sport we see progress and climbing is really new sport and we can definately expect V18 in next 10 years.
@@rareearth97 shawn also did megatron which neither drew or daniel could do with like 60+ days on the boulder
He did not do the first move on burden
@@rareearth97 Maybe on an endurance piece it is. If you can do the single moves in just a couple of days, a 4 move boulder is not gonna take long to send. (I know its a 5 mover but the last move looks like a V6 for Shawn). From my own experience, usually when I do the hardest move on a boulder and its under 7-8 moves, I will send that day.
@@Monocrimp He had, he just didnt release the video yet
I'm all for it this is exactly what we need
@rockentry quaking rn 🤡
Someone needs to tell them how soft Levity is!
careful now
Please please please explain how the money works in the professional climbing industry. I have no gauge whatsoever and neither do any of my friends (we climb v6). I would have guessed like top 10% make a good living, but it looks like its like 0.0001%
Maybe this will help explain why its important to draw attention to people who actually push the sport instead of posting cancer to instagram
lol, what money?
Iirc, Drew ruana stated that maybe 5 people in the us make 100k+ from climbing sponsorships/climbing for a living
We have some "villains", like Seb bouin, who is just crushing everything and downgrading everyone, even Ondra, and it seems noone dares to repeat his lines. It seems like lead climbers like Ondra, ghisolfi, megos and jakob have no problems telling their true feeling about a grade
is there a clip of alex saying that? can someone send me the clip?
Hell yes, keep up the good fight brother
100% truth. Nobody is posting their “cutting edge” climbing videos simply to save the planet/humanity. They should be open to criticism or doubt if claiming special achievements in widespread media…that being said…I need to go DG everything in my 8a 😂 brb
The idea that as soon as you make money as a climber you need to listen to criticism is the dumbest u.s. based take ive ever heared. Why would anyone owe you something for when northface pays them?
Haha good luck with that…
Wasn’t expecting tchen to become the gifted hater of climbing but alright
So cal climbers,Der kapitan at black mountain is v9-10 not 12 🤢🤢🤣🤣
100%
@@michalgoatfeet glad someone agrees lol
Let’s hear some takes about the slug
Roy? Lol
Naw, the intermediate start between euro and grand illusion, added after GI was FA’d
Goddammit lmao
@@Drew_Ruana you got some thoughts drew?
@@Drew_Ruana 😂😂😂😂😂
Put some respect on the name when you talk about Aidan, man’s probably in top boulders in the world now. Also the score card comment kinda dead climbing ain’t a competition, also the people who say alphane is v17 flashing problems you project so can’t really say anything 🤪
They might be flashing your projies but they ain’t flashing mine 😜
@@TChenRock don’t remember seeing you get a v14 flash, so score card comment is still wet and you’re still a neek.
Everything in this video is 100% correct
Tristan heel turn
If you really think Alphane is 8C+ then how about you send it and give your opinion. Oh wait, you’re not that strong. If no one has officially downgraded it, there’s a reason why, and it doesn’t mean it’s because we’re getting soft
It's clear from who's sent it that a refusal to downgrade is not indicative of the difficulty.
@@TChenRock I would argue that from those who have climbed it, there is not definitive evidence that this is the case. Shawn Raboutou needs no background obviously, but 9A doesn’t seem unrealistic for someone whose tick list has 2 x 9A, at least 7 x 8C+, and an outrageous number of 8Cs. Will Bosi has been crushing this year. The guy just nearly flashed a well established 8C and has done 9A, 2 x 8C+, 12 x 8C (and flashed 6 of those) this year or so. Aidan Roberts has 9A, 2 x 8C+, and 4 x 8C this year. Simon Lorenzi has done 2 x 9A and 3 x 8C+ in a little over a year as well. I think that they have more than enough ability to offer a grade for Alphane. If it really is 8C+, which is entirely subjective anyways, then why do you care so much anyways? No need to put others down or say that the accomplishments of others are not important or meaningful.
Tristan, this is an important discussion, and your courage to bring it up, being an experienced climber, is appreciated.
You seem like a smart person so you probably know YT is not a healthy/ideal platform to progress on these issues. Comments section is as well proven to be innefective in terms of mentality or openness to change opinions (it makes it worse). Albeit mindful of that, I decided to post here with no intent of further replies (let me know how to reach out privately in case you feel like talking further).
We know that antagonism is inevitable in any area. Achieving positive outcomes from this ever existing polarity, depends on our intelligence to find better ways to deliver our criticism and confront the things we disagree.
Geographically speaking, it might be hard to promote a more direct talk within the community. I also live in a big country where technology helps with the distance barrier. But from experience (24 years of climbing here - been through quite a lot of shit), nothing replaces a good old and serious face to face conversation.
All in all, I hope my message favors good thoughts on your quest.
Peace out
Does the same logic apply to people who might climb an "elite" level climb every now and then if they aren't sponsored and aren't posting on Instagram? I'm mainly referring to the weekend warrior types who might only be able to send a couple hard boulders a year if they're lucky, and some of those might be soft, but that might be a result of convenience as opposed to some underlying lack of ethos.
Asking for a friend...
The level of shit that should be talked follows a parabolic arc. Zero for absolute beginners or like a child climbing outside for the first time, very very little for someone climbing occasionally for fun only, a little for regular week warriors (friends only when you do something wrong), some for the strong types (people you know say you started wrong or dabbed), and a fucking lot for pros (some asshole on a different continent makes a video calling you out for trying to upgrade Voyager)
@@TChenRock My last question is - will this content be released on some kind of schedule? With the second season of The White Lotus behind us, I'm in need of regular content.
Top 10 softest people in 2022 next.
GOAT
I think that yeah alphane is soft asf probably like v16 or maybe you could call it v17- but it’s not at the level of v17 although I believe that Shawn Rabatou is like literally the strongest boulderer regardless and I do feel like he needs to take responsibility and really get into why he thinks it’s v17 and get some other people opinion on it because I feel like he is definitely able to call things v17 at this point I mean even recently he almost got every move on burden of dreams very quickly I just feel like for things this hard you need a lot of really solid climbers to talk to eachother about it and be honest and really say why it is what it is
A more charitable take on Aidan and Will's non-grades is that the vast majority of their experience is on UK boulders, and UK boulders historically have a sandbagging problem, partly out of culture and partly because John Gaskins set a very wrong baseline for what 8B and 8C look like. Add in an unusual love for indoor board climbing and (relative to people like Daniel, Jimmy, Dave, Shawn, Nalle, and Giuliano) not that much time climbing >= 8C around the world, and it doesn't seem so surprising that they'd honestly believe the other people near their level have a more accurate perception of grades?
@@zoaxanthellae Did Gaskins actually set that standard or did he just slap 8C on 45° panes of glass with a few chips in them?
@@danschmidt5189 Hey, don't forget the "matchstick holds"!
I mean if every climb is soft maybe you’re just a sandbagger… for real though, will bosi took a trip to the Czech Republic recently and sent like 10 v15s there, with a v14 flash. In the same trip he sent alphane, he also sent eyphra, a v16. Aiden also put up a v16 FA to a classic v13 in the same trip he sent alphane, so my personal opinion is that those Brits are super strong and used to sandbagged grades rather than alphane being soft, as pretty much everyone in Shawn’s crew (who basically established the v16 grade) agreed it was v17
@@alexantone5532 the Czech is a whole other thing. Personal opinion that I'll justify later in video form: its softer than the rest of Europe.
Jonathan Siegrist. 'Nuff said.
Can’t get behind this one honestly. With a craft as subjective as climbing there will always be room for difference of opinion. I really think this contributes to a more negative climbing pursuit
"Wonder" at Index River WA is soft, like v5, with new beta
That't not surprising
I was thinking same thing wonder if like a v4 good rule of thumb is take off at least two v grades for all of WA
@@michalgoatfeet idk man, Feel The Pinch was pretty fuckin hard for the grade.
@@kockarthur7976 that's the exception not the rule. Feel the pinch is harder than Busted "v8" right next door. In general wa is butter.
Let the north face /prana athlete roasting begin LoL
bro is about to become the next Fred Rouhling
@everyone that takes v10 for moulin rouge
Hyped
Video is great.👏
why not call out some of the climbers? Go full on villain, we want names haha
What’s the deal with Reel Rock?
Hey! Not related to the subject at all , but you are such my type haha and feels like you have a very good vibration even through video . hope your health is better now and youre doing good! take care x
@tchenrock 1000% in support of this dude! Let ‘er rip! 😂
V5 in my gym
LOL what is this nonsense? You can’t just label yourself a “villain”. It doesn’t work like that.
Looking forward to this!
Fuck yeah Tristan, thank you
I like it
big up
Looking forward to it!
wedge climbing videos i like a lot
and dave mcleaod
the alphane stuff is so weird. like hearing will and aiden repeat like almost the exact same lines when asked ab the grade (well idk mellow crew has so much exp., im not in a position to pass judgement, idk, etc) was odd. Doesn't come off as legit humble, more scared to voice their true opinions fro some reason.
That in particular is because Aiden’s from the UK which is notoriously sandbagged
I've been trying to get High Plains Drifter downgraded for years now.
On it! 😜
😂😂😂 this is amazing Tristen!
Bro just spit pure facts.
climbing needs what BJJ has... a Gordon Ryan
I'm here for this
❤️❤️❤️ soft as butter ova here
not reel rock 😢
hot take: hands are aid
YES. Lets do this
I hate wedge climbing we only want to see strong Aidian Roberts but they only show weak Midget Jim pope
fr fr
I only ever watched half of a wedge climbing video because it wasn't Aiden Roberts and I was disappointed.
Jim Pope is gnarly af wtf you talkin about?? Watching him open-hand climb is like ASMR
Came here from the careless talk podcast just for this comment and I was not disappointed.
@@6darkness6eternal6 Haha same
nice, keep it real
I like this shit man👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
Almost like a “More plates more dates” channel but for climbing
Love it
Monica McKeown, least soft climber on RUclips?
Based
Mellow is good but their most recent video is an embarrassingly try-hard attempt at art that drowns out the very thing the video is supposed to accentuate: the fucking climbing
There’s plenty of enough shitty raw bare bones climbing content out there. There’s room for some artistic expression.
I’m not arguing for more bare-bones videos. I’m saying the video, in whatever form it takes, should not distract from the main subject, which is climbing. There are lots of climbing films whose artful elements elevate the quality of the video. That was not one of them.
Lmao you wouldn't like my videos then
Experimentation is good. It just falls short sometimes. The point is that criticism is a sign of a healthy community. You don’t have to agree with the criticism to acknowledge that.