h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This article sums up what climbing is all abou, why we do it, and what we get out of it.

I think it should be merged with the current edited article on Rock Climbing, which has some good points, but falls somewhere short of the mark IMO.

The URL? http://www.h2g2.com/A390566

Cheers,

SW

(This is a repost, as I failed to put the article number in the title previously.)

Any comments welcome! Forwarding to Coming Up even more welcome

nits first
(I generally like to do nits first, cos that's the fun bit for me...)

"Rock Climbers" - don't capitalise. similarly for Ramblers. Unless you mean the rugby team...

Why climb rocks section - basically this just says "I'll tell you later" - why not remove it and try a different way of introducing the topic?

Scrap the terminology link - definitions are best done on the fly with footnotes. Use lots of footnotes if you have to...

Get rid of "I" and "me" and so forth

"Soloing is rarely performed at the peak of ones ability as mistakes when soloing can be (and often are) fatal."

umm. Surely the peak of your ability is the best time to solo. If you have to do it at all... (has visions of 70yr olds soloing)

wtf is "well protected"?

don't say that sport climbing is "less ethical". That's a value judgement. You might possibly say "some people consider S.C. unethical". Even that's dodgy.
Ditto for toproping - everyone was a beginner once...

"peel off 20 yards off the deck!" - this means what??

I like the two quotes, incidentally.

I know what a krab is, but most won't. footnote it.

Surely the most important reason for climbing for many people is fear? oh, and overcoming fear is another one. And team-building type stuff. The challenges are just means to an end for most, I'd guess.

ok - now the boring part - overall.
First thought - the original entry deals with all the four types of climbing very well. All you're adding is the bit on "why climb", and the bit on "sports climbing" - and perhaps. So scrap everything but that.

Second thought - why not just append all that you've got that's relevant to the entry, and then message the editor and ask them to flag it for revision? That's be easier, and probably quicker, too. There seems to be enough stuff there ( http://www.h2g2.com/A138313 ) for it to be worthwhile anyway.

Third thought - if you persist with this method, why not make h2g2's life easier, and do the combination yourself?

Regardless, there should be a link to the original entry in yours. Myself, I tend to put comments to the sub-eds in italics - but YMMV.

General impression - way too much slangy talk that nonclimbers wouldn't have a hope of understanding, and I barely grasp. Too much value judgement on styles of climbing, and on beginners/novices versus experts.

If you wanted to add more content, you might talk about the types of climbs. Climbing walls - different surfaces, angles, overhangs, buildings, snow etc, etc. Or talk about famous climbers, like the 'human fly' guy who died a year or so back.

> Why climb rocks section - basically this just says "I'll tell you later" - why not remove it and try a different way of
> introducing.

True, but it's just a matter of style - a sort of cliff-hanger. Quite appropriate really

> Scrap the terminology link - definitions are best done on the fly with footnotes. Use lots of footnotes if you have to...

Fair enough.

> "Soloing is rarely performed at the peak of ones ability as mistakes when soloing can be (and often are) fatal."
> umm. Surely the peak of your ability is the best time to solo. If you have to do it at all... (has visions of 70yr olds soloing)the topic?

Perhaps the wording is ambiguous then. You are taking it to mean 'peak of one's ability' over time, rather than at a 'particular' time as I was getting at. Possibly a matter of terminology again, as climbers tend to talk about their ability in terms of what they can climb. For example if the hardest climb I can manage at a given time is graded E2 5c then an E2 5c climb will be a climb at the peak of my ability - and I certainly wouldn't try to solo it! I'll try and think of a suitable rewording...

> "peel off 20 yards off the deck!" - this means what??

Surely you can work that one out! It's hardly a matter of terminology, just common sense! A yard is three feet, or just under a metre if that helps

> Surely the most important reason for climbing for many people is fear? oh, and overcoming fear is another one.

I'd strongly disagree. It's 'a' reason. Many people have a go to begin with for those reasons. Those that get hooked and become 'climbers' though have many more reasons than just fear - in fact fear becomes an obstacle in the way of acheivement in many cases. Hence the article.

> And team-building type stuff.

Not in pure rock climbing really. Maybe on multi-pitch mountain routes, and certainly in mountaineering. But rock climbing in itself has little to do with teamwork.

> The challenges are just means to an end for most, I'd guess.

Other way round in my experience (and I know and have climbed with *many* climbers of widely varying standards. The challenge is nearly 'the all' the fear is just a side effect to be dealt with. The yanks like to make climbing out to be a high adrenaline sport - but it isn't really. Ironic really as most of the climbing you actually see on telly on the 'adrenaline junky' channels is sports climbing, and so although they may take impressive looking falls from impressive looking routes, they are really safer than your average rugby player at a weekend game!!

> First thought - the original entry deals with all the four types of climbing very well.

You see this is where we differ! As a climber of some five years experience I know that the original entry does not deal with it entirely well. Certainly well enough for the non-climbing readership, but not entirely correct for all that. Surely a guide entry should be as factual as possible. I'm not trying to diss the guy responsible for writing the article, as he clearly has climbed - but doesn't seem to have captured the full picture.

Having said that, I clearly haven't expressed myself too well either - but then that's why the article is here! So cheers for the criticisms - I shall make some alterations when I have some more time to spare...

SW.

>> Surely the most important reason for climbing for many people is fear
Ooops. I meant *fun*, not fear... must be getting word-dyslexic...

I still reckon you'd be better off either editing in the original version into yours, so that it's ready-combined for the sub-eds, or just posting yours on a forum and asking the sub-ed for the original to flag it for revision. *shrug*

Yeah. I'll probably do that. Combine the two. But I'd really better get on with some work now....

Oh - yeah you're right. *fun* is probably the main reason for climbing as a hobby . I'd gotten all affronted there when you seemed to be bringing up the adrenaline junkie stereotype of climbing!


Until you get to the professional level - but then it's no longer a hobby, and athletes at that sort of level seem to have other agendas than fun.

SW.

See also http://www.h2g2.com/F48874?thread=71848 for the thread on the other article, Rock Climbing Terminology. :-)

No, it's not really obvious what you mean when you say 'pull 20 yards off the deck'. I like this article, and it's got a lot of good information in it - but it could use a little reorganization.

Assume that the reader has no idea what you're talking about (don't start at Genesis, but do start around Deuteronomy or so.) For instance, you talk about bolting as being ethically disgraceful before you define what bolting is.

There should be a list of basic equipment that you'll need. You might list the item, then tell the reader what it's for, how many of them they'll need, and what the best kind of rope is for bolting, traditional, or soloing. (If there's a difference). How many krabs do you need (BTW - don't know what a krab is!) What kind of shoes do you need? Where are the best rock climbing places?

I think this could be a really great article with just a little bit of tweaking. Have fun!

- Lentilla

No, it's not really obvious what you mean when you say 'pull 20 yards off the deck'. I like this article, and it's got a lot of good information in it - but it could use a little reorganization.

Assume that the reader has no idea what you're talking about (don't start at Genesis, but do start around Deuteronomy or so.) For instance, you talk about bolting as being ethically disgraceful before you define what bolting is.

There should be a list of basic equipment that you'll need. You might list the item, then tell the reader what it's for, how many of them they'll need, and what the best kind of rope is for bolting, traditional, or soloing. (If there's a difference). How many krabs do you need (BTW - don't know what a krab is!) What kind of shoes do you need? Where are the best rock climbing places?

I think this could be a really great article with just a little bit of tweaking. Have fun!

- Lentilla

Editorial Note: This Conversation has been moved to the new 'Flea Market' Forum.

This is where we move any Peer Review, Writing Workshop or Alternative Writing Workshop Conversations where the original author has *not* posted to h2g2 for three months. This prevents the active Review Forums from clogging up with dormant entries, but in the Flea Market they can be picked up by others and polished off.

This post has been removed.

This post has been removed.

Has somebody been swearing?

I'd like to propose Back to Entry as there already is an Edited Entry on this subject: A138313 

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Removed from FM

In fact it became A507223 Rock Climbing Terminology

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