eugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (10/25/85)
Frankly the amount of commentary on the net regarding climbing and
the proposal to start a net.climbing was a curiosity to me [it died
down a bit, hope I didn't kill it]. Anyway, in the interest of
keeping the discussion going, let me throw out a topic and see if we can
get something started [I doubt worth a news group]. Perhaps,
non-climbers can gain some insights. I have considered leading a
discussion on the various motivations of climbing at the local Sierra Club
chapter as an alternative to the monthly boring slide show.
Back when I was high school, I had a history class where the requirement
of the teacher was to write a year term paper of at least 10 pages and
give a presentation to the class on the topic. Any topic was legal
because any topic constituted history of some sort or another. [This
50 year old fellow was interesting as he was a surfer at that age :-)]
Anyway, I had been climbing for two years, so a did a paper on climbing:
turned out over 130 pages not including photos.
I collected various quotations, and I am aware of a rather poor book
on the subject by a sociologist at OSU.
I have been very fortunate (in the years I have been climbing) to
climb with well-known figures [living near LA, CA and Santa Barbara, CA
really helped, as well as other friends]. My motivations were probably
based on being a short, weakling little kid who never amounted to
much on the playing field. I know many of the best climbers in the world
who also started this way, too. This is known as "the no-where-else-
to-go misfit finds an activity to do" thesis. There are now several other
theses: the macho-man, the sample every thrill-variant, and so forth.
I realize that in trying to uncover motivations that we make the
discussion more difficult to follow, hence, this is why George Leigh
Mallory's famous quotation "Be cause it's there" seems so mystical
to many. [I found what I regard as Mallory's ultimate answer which
I will post later.] This adds a measure of uncertainty [Heisenmetrics]
to any discussion we might have.
Anyway, the sack (?) has been kicked? Next?
From the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers:
--eugene miya
NASA Ames Research Center
{hplabs,ihnp4,dual,hao,decwrl,allegra}!ames!aurora!eugene
emiya@ames-vmsb
References and quotations as I go among.
"I climb mountains to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in peace."
Art Davidson, Minus 148