To reach the
cliffs on Mt. Minsi, you hike up a steep talus slope. The hike itself is only about 10 minutes, but
that’s without stopping. Try walking up
stairs, without stopping, for ten minutes.
Try walking up stairs for ten minutes, without stopping, with 30+ pounds
on your back. Try walking up hill made
of boulders and rock, some that move, for ten minutes with 30+ pounds on your
back in the sun, 85 degree weather and high humidity without stopping. See how the progression works? Most of the time (but not always) when I go
climbing there’s a strenuous and usually uphill 10-20 minutes hike. But personally, I feel that the downhill hike
back is always harder.
My point is
that in climbing, you got to hump your own gear.
The other
day I was at the train station on my way home from work. To get to my train’s platform there’s a
stairwell and an escalator. I always
take the stairs. The escalator wasn’t
functioning, and there was a slow shuffle of bodies trudging up the
stairs. A saw a woman, late 30’s or
early 40’s, and she had a very large bag.
She was just standing there with a confused look on her face and I asked
her if she needed a hand with the bag. It
turned out she was carrying Golf Clubs.
The bag was large, but it couldn’t have been more than 20 pounds and had
a padded shoulder strap. I easily carried
it up the stairs for her, along with my own commuter bag that is surprisingly
close to ten pounds.
Now, I love
to pick on Golf. I’ve been to the
driving range and putting green before, and I realize it takes practice and
skill to hit the ball. But Golf is NOT a
sport. There’s actually a Supreme Court ruling that states one doesn’t have to walk from one hole to the next in order
to participate in the PGA Tournament.
You can simply take a ride in a cart.
Couple that with the fact that most golfers (definitely the pros) have
caddies who carry their clubs I’d say Golf is nothing more than an outdoor
game.
Mountaineering
is climbing’s close relative. What I
call “climbing” is near vertical, class 5 (hence all the 5. ratings) roped
climbing. Mountaineering may include rock,
ice, and snow climbing as well as scrambling and walking. When you think of Mountaineering, you can
think of Everest. Mountaineering has its
version of Golf’s caddy, the porter.
None more famous than the Sherpa, a Himalayan People who are physiological
adapted to living at high altitudes. Sherpa
often accompany well-financed climbing parties on Everest, and other high peaks, carrying supplemental
oxygen and equipment, and often pre-place safety equipment at their own peril,
to facilitate climbers. Outside Magazine
recently penned an article about the sad fate many of these people suffer while
doing the majority of the dangerous, technical, and laborious work that allows
wealthy novices to ascend some of the world’s highest peaks with little or no
experience as mountaineers or climbers.
Personally, I have no desire to go where I can’t bring myself to by my
own will. Every inch I’ve ever climbed,
whether following or leading, has been due to my own effort. And if I’m not leading and placing the gear,
I’m cleaning it and racking it on my harness as I second.
One could
argue that climbing isn’t a sport, and I would agree. While there is “sport” climbing which is
loosely defined as clipping bolts (vs. using traditional protection) as well as
sport climbing competition and indoor wall climbing. I see and define climbing as a discipline,
more akin to martial arts. Climbing can
be competitive, as can Golf, but the competition is the course, or route. Competing against another participant is
secondary, and only in terms of performance comparison. Most, but not all “sports” are direct
individual or team contests that involve back and forth offensive scoring against an
opponent's defense. But I digress into another
topic.
Carrying my
heavy climbing pack, on my own, for a day of physically demanding activity only
to have to help carry a Golfer’s light bag, meant for a leisurely paced
activity done on the comfort of a groomed course with carts, restrooms, and
likely an air-conditioned club house that has a bar and grill, really got my
wheels spinning in terms of things I place a great amount of importance
on. Health, Strength, Mobility, and
overall Fitness.
Being
healthy is health insurance. Catching a
cold or getting a stomach bug is just my body fighting off foreign germs. Eating good foods is my every day medicine. Taking care of my body is waht will ensure its
longevity, thus I am my own insurance provider. Strength is the ability to
exert force on an object. Lifting
weights is nothing more than that.
People have skewed misconceptions about those of us who pick up the
heavy weights in the gym. I train my
body for function. I squat, deadlift,
and press…all functional movements that the human body was designed for. Squatting is sitting, deadlifting is picking
up an object from the ground, and pressing is putting an object over your
head. Mobility is everything. People end up in nursing homes when they’re
not able to get around on their own.
Take away a person’s mobility, you take away their life. And finally, there's fitness. I don’t have a definition for fitness but
understand it along the lines of having a strong and functional body and
mind that is ready and able to serve a purpose.
When we stop
challenging our bodies to perform under stress they weaken. We don’t need to grind ourselves to the bone
every day with grueling exercise regimens.
However, we do need to ensure that we are capable of functioning as we
were designed to. And if one lacks the
ability to carry a 20-pound bag of lightweight Golf Clubs, then maybe one
should consider skipping the driving and putting (carting and caddying) for a
little bit of 20-pound calisthenics.
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