When Do You Call Yourself A Climber?

Quite a philosophical essay on what being a climber is at Rock And  Ice.

“Many people wonder when they can first call themselves a “real climber.” We live in a material society, where we’ve decided that the things we own say the most about who we are. If you own a harness, belay device and rock shoes, then you’re a climber. .. When you decide to call yourself a climber, I suppose you are one.”

[That seems an easy enough definition. So if I want to call myself an “eye surgeon” does that make me one?  - ed.] 

He has other definitions that are less self-referential and more objective. Read the whole thing.

Here’s another essay written by a 25 year old woman called “What I Love About Climbing.” A snippet:

“Climbing has saved my life over these past few months as sadness and pain and anxiety threatened to overcome me.  For that, I shall always be grateful, because imagining how, or indeed if, I could have coped without it, I am terrified of my own inner frailty.”