What does it mean to "climb" something?

What does it mean to "climb" something?

Oh fuck, philosophy.

But not me. You.

When climbers say they "climbed" something, they usually get specific. They redpointed, or bother to mention if they onsighted. If someone didn't "climb" something they often choose to be vague, saying they "got on" the 12d.

Once upon a time, I had a very healthy attitude towards climbing. If I got to the top of a climb, commonly hanging my way to the top, I checked it off in the guidebook, told my friends that I did it, and forgot about it. I had "climbed" it. Even my mom would agree.

Of course, getting obsessed with the rules took the fun out of climbing. I've since returned to the basics. If my mom would agree that I climbed it, then I did.

Me, climbing.  Photo by Jed Brown.

This was a day dream rant that I had a long time ago. I just mentioned it to The Legendary Nick Elson, and he mentioned that it would make a good blog post, since that is on his mind lately. I figured I wasn't really qualified, since I'm not exactly pushing any sorts of standards (perhaps pushing them off a cliff).  But actually, this is armchair alpinism at its finest, and few are more qualified than me. So I'll go on. 

When Jed and Jeff climbed the Cutthroat Couloir they climbed "to the end of the difficulties", reaching the ridge on the first day. I asked them if they had time left that day to descend. Easily, they said. "You should have - then you could claim that you were modern alpinists doing a speedy repeat." Instead they built a snowcave and spent the next day summiting and one more descending. I suppose they thought they had to summit in order to say that they climbed the mountain. My mom would agree.

But not everyone does. "How can you climb a new route on a mountain without actually climbing the mountain?" almost anyone's mom would wonder. Good question.

(not to pick on Kruk and Walsh - they hardly the invented the notion of climbing the feature they intended, going down, and calling it "firing a new line".)

Admittedly, all activities become more complex and layered as you delve further in.  Hence all the ways that climbers have invented to have "climbed" a route.  But I don't like the idea of saying that you climbed a route on a mountain that you've never climbed, and I didn't like being told that I didn't climb a route that I damn well did.  See what I mean?  I think it would pay to return to the basics - what does your mom think?  Did you climb it or didn't you?  It ain't that complex.