Monday, October 27, 2014

Up and Coming Climbers

This week I would like to share with you guys some of my favorite climbers. More of the recent guys on the scene from my time period. I will be talking about three different climbers, Chris Sharma the oldest and most experienced of the three. Secondly, Daniel Woods who I aspire to be in my climbing but he is on a world class level. Last but not least Paul Robinson, who is on the nationals climbing team with Daniel. Paul is still a world class climber but just a little less experienced than his competitors.

So, Chris Sharma is a World class rock climber, arguably one of if not the best climber in the world when it comes to bouldering. Chris is now around 33 years of age and has been climbing for most of his life. He has set many problems or routes for others to follow. He has also won many competitions in his career. Climbers do not make much money, even at the world class level which is unfortunate. If this changed it could really help the sport of climbing improve. Chris has recently been struggling a bit because he and many others have already climbed the most difficult problems in the world. Anything past V15 which is basically the hardest difficultly is just to painful on the body or impossible to climb.

Next up is Daniel Woods, he was an amazing climber from the start and was crushing crazy difficult climbs at the age of 8. He has won the American Bouldering Series 7 times in his career so far! As I said earlier I would like to be at his level but right now that would be impossible for me. I climb at about a V7 level, so about half Daniel's skill level. I have friends who have been climbing for over a year and are still at the V3-V5 level so it does take a lot of time and practice to become a great climber.

Lastly Paul Robinson, he climbs at the same level as Daniel and competes as his teammate on the American Nationals team. Daniel usually manages to snag the spotlight but Paul has many 3rd and 2nd place competitions. If I could increase my skill level to anywhere near Paul I would be very satisfied with my progress as a climber. There is still a lot of work for many young climbers just like to myself that want to achieve greatness in the sport.



3 comments:

  1. I dont see any safety equipment in first two pics.. i cant believe they can do that without it ! awesome !

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    1. You are correct, the first two are not using ropes but they do have a mattress like pad underneath them. That style of climbing is bouldering and is generally at lower heights than the bottom picture.

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  2. WOW! That is so dangerous, kudos to them for climbing without using any ropes.

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