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1. Clif Loucks – WHY CLIMB?
   I have traveled to a variety of locations in this world for the purpose of climbing Rock. Sometimes “the Rock” in question is a mountain, or a mountain range, and other times it is a smaller stand-alone face, whether a large granite precipice, or an overhanging cave composed of limestone or pocketed volcanic tuff. I have traveled to Hawaii, Canada, Texas, South Dakota, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and dozens of locales across California via road trips, experiencing many features of this world, to climb rock. Many folks consider this behavior aberrant. I’ve wanted to address this notion for some time. It was my Father who prompted my initial response. His words were: “Why in the world do you rock-climb?”
   I decided it would be good to put the answer in writing. This paper is my Philosophical Answer to the question:
   “Why in the world do you rock-climb?”
   [Author’s Note: Some of the statements below comprising my answer are not necessarily in “complete sentences,” for the predications assume the subject of the question...]
   The clinical answer: LIFE IS DIFFICULT.
   To subdue life’s difficulties is a priority of those who overcome. To meet the challenge of an obstacle, one must be stronger than the opposition that obstacle poses. To have peace often requires defeating opposition, even if there is a battle to attain that peace. To be a master at living, one is not required to control all factors without error – for this is not according to our natures – but simply to NOT be vanquished by everything that threatens us. Enduring hardship, frustration and disappointment in an increasingly large number of ways, tests our tolerance of Pain. Patience – born by the union of trials and humility – coupled with insights learned in life, is the marriage called success, which I believe amounts simply to a `joy in the journey’. There are no more pots of gold at the end of the rainbow, only one more mountain to climb, and the lessons taught by it. So as learning the techniques of climbing and experiencing the reality of the climb will improve your ability to climb, so it parallels life in its ability to improve one’s endurance to hardship. Pain is relative to one’s endurance, which is a consequence of one’s application of the experiences of past pain…
   So why climb? The practical answer, combining the theory above:
   For the total enjoyment of living, above the toil and drudgery that this world is so accustomed to offering; for the overcoming of what is common or limiting, as Mountain being the Metaphor for Life, with its attendant obstacles to surmount; to escape the ordinary, the humdrum, the mediocre.
   Why climb? To express purpose, meaning, and the drive to ascend above difficulties, for nothing is as hard or complex as the climbing of a rock, nor as natural, so all else falls into its proper perspective in comparison; all else becomes less meaningful when looked at in terms of accomplishments and enjoyments; for in climbing they are one and the same…
   Why climb? For the combining of what is Solid with what is Movement, a joining of the two concepts of the Immovable Object with the Irresistible Force, in an experiential relationship: the Rock and the Climber, a person being “One with the Rock” as the oft-quoted phrase goes. It is a physical meditation with what is otherwise larger-than-life.
   Why climb? Climbing is the art of discovering a particular solution to a given problem. Climbing is the application of one’s own resources to an objective challenge; to challenge one’s perceived limits and to willingly improve upon them, under penalty of pain… the very essence of Discovery itself is experienced for oneself, without the indirect notion of second-hand instruction; Climbing is an Expression of the Art of Living.
   Why climb? For the heightening of the senses, when every moment counts for the life that you’re living at that very moment; when the body is in controlled harmony with the mind, and all “systems” are unified to perform one pure motion at a time, then you are climbing…
   Why climb? To face the Fear that grounds us in so many ways, of repeated Failure, of the Unknown, of Wrong Decisions – for those will always be faced when in the act of climbing – and to overcome those Giants in our lives; to gain mastery over Fear and therefore over ourselves, lest we be subservient to such fears.
   The release is, in truth, more for the facing of Reality than for the escaping of it, for the freedom it brings is like deliverance to a bond-slave, and as answered prayer to a saint…

   These are among my reasoned thoughts
   as to “why in the world I climb rock.”
   From the Mind of the Clif

   Posted by Clif Loucks on January 17, 2010 at 10:55 pm | Permalink