New York City hosted a giant bouldering competition in Central Park recently, and this was apparently enough to get the Times to cover the sport:
For decades, rock climbing was a sport about reaching places thousands of feet off the ground. These climbs can take days and require sleeping up on the rock. Spectators watch with binoculars below. Pinning ropes to the rock along the way is a necessary safeguard, and learning how to climb with a rope is a lengthy undertaking that long kept the sport on the fringe.
But in recent years, another, younger type of climbing — called bouldering — has opened the sport to a far wider group of participants and spectators. Bouldering requires no ropes because it centers on short climbs, usually up to 18 feet and lasting no more than five minutes. It is easier in many places to find a low rock to climb than it is to find a giant cliff.
And it is easier to watch friends, or professionals, when they are right in front of you.
Bouldering is one of the best ways out there to twist an ankle!
In the sport of bouldering, some bouldering problems are called “highball – A very high boulder problem, often with a hard landing.” What this means in practice is that after a certain height it doesn’t matter how many bouldering crash pads you bring, your landing is going to hurt you. Bouldering has a built-in advantage and appeal for the young and thrifty.
Another joke about the sport is, bouldering books show the routes up, but then they usually recommend downclimbing — as if that was the easier part. Most climbing injuries happen on the descent.
At the rock gym and out at the crags, I’m amazed at how polarized the sport tends to be; a majority of the people who rope up don’t boulder. And of course the bouldering crowd tends to boulder strictly as well, since it’s about acting cool in skimpy clothing and not being burdened by a harness or rope.
It’s good that it’s being considered for the Olympics; now gymnasts will have a competition where they can look less gay.
Maybe they should try out for American Ninja Warrior instead of bouldering.