• The Tech Point

    2 Comments »Posted in Random by Feb 9, 2011

    The Tech Point is soon upon us, if it’s not already here. We all know red points, and pink points, and onsights, and flashes. But once ipads and the like start getting embedded in every damn thing like our fingernails, we’re gonna need a standard for what it means when you’ve sussed a project to death via the internet before you’ve even seen the dang thing in person. And that’s the tech point. Someone call 8a.nu and tell ‘em to update the score card.

    And as should always be the case in matters of the future and malicious technology, we need only to turn to Keanu Reeves for guidance. Sure, we’re just looking at video clips now in 2011, but eventually the tech-point will become way more sophisticated, as Keanu shows us:

    Example 1. Keanu in Johnny Mnemonic, using virtual reality to work out the tricky beta for some burly project that’s rumored to be in the 5.16 range.

    Example 2. Keanu in The Matrix, downloading stuff straight to the brain case. This is probably the most efficient way to go if you don’t mind having a giant USB port in the back of your head. It beats working a hangboard, in my humble opinion. I’d lose the trenchcoat before roping up, though.

    The question is, what will you do? Will you be one of the “hippies” who are all righteous and “pure” about climbing, but who couldn’t crimp their way out of the stone cellar prison in Silence of the Lambs? Or will you embrace change and the tech point and crush like Keanu?

    Matt Paden

    Matt currently lives in Boone, NC, where he’s attending graduate school at Appalachian State. In a foolish gamble, he assumed he’d have more time to climb by going back to school instead of working a full time job. He sorely lost that bet. Still, he finds some time to climb and is slowly but surely bouncing back from a shoulder injury that buggered him in 2009. Matt has been climbing since 1995 and he is one of the founders of Cruxn.com.

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Discussion 2 Responses

  1. ErichP
    February 14, 2011 at 11:47 am

    I should also bring to your attention the “Wolverine Flash”.  I spent 2 months at the New River Gorge last summer which Wolverine Publishing had just produced a high quality guide book.  It is the standard to which I believe all guide books should be held.  A joke amongst Fayetteville locals was the “Wolverine Flash”.  This book provided so much beta on some routes that a climber had only to read the book, then send the rig. 

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  2. Matt Paden
    February 15, 2011 at 6:20 am

    Erich, nice addition to the post. I have a love/hate relationship with guidebooks that provide a ton of beta. Usually I prefer it on long multi-pitches where it’s easy to get hosed on some awkward route finding issue.

    As for the tech-point, I guess it’s really just an extension of the original folks who would tape a route and watch it later for insight. Everyone’s prolly heard that this is where the term “beta” comes from because the old tapes were beta-max format. The difference to me with the shiny new tech point is that there are just so many videos online now, and it’s so accessible to everyone. I was at the Bald the other day and heard two guys talking about a project they were working and they disagreed about how it was done on the video they had watched. I was just waiting for one of them to pull out a smart phone and watch the video right then. Luckily, it didn’t happen. Maybe I’m old in thinking that’s taking things to a new and somehow disturbing level.

     

     

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