Trad is rad (worth reading)

[Dom]

From Dead point magazine:

Trad is Rad
"Oh for tits sake," I said as we pulled into the parking lot. "There's another one." Every time I see one of those 'Trad is Rad' bumper stickers, I cringe. It's not because I don't think trad is rad. Trad is rad. It's the connotation that annoys me; the underlying message that, "I climb trad and trad is rad and sport climbing is neither." It's fairly common to witness this attitude at the New River Gorge where nearly every other route alternates between sport and traditional line.

Later that day, we set up shop beneath a difficult sport route. Immediately, I knew that the 'trad is rad' culprits were right next to us top-roping a moderate crack route. I'm a nice guy, but I'm also as judgmental as everyone else. So I set about painting a picture in my mind of what was going on with the group dynamics of our neighboring party. There were a couple dudes, swelling their chests because they were trad climbers, and a couple of overly attractive young girls that were on their first outdoor climbing trip. It was apparent to me, in my judgmental mind, that these young rock warriors had gone to great lengths to portray themselves as bold traditional hard men. I describe the young ladies as 'overly' attractive because the whole team together looked like they could be gathered on the homepage of http://www.hotchickswithdouchebags.com. I thought about taking a picture and submitting it but refrained.

Someone in our party started sport climbing, taking lead falls, and looking super rad to the neophyte hot girls. One of them seemed to take notice and turned to her rock gladiator boyfriend. In a tone just loud enough for us to hear she muttered, "Wow...What they're doing looks hard. What are they doing?" "Oh, they're sport climbing." he explained. "We're trad climbing. It's much harder." I laughed out loud a little bit and hoped they didn't hear it. I'd hate to blow the guy's cover. After all, I'm still a dude and can easily see that he had an image to maintain. Still, part of me wanted to pull their rope and solo the route. I know, I sound like a jerk, but I'm just being honest, and my guess is that a lot of you have had similar experiences when encountering the 'trad vs. sport' mentality.
I had to ask myself why the interaction bothered me. Maybe it was because they didn't know that I spend almost as much time climbing gear routes as I do clipping bolts. They just happened to catch me out on one of my quickdraw-only days. Perhaps it hurt my ego a little bit? If that's the case, then doesn't the 'trad is rad' mentality lurk deep within my psyche somewhere as well? Maybe my subconscious was screaming, "Hey dude, I climb trad too! I'm rad!" I'm willing to admit that is possibly the case though I like to think it has more to do with my personal definition of radness.

When I think of what's rad, I usually don't think of just trad climbing. I think of climbing; just climbing. Bouldering is rad! Sport climbing is rad! And yes, I guess trad is rad too and it also rhymes which makes it look better on a bumper sticker.
When I think of who is rad, the first person to come to mind is Dan Osman. That dude was rad. He climbed 5.14 sport routes and speed climbed free solo. He climbed sick hard trad routes and rope-jumped off of Yosemite towers.
Tommy Caldwell is super rad! He's ticked off a 5.15 sport route, V13 boulders and multiple first ascents of free routes on El Cap and around the world. Alex Honnold, Sonnie Trotter, Dave MacLeod... All these wicked rad climbers have one thing in common; they do it all. You won't find them standing around at the crag pooh-poohing bolts and discussing why they are better than everyone else because they don't use them. They're too busy doing rad things and climbing all the time on every type of terrain. That is rad to me.
When we sat down to decide what to do with this issue, it was apparent that we've been lacking in coverage of traditional climbing. In the future, we'll be incorporating a bit more coverage so that we don't restrict our mag and prevent it from reaching its full potential of radness. To make up for lost time though, we've devoted an entire issue to trad climbing. And not just plain old, gear-plugging, crack-chugging but big wall free-climbing which is about as rad as it gets. Hard moves over gear, way off the deck is pretty real and we hope that the pictures and articles do it justice.

Look for a little more diversity in our magazine in the future. We'll do our best to keep churning out great news and images from all aspects of the sport....except aid climbing. There's nothing rad about aid climbing.

[chossmonkey]

Not bad until right up to the end. I assume he is joking or has never actually done real aid climbing.

[granite_grrl]

Not bad until right up to the end. I assume he is joking or has never actually done real aid climbing.

If you read it as tongue in cheek though the comment is a lot funnier.

[Adam]

Not bad until right up to the end. I assume he is joking or has never actually done real aid climbing.

Considering the rest of the article it is definitely a joke. aid climbing is definitely rad (at times)!

[Stacey]

thanks Dom, you're right - definitely worth the read...ironic isn't it? the arrogance in which climbers portray themselves. I honestly don't know ANY trad climbers who have never gone sport climbing .... so can't be all bad eh?

live and let live is the proper motto of the day...in the end, it's all climbing, and more certainly 'rad' (yes, even aid climbing I'm sure, though I've never tried it...hmm...does french freeing count?

[Dom]

Not bad until right up to the end. I assume he is joking or has never actually done real aid climbing.

Considering the rest of the article it is definitely a joke. aid climbing is definitely rad (at times)!

It's probably a joke but if it isn't, the author is definitely a hypocrite. Anyways, I just found it was a good article showing how climbing ''radness'' can be subjective. Any kind of climbing is rad if you're psyched on it.

[GKelly]

I was really impressed with the writers ability to take a step back and analyze his own thoughts. Almost as he might analyze the thoughts of someone else.

[austinconrad]

It's all Rad!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhCVZRn9Ys4