From The Rocky Mountain Collegian, October 18, 2011

By Allison Sylte

 

When Zebulon Pike first glimpsed Pike’s Peak in 1806, he predicted that no human being would ever stand on its summit. More than 100 years later, anyone with a car can conquer Colorado’s formerly fearsome landmark.

And Longs Peak, once considered one of the most daunting climbs in Colorado, is summited by thousands of tourists and weekend warriors every year.

Last month, when a friend and I did Longs, despite arriving at the trail head at 3:30 a.m., we were the 127th people to sign the register. The excitement of reaching the summit was slightly dampened by the few dozen other people who arrived at the same time.

That’s why it seemed totally weird when, in the midst of the sea of people meandering their way up the trail, I saw a guy literally running to the summit.

According to an article that ran Sunday in the New York Times, now that most major peaks and routes have been successfully ascended, the only remaining challenge for climbers is speed.

Ueli Steck, a Swiss mountaineer, recently climbed Mt. Eiger, a classic peak in the Alps, in 2 hours and 47 minutes, shattering the previous record of 18 hours. A video of his climb shows him sprinting through snow across the peak’s narrow ridge, ignoring the scenery to consult his stopwatch.

“Fifty years ago, adventure in the mountains was more about going places where no one had been,” said Steve Swenson, the president of the American Alpine Club, to the New York Times. “Most of these places have been thoroughly explored. Maybe adventure gets redefined.”

Swenson is right. Hundreds of people summit Mt. Everest every year, and guides can take climbers up Mt. Rainier and Mt. Denali.

Climbing Colorado’s 14ers is a weekend hobby shared by many.

In some respects, this is great. There can’t be anything wrong with as many people as possible getting outside. On the other hand, this takes some of the purity and adventure away from mountaineering, and makes it harder for our generation to conquer new frontiers.

Some pros, like freesoloist Alex Honnold, distinguish themselves by doing routes faster and with less gear. For others, like Chad Kellogg, a speed climber, it’s about getting to the top as fast possible, even if it involves running up Mt. Rainier in gym shorts and track spikes.

What they’re doing is very cool, but you’ve got to wonder, is it as cool as conquering Everest or K2 for the first time? Would Edmund Hillary be particularly impressed by someone who sprints up the side of a mountain that countless people have done before?

“Everybody wants to be faster and stronger,” said Brent Bishop, a friend of Kellogg, in the New York Times, comparing Kellogg’s record ascents to breaking the four-minute mile.

But Steck admitted that speed climbing isn’t necessarily the best thing for the sport, that it dilutes many aspects of mountaineering.

Personally, while I think that running up a mountain is definitely awesome, the fixation on speed takes away from the whole purpose of climbing, and isn’t necessarily an omen for the mountaineering accomplishments to come.

Obviously, I’m not Alex Honnold or Ueli Steck. I’m just a weekend warrior who loves to get outside when I can. But when I climb, it’s more about pushing my limits, being safe and enjoying the splendor of the outdoors than seeing how fast I do it. The faster I climb, after all, the sooner I get back to reality.

I’d like to think that, if I were ever lucky enough to summit Eiger, I’d be too busy looking at the scenery to look at my stopwatch.

More than anything, I still think that there are new frontiers to explore, and that speed isn’t the answer to exploring those frontiers. Instead, it just seems like a cop-out.

A group of climbers, including Honnold, recently recorded some first ascents on a series of towers in Africa, and there are many formidable routes here in Colorado that haven’t been conquered.

Mountaineers like Kit Deslauriers, the first person to have skied the seven summits are proving that there are still plenty of difficult feats to accomplish outside of first descents.

I like to think that this generation of mountaineers still has an Everest to climb, and I just hope that, instead of focusing on running up mountains, we go out there and find those.

As Swenson said, maybe adventure is getting redefined. While running up a mountain is an incredible physical feat, I hope that doesn’t become the new definition of adventure.

 

Content Managing Editor Allison Sylte is a junior journalism major. Her column appears Tuesdays in the Collegian. She can be reached at news@collegian.com.