Defending the...?

I have only memories of some my most enjoyable and richest experiences in life. I might’ve forgotten - or ignored - my camera, phone and watch. I know I savoured each blissful, temporary moment - be that at the bottom of a route, the top of a mountain, or simply amongst nature.

I climb to have fun, to get away from tech, to find adventure - usually with a good friend. These are some of my core values, and I like climbing because it’s real: it’s an activity with consequences, often in a beautiful setting. It’s not about ‘me.’ If I take anything from these experiences, it’s a photo of my partner(s); a small climber in a big landscape. I find the notion of social media the antonym of climbing.

Today, I was surprised. In the mountains we now have 360 videos, selfie sticks, live streaming, pre-hype, and cameras on ice axes to capture the ‘extreme.’ Many of these are commonplace in a shopping centre… but in climbing? I find myself thinking, ‘is this form of media-generating ultimately for the person’s enjoyment, or for the “authentic content” which can be posted online? Are they climbing because they’re having fun, or because they can create a new video to roll in the hamster-wheel of social media?’

I guess there’s a scale, from the dark-horse underground climber to the insta-spray-tweet-my-face-off (as Hayden Kennedy said). I’d rather be the person who ‘climbs first, talk (if at all) second.’ Wouldn’t it be cool to be towards the ‘underground’ end of the scale? Wouldn’t it be cool to have style?

Yes, I’ll finally work out how to make my first Instagram Reel from a recent days climbing. And no, I’m not really bothered by all this stuff - it’s just an interesting thought experiment. But right now, I want to act like the people I respect (Marko Prezelj, Rolo Garibotti, Nico Favresse and Steve House, for example). For them, and me, it’s not about pre-hyping trips, taking selfies, captioning quotes from Marcus Aurelius and EPIC capitals…

Each to their own. I respect others’ opinions and perspectives. I’m all for sharing the good energy, fun times and bad times; let’s capture some of the magic of the outdoors and climbing. It’s a tricky balance to strike and I have been a hypocrite in the past, but I’ve drawn my line in the sand and try to positively contribute to social media. I’m not biting the hand which feeds (I’m a sponsored climber), but I wonder if we’d be aware of an encroaching event horizon. Luckily for me, alpinism isn’t very photogenic-when it gets serious the camera goes away. The last thing I want is an external motivation to take extra risk. And I’ll certainly never take a selfie stick when I go climbing, nor will I attach a GoPro to my ice axe!

The sun is setting, I’m logging off, and jumping out of the window…