Outdoor Quote: Royal Robbins

Filed in archive Outdoor Quotes on October 12, 2007

I receive a lot of emails from readers who express interest in climbing, but are concerned about the dangers associated with the drenaline pumping hobby. I'm a beginning climber, so I will not try and pretend I know everything about it. However, I did find an excellent quote I hope will help others understand climbers.

"Writing this last chapter has been difficult and painful. It involves do's and don'ts, obligations and responsibilities. Most climbers are individuals who love freedom-they climb because it makes them feel free. We may expect then, that having others suggest how they ought to climb will rub wrong. There used to be so few climbers that it didn't matter where one drove a piton, there wasn't a worry about demolishing the rock. Now things are different. There are so many of us, and there will be more. A simple equation exists between freedom and numbers: the more people the less freedom. If we are to retain the beauties of the sport, the fine edge, the challenge, we must consider our style of climbing; and if we are not to mutilate and destroy the routes, we must eliminate the heavy handed use of pitons and bolts."

- Royal Robbins, Basic Rockcraft, 1977.