Talk:Speed climbing/Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

In no way are the records comprehensive, they might also need some updating. The records are intended to be a sampling please add or update as you see fit.--OMCV (talk) 15:28, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Appears many of these records are hearsay lacking any standards for what are objectively considered "records". Self-timed, and many are disputed and apparently fraudulent. The Get Outdoors website and company did this article on the Alaska Mt McKinley record-claim of Chad Kellogg [1]. Author of the book "Speed Climbing" [2] Bill Wright has this about Chad Kellogg on his website [3] for Mt. McKinley the West Buttress Route in the Notes section for Gary Scott.--N88I (talk) 00:29, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Good point N88I, I tried to work what you said here into the article. Most of these records where drawn from Appendix 2 of speed climbing. I'm also looking for a summary of speed climbing that states, climbing is a rather silly activity (much like running on a track, swimming in a pool, or playing with balls) to add a time dimension to climbing is compounding silliness by further silliness.--OMCV (talk) 03:02, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Here is the quote I was looking for in the "Bottom Line" section page 106 of speed climbing. It would be nice to quote this but I'm not sure how much of it could be quoted legitimately. I hate to break it up, but I think I'll the significant portion.--OMCV (talk) 03:11, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

• Re your additions under Records. There are organized and officiated races in Russia and Kazakhstan each year. Mt. Elbrus Speed Climb [4] Other two are on Peak Amangeldy [5] and Peak Nursultan in Kazakhstan (will try to find something on this). But I'm not sure if your article on Speed Climbing is for rock speed climbing or alpine, or both. The races are alpine, no rock. Most of the records you cite are for rock except for the Wyoming Grand Traverse & the GT is not on alpine terrain (snow/glacier) so it's more of a trail climbing type of activity. Here's an article on Mt. Hood that's about the officially timed Mt. Hood record [6] timed by Climb Max Mountaineering, and another Mt. Hood record timed by Oregon Peak Adventures [7] Also on a Mt. Adams official record timed by the then Adams Mountaineering Incorporated [8] Co-author of the book you use as a source is Hans Florine, looks like the quotes you use are from him, his websites www.speedclimb.com and www.hansflorine.com He and the few other speed climbers don't want the activity to become a true time-sport. A true time-sport, or any sport, is one with officials. That's how things are in all sports. They like their self take photos of their own watches [9] and strangely appear to try to lead the public to think the watch itself is the official and recorded their time independently. Countless photos of watches like this. Some even with only the watch and no climber and not at the summit and no mountain place-setting shown in the background[10] scroll down to the two pictures [11] [12].--N88I (talk) 04:03, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

(clear indentation) Sounds like you (N88I) have a greater vested interests in the subject than I ever will; any help with the article would be appreciated. As you noted I'm of the school that considers technical rock or ice climbing to be "climbing" while anything less than fifth class to be hiking/alpine even if its roped glacier travel. Every record listed now is a technical climbing record, which includes the Grand Traverse (even though much of it is hiking it can't be done without technical climbing). But since its a blurry definition I don't usually hold myself to strict standards (thats why the Denial record was there). After all there is no official definition for the word "climbing" that everyone in the climbing/hiking community agrees upon. Regardless it would be worth expanding this article to include both technical and non-technical/alpine meanings of "climbing". It appears you have the familiarity and many of the requite citations to add the non-technical speed climbing details, so please feel free to add the material.

This article doesn't deal with X-games style speed climbing competitions which I know next to nothing about and won't research anytime soon. As for making outdoor technical speed climbing an officiated sport; I think there will be prohibitive legal and insurance issues. Anyone setting up a competition to see who can climb El Cap the fast will probably be shut down before the competition starts; at the very least it will be stopped after the first rescue. That is just my speculation, good luck if you are working in the field.--OMCV (talk) 13:31, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

• Good points. I also think the term 'climbing' should be for technical ice/rock etc, and possibly for buildings (if anyone wanted to expand it into the human made world). Funny that mountain hiking somehow also got called 'climbing'. Maybe it should be called "speed mountaineering" or "mountain speed hiking". And then non-summit speed hiking could be called 'trail running'.
  • The list of highly questionable alpine speed self-claimed records is massive. Even on Everest, the last two "records" were highly disputed with detailed disputes about routes, witnesses, weather, etc. Search Pemba Dorji Sherpa and Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa. So you'd probably only get a endless list of self-claims many of which appear quite fraudulent. Open season for anyone wanting to get their names in wikipedia in the record lists.
    • By the way, the Mt. McKinley record you had listed is a alpine hike (West Buttress Route), I believe. Yes there is crevasse danger, but I don't believe any technical climbing is involved.--N88I (talk) 07:06, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I myself am looking to set a few speed records for very popular multi-pitch climbs (similar to Cat in the Hat, but slight harder). What is the best way for me to go about this? I wouldn't want to simply write my own name and time and then be called out for no citation or proof. As an example, I got around to doing Frogland (a 5.8, 6 pitch climb rated as the best climb in it's grade in Red Rocks) in just under an hour. I didn't time it perfectly, really just eyeballed it, but would like some feedback on getting some records posted. --Climbing23850175 (talk) 20:33, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

I added a cleanup tag to this page on July 7th 2009. The reason for this is that the article is missing some words in several sentences, makes little to no reference to the material it is using and generally is not structured in a manner consistent with other similar articles.Ahugenerd (talk) 02:33, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

Removing the cleanup tag since all issues appear to be addressed, eventually. --Polarbear24 (talk) 19:06, 25 July 2019 (UTC)

I've seen a footage of a competition (unfortunately don't rememeber anything more specific) that also had knockout format, climbers went one on one but the "boulder" (not sure if it's called that) changed each round. It was a very small boulder; problems would usually be completed under 3 seconds, and sometimes even around a second. But the special thing about the competition was that the climbers started the climb with their backs to the boulder, they didn't see the boulder until the time started running. If anyone has any information it would be good to add. 89.201.184.188 (talk) 20:02, 16 November 2019 (UTC)

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Two Speed Climbers Compete in World Cup.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 04:22, 24 July 2022 (UTC)