A very enthusiastic flyer is circulating online and IRL (our beat!), calling for adults to audition for an adult rock climbing team via ARG. Sounds…well yeah. The flyer is a cocky missive packed with attitude (takes one to spot one), hardcoreness, and the promise of further hardcoreness to come (for an estimated $50 a month to those who make the cut).
There’s a lot of good quotes in there, from the self-aggrandizing, “This is the real deal [sic] folks,” to the inane, “Climbing is most special in that it can truly be the individual’s sport,” (since diving, gymnastics, horse racing, weight lifting, swimming, track, golf, and every other sport with an individual ranking is truly not the most special?).
We assume this method of motivating the population failed to garner the anticipated response, since this more humble note was posted on eronline later in the week, tempering some of the flyer’s claims with a more egalitarian proposal and backing off of the Pat Riley-ish tone:
For anyone who feels intimidated by the idea of tryouts or the “we’re looking for 10 men & 10 women” thing or that they can not swing the anticipated $50/month…
PLEASE, if you are at all psyched about this then either email me or fill out a survey card, now at both ARGs, and include your comments as such.
What I’m really looking for is a solid feeling and count of people who are psyched by this. I’d hate it if people didn’t let me know because of some wording on the promo flyer.
Remember, everything if flexible and this will be a team for the team members.
We hear that The Spot in Boulder has had adult teams and whatnot, although none are advertised on their website currently. We heard a hilarious story about how a woman was kicked off of the women’s bouldering team because she was pregnant and the coach thought she wouldn’t be climbing hard enough, so the local women who were not on the team rallied around her to form the B team, which was full of top climbers who thought the whole team idea was kind of silly.
Which reminds us of this other HILARIOUS moment on the ero thread, when the sponsor of the project described the “properties” they’d be considering, which means, we suppose, criteria for making it:
We’re considering two properties.
1st & definitely most important: Level of psych & commitment must be high.
2nd & less important: We’re aiming for ~V4/5.11+ onsight, >V6/5.12 in a sesh, & >v7/5.13- projecting.
That’s not the funny part. He followed up with:
I’m very sorry… the above “aim” was intended for men. I think the aim for women would be more like ~V3/5.10 onsight, >V4/5.11 in a sesh, & V5/5.12 projecting.
my bad!!!!
Oh thank goodness!
But for serious, we think those interested in something like this are already:
1. Living in Dallas
2. Enrolled in Russell M’s Adult Training Program, in which a very sweet non-drill-sargent type puts those eager to improve through their paces with solid results.
2.5 Have taken matters into their own hands.
3. Are on the staff of SendAustin and prohibited from joining ARGAT because it would undermine editorial unity.
4. Living in Houston.
5. Working with a personal trainer.
6. 15 years old.
7. Living in Temple with their own amazing gym and local spots.
We are dying to see how this pans out, and good luck to the organizers. SendAustin can offer only a hearty meh until further developments.
Sorry, already on a team. teamblimp4lyfe