聽A few weeks ago I listened as our mayor, Patricia Heintzman, commented on our newly acquired spot on the New York Times list of places to visit in 2015. She was careful to let just enough appreciation for the acknowledgment through, balanced against a base of local pride that we鈥檇 been here all along.
Hold on a second, rewind, play and oh my gracious she actually forgot to mention climbing among the stunning list of activities. I was dumbstruck. How could our fairly green mayor forget that this was Canada鈥檚 best climbing area? Even the New York Times mentions climbing in its expository comments. I raced back and forth amidst a few sources 鈥� audio, video and written 鈥� and saw that she redeemed herself in another source, mentioning climbing in her interview. I relaxed; I sat down, my heart rate slowed. All was calm.
A week or so later I was driving towards the Chief, passing Mag鈥檚 99. I chuckled to myself as I scanned their roadside sign. It was always such a masterful mix of Bruce Lee film references, Wu-Tang Clan lyrics and Mexican cuisine spices. What the鈥�? Ski hard, ride hard, eat hard? They had done it too, they had forgotten about the climb hard. I immediately turned around, headed home and picked up my special red phone, which is direct to Mag鈥檚. I was incredulous. Please add climb hard to your sign, for the sake of all things spicy and corn based, I asked. Mags responded, 鈥淛ust a slight oversight and it鈥檚 already being corrected.鈥�
Our mayor I can forgive, as she obviously has climbing on her radar, if way off at the edge of the screen. Mags said they had no idea it was climbing season. I educated as best I could because everyone knows, of course, that climbers hold Mexican cuisine in the highest regard. The spice can overpower even the most bizarre smear of ingredients and everything held in a tortilla eliminates dishes. I can surely speak for the climbing community when I say Mag鈥檚 is the most eclectic eatery we have; they always keep you guessing and their style is way ahead of any curve I can figure out.
Mag鈥檚, however, went one further. Their new sign indicates a desire to form a formidable climbing team, maybe one to tackle the futuristic lines left up on the Chief or even the Dawn Wall itself. I would recommend any serious alpinist use those free computers at the library to whip up a quick r茅sum茅 and get it into Mag鈥檚 headquarters pronto!
What鈥檚 the reading we can take from this particular set of tea leaves? The growth of climbing, the popularity of climbing, the perceived coolness of climbing is on the rise. The curve is slow and lumbering, but it is pulling off the horizontal axis.
Do we want to stay forgotten, forever having to correct our friends when they mistakenly think we wandered up University Wall on the Chief without a rope? That way we can stay safe in our little bubble world where we can do as we please because no one even knows you鈥檙e up on the side of the Chief cleaning a new Canadian Dawn Wall.
Or, do we want to merge into the mainstream of athletic cultures and see many times the amount of climbers crawling over the Smoke Bluffs like lice? Perhaps we鈥檇 keep a grain of our counterculture beginnings and grow with it like skateboarding did?
As one friend stated sadly, to be a snowboarder you need a board and the baggy clothes. You can be a climber, but still you never wear your funny little dancing shoes out in public, much less pull into work with your harness on, complete with a double set of cams. Saunter into the staff room now and see what they think of you. There are no cool clothes and all you can show off is your mangled hands.
Once again I鈥檓 at a stalemate. Dejectedly, all I can hope is that Mag鈥檚 99 will give my handwritten r茅sum茅 of sorts the once-over and hire me as their team mascot.
