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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   2024 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 13, 2023

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I think I phrased the distinction poorly in my initial comment. Alpinism at least involves skills that are mildly relevant to some kind of theoretically functional task, traveling long distances over difficult terrain to reach a goal. Rock climbing essentially takes a single one of those skills and specializes it to reductio ad absurdum. It's possible to at least imagine a scenario where Alpinism would provide relevant skills, like reaching a remote village in bad conditions or launching an ambush or something. Rock climbers have to go out of their way to find routes that are difficult enough to test themselves, and coming up with a scenario where the ability to climb anything past 5.10 would be relevant is purest fantasy.

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