Can Big People Win Too?

[tbwilsonky]

i was reading something somewhere about how smaller folks are inherently better than I am (6'/170lbs/Pisces) at climbing rocks. i cried a little, brushed away the tears with my giant hands, and reminded myself that I once dunked a tennis ball when i was in high school.

i felt better, but I wondered:

how many 6'+ locals have ran the table at the Red? for the sake of discussion we'll cap "running the table" at 5.13d and limit "locals" to anyone who spends a ton of time here (visiting pros are the most obvious exclusion). are there any? are there some who have gotten close?

just curious.

[Andrew]

If you really take a look at 8a and the high end climbers across the globe, you will see that tall climbers are outliers. The vast majority of high end climbers are small people.

[Shamis]

I'm sure it's just total weight. If you are taller you will weigh more. That being said, I'm pretty sure I've seen a lot of 6 footers climb very hard. Haven't seen many people in the 6'4''+ range do it though.

How tall are most of the pro's? I have noticed that many of the strong young boulders seem to look like children so I'm guessing they are under 6 foot, but what about people like sharma and caldwell?

[pigsteak]

what about short fat people..isnt this about weight and not about height?

[tbwilsonky]

smaller bodies have less weight for sure, but it's also easier to control a shorter body in the steeps. sure i've seen some 6 footers climb pretty hard, but i can only think of a few locals who fit the description and they seem to peak at 13b.

oh and piggy. fat can change. height is forever.

[Andrew]

Sharma and Caldwell are not tall.

[tbwilsonky]

sharma is about 6'. not Lebron James tall, but a giant in comparison to other 5.15/v15 climbers.

[pigsteak]

what happened to not worrying about grades, and just climbing for being in nature and singing kum-ba-yah?

[mike_a_lafontaine]

I'm trying to figure out how 6 foot, 170 is considered large. I'm 6 foot, 210 and I am not exactly a hulking giant.

[Syphur]

I'm 5'8" and 210. Being short isn't doing a damn thing for me. I like to think 30 lbs of that is nads but I somehow doubt it.

[allah]

smaller bodies have less weight for sure, but it's also easier to control a shorter body in the steeps. sure i've seen some 6 footers climb pretty hard, but i can only think of a few locals who fit the description and they seem to peak at 13b.

oh and piggy. fat can change. height is forever.

Everything in the Red is 13b, I thought everyone knew this, GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tH1e-swiN1e]

They may out-climb us "large" folks but we can still beat them up and take their Miggie's money.

[krampus]

I think its all about proportions. Most tall people have a poor/ less advantageous body physique (torso length to leg length ratio) to climb well. The long torso causes back problems and core stability problems that make climbing difficult. Leggy folk also have issues. But those tall people who are proportionate and strong I believe do have an advantage, they absolutely can skip holds and moves far more often than the bunchyness of a rout hinders them. Of course they are lacking in numbers because almost by definition, tall people are fewer in number than average height people, and the percentage that have a proportionate diposition to climb strong is even smaller.

[cramacam]

shameless spray; Sharma is about my height at 6'4"(trust me, I've met him so many times he introduces himself to me). He also has arms that fall below his knees. (aprox the same as my nad legnth) T. Caldwell, pretty short... sounds like Chris Griffin from family guy. (def has something to do with sick sendage) Co-relation= odd sounding screams. Sharma= unusually high pitched for a man of stately stature (like myself) Tommy Caldwell= odd throaty, but yet low pitched from small body.... What can you take away from this? I work with a guy that has recently began standing with a posture of a "non-proud chest" not sure how he screams, but I'd say given a fair chance, might squeal on a 13a pitch... given time and energy, there is a possibility there. Given my ability to mentally spray well below 13d at 6'4" I'd say the average person at tbwilsonky height, could have a feasable spray chance at a max of 2-3 letter grades higher than current sendage level given the aprox. of minus 3-4 inches of my height and current mental spray level at 4 letters harder than actual sendage. So basically, I think we can all agree that mental wish sendage = 4-5 grades harder than actual sendage level divided by the decible level times the actual pitch vibration number (i.e. 440) x3 at double octave. take that number and subtract the average based from your height averaged with both numbers 5'8" and 6'4" (lets face it, that's the magical height number, I just don't try hard enough) Based on the standard deviation from both numbers x2 if proud chest is a regular thing divide by 2 if +200 lbs, and I think we all have the answer your looking for. SO I think we can all agree that when that happens= tables run... God, that was easy.
Booyah... NEXT!

[pigsteak]

only problem is that Sharma is my brah, and no where near 6'4"...next.