THE LANGUAGES OF CLIMBING

WE HAVE NOW GONE MULTILINGUAL WITH A TRANSLATE FUNCTION FEATURING THE LANGUAGES WE COMMONLY SEE. IF YOURS IS NOT THERE CONTACT US AND LET US KNOW.

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FOR TOO LONG CLIMBING HAS BEEN FACTIONALIZED BY LANGUAGE, WITH MUCH OF THE HISTORY RECORDED IN LANGUAGES AND PLACES THAT MAKE IT APPEAR AS HUGE BLINDSPOTS. OF COURSE SOME TRICKLES ACROSS, BUT OFTEN AS LITTLE MORE THAN MENTIONS AND STATISTICS, CREATING ANOTHER PROBLEM AS IT FEEDS INTO THE HANDS OF THE STATISTICS NERDS AND ARMCHAIR EMPIRICISTS WHO JUDGE CLIMBING ONLY BY THE NUMBERS.

IT BARELY MATTERS THAT THE JAPANESE DID THE FIRST ASCENT FROM THE NORTH SIDE OF K2, OR THAT CHINESE TEAMS HAVE CLIMBED DOZENS OF 6000ers ACROSS TIBET, RUSSIANS THE BIG WALLS OF CENTRAL ASIA, POLES THE BIG ROCK ROUTES AND IRANIANS THROUGH THE CAUCUSES – WHAT MATTERS IS HOW, WHY, WHEN AND BY WHO BECAUSE ALPINISM IS BEST DESCRIBED AS EXPERIENCE NOT QUANTIFIED AS NUMBERS. WITHOUT READING THE STORIES IT IS LIKE RECORDING MUSIC ONLY BY LOOKING AT CHART PERFORMANCE, SOMETHING THAT ONLY ENCOURAGES LIST TICKING AND WE THINK IS PART OF THE PROBLEM.

OTHER THAN THE NUMBERS, MOST CLIMBING INFORMATION IS BOTTLENECKED THROUGH A SMALL SELECTION OF WEBSITES IN EACH LANGUAGE, MAKING THEM ARBITORS OF WHAT PEOPLE SEE NO MATTER HOW BIASED OR UNINFORMED THEY ARE. SITES LIKE EXPLORERSWEB REPORT A MISHMASH ONLY OF WHAT GETS THEIR ATTENTION, AND SO STUFF THAT GETS THE HYPE FILLS THE BANDWIDTH RATHER THAN STUFF THAT HAS RELEVANCE TO ACTUAL CLIMBING.

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OBVIOUSLY FEEDING THE RAT EXPEDITIONS IS NOT A LARGE PLAYER, BUT WE DO PUNCH ABOVE OUR WEIGHT WHEN IT COMES TO ATTRACTING THE SERIOUS, INNOVATIVE, COMMITTED AND THOSE THINKING OUTSIDE THE CUBE, AND WE HAVE ALWAYS PLACED OURSELVES AT THE OVERLAP OF VARIOUS CLIMBING CULTURES. WE RESEARCH AND DIG THROUGH A DOZEN LANGUAGES TO PUT EACH TRIP TOGETHER AND JUGGLE FOUR OR FIVE LANGUAGES ON EACH TRIP, SO WE WANT TO DO OUR BIT TO PRESENT OUTWARDS AS A SOURCE OF ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION.

OUR PREVIOUS ARTICLE POSTULATED HOW WHAT YOU READ AND HOW YOU READ IT SHAPES THE REALITY TUNNEL YOU CLIMB WITHIN, THAT DICTATES EVERYTHING FROM THE LOCATION TO THE GEAR, SO ARE FOLLOWING THAT THROUGH TO HELP BROADEN OUR OWN NICHE. WE HAVE DONE VERY WELL ATTRACTING THE YOUNG, PUNKISH, ENGLISH-LITERATE, INDEPENDENT CLIMBER BECAUSE THAT IS OUR NATIVE DISPOSITION, BUT INPUT FROM OUTSIDE THAT SHOWS WE COULD BE BROADCASTING BETTER AND WIDER, THAT THE MESSAGE ONLY MATTERS WHEN THE RIGHT PEOPLE CAN INTERACT WITH IT.

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AS FINE A LANGUAGE AS ENGLISH MAY BE, IT STRUGGLES WITH CLIMBING, ALWAYS HAVING DRAWN FROM OTHERS TO THE POINT OF BEING JUST BASTARDIZED FRENCH AND ITALIAN. WE THINK IT SHOULDN’T STOP THERE, AND THAT OTHER LANGUAGES BRING EVEN MORE COLOUR, CLARITY AND NUANCE, AND THAT THE WAY TO MOVE FORWARD IS TO COMMUNICATE BETTER AND ABOUT DIFFERENT THINGS. CONVERSLY WE KNOW THAT CLIMBING SUFFERS UNDER THE LIMITS OF CONSERVATISM SUCH AS MONOCULTURES, DUMBED DOWN LANGUAGE, POPULAR MEDIA, IMAGE BYTES AND 250 WORD POSTS, SO BY DISRUPTING THOSE SHALLOW FORMATS WE CAN HYBRIDIZE AND CLIMB IN NEW WAYS.

A GOOD EXAMPLE IS RUSSIAN ALPINE GRADES, WHERE LIKE FRENCH GRADES THEY TRANSLATE TO HAVE DIFFERENT MEANINGS ABOUT CLIMBING, AND GO EVEN FURTHER BY INCLUDING REFERENCE TO REMOTENESS, GEAR STYLE AND THE BELAYS. THIS IS A FAR SUPERIOR WAY TO BE JUDGING AND RECORDING ROUTES, AS THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN CLIMBING MAKES CLEAR, BUT HAS NEVER GAINED TRACTION WITH WESTERN CLIMBERS BECAUSE THE WESTERN MEDIA IGNORES IT.

THE ENGLISH MEDIA IS VERY GOOD AT COMPARING THEM BUT FEW SITES ACTUALLY DETAIL THE CRITERIA, WHICH IS MUCH MORE INVOLVED THAN SIMPLY SCALING UP BASED ON BEING A BIT HARDER THAN THE GRADE BEFORE. RUSSIAN GRADES COME FROM THE RUSSIAN SYSTEM WHERE ALPINISM WAS BASED IN PROFESSIONAL CLIMBERS RAISED THROUGH A PROCESS OF CLIMBING IN CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CAUCUSES, AND THE MAKE UP OF ROUTES CLIMBED DICTATED INCOME AND POSITION IN A TEAM. FROM THIS TEAMS WERE PUT TOGETHER FOR NATIONAL PROJECTS THE SAME WAY THE ARMY MAKES TEAMS, WHERE THE GRADES SAID MORE ABOUT THE CLIMBER THAN THE ROUTE. CLIMBERS WERE ANALYZED ACROSS SEVERAL VECTORS TO MATCH THE DEMANDS OF AN ASCENT, AND WERE TESTED FOR REAL IN EVENTS IN THE TIEN SHAN.

OTHER CULTURES TOO HAVE THEIR OWN WAYS OF DESCRIBING ROUTES AND PEAKS, WHICH DEFINES HOW AND WHY A PEAK GETS CLIMBED TO BEGIN WITH. THE STATISTICS-OBSESSED COMMENTATORS WILL DISMISS OBJECTIVES BASED ON THINGS LIKE LACKING PROMINENCE AND EVEN NAME, WHILST OTHER CULTURES WHO DEFINE THINGS DIFFERENTLY JUST GET ON WITH CLIMBING. A GOOD EXAMPLE IS THE JAPANESE, WHOSE LANGUAGE IS VERY INCLUSIVE OF MOUNTAINBASED CONTENT, WHO FOR DECADES HAVE ATTEMPTED OBJECTIVES OTHERS HAVE IGNORED BASED ON A DIFFERENT AESTHETIC AND STYLE. IN JAPAN TOPOGRAPHY HAS WORDS FOR NUACES THAT ENGLISH DOESN’T HAVE, WHICH THE JAPANESE HAVE TAKEN TO THE HIMALAYAS AND KARAKORAM TO FIND ROUTES IN THE BLINDSPOTS OF OTHER CULTURES.

THEN OF COURSE LOCAL LANGUAGES DESCRIBE MOUNTAINS BY ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MEANS, AS WELL AS THE APPROACHES, SEASONS AND FEATURES THAT MAY NOT BE KNOWN OUTSIDE THE AREA. THE TRANSLATED NAMES OF MAJOR PEAKS ARE EXAMPLES OF WHAT ENGLISH IS OVERLOOKING, INCLUDING THE BEAUTY SUCH AS THINGS LIKE NANGA PARBAT, AND THE DISINFORMATION OF THINGS LIKE GASHERBRUM AND QOMOLANGMA.

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OFTEN WE HARKEN BACK TO THE ERA OF THE 80s BECAUSE IT WAS A TIME WHEN HIGH ALTITUDE CLIMBING WAS STILL RADICAL AND FUELLED BY STRONG IDEAS. BEFORE BEING DILUTED BY THOUSANDS OF TOURISTS, BASECAMPS AT THAT TIME WERE PRESSURE COOKERS OF DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES, CROSS-POLLINATING IDEAS AND LANGUAGES AND WITH IT WAYS AND REASONS TO CLIMB. HISTORY MAKES IT CLEAR THIS CONTRIBUTED TO ARGUABLY THE BIGGEST ADVANCES ALPINISM HAS SEEN, MORE SO CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT MANY TEAMS BARELY SHARED ANY COMMON LANGUAGE. WE CAN’T RETURN TO THAT, NOR SHOULD WE WANT TO, BUT WE CAN BRIDGE THE SHORTFALLS OF TRANSLATION WITH THE AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY OF TODAY.