Fuck Comfort: Rampage 2018
āArt should comfort the disturbed & disturb the comfortable.ā ~Cesar Cruz Itās Red Bull Rampage week. And also, I just watched the climbing movies, Free Solo and The Dawn Wall back-to-back. And also, also, I had to overhear audience discussion of each movie, before, during and after the show. And finally, also, I know the Red Bull chatter outside of the freeride/mountain bike communities on social media is only just about to begin in earnest. Rather than start killing the couch-riding, comfort-seeking, safety-craving, judgment-spewing masses, I thought Iād offer a plea for understanding, instead. Clears throat: here goes. When you describe an extreme athlete in mountain biking, climbing or other action sport as being insane, or being an adrenaline junkie, youāre using a form of othering that is disrespectful to the athletes, to people who have mental illness, including addiction, and probably even to adrenaline. Your words are dismissive of the combination of innate ability, opportunity and work that have brought the athletes to the level they are at. You dismiss their processes, their progression, their calculations and their trust in their support groups and family and friends and equipment and everyone else that has been part of their journey. While watching Free Solo, there were two things that particularly stood out to me: when Alex Honnold talks about needing to be so good at, so familiar with, so comfortable with every move he makes on the face of El Capitan, that he could execute it in front of a stadium full of people, he means it. And he practices and visualizes and prepares until he achieves that level of awareness and proficiency. And then he climbs. Also in free solo, when Honnold is getting the brain scan that reveals he doesnāt feel fear/anxiety in the same level or in response to the same things as many of us, I actually thought about a conversation I had with Lennard Zinn years back, when he described white water kayaking (or whichever solo boat-is thing he was doing) as offering the right level of anxiety for his sporting interests. I put a huge value on having shared that conversation with him, and having shared that understanding, and for the concise way in which he communicated it. In The Dawn Wall, I loved the way they showed Tommy Caldwellās process of exploring and mapping and remapping his route up the eastern face of El Capitan. Having to chart your own course over extreme terrain is such a next level commitment to the sport and the challenge and experience, compared to following a proven line. And itās something that can only be done through experience and observation and awareness of your own abilities. Itās the model that Rampage is literally built on.Ā Also in The Dawn Wall, watching Kevin Jorgensen struggle with a traverse that Caldwell more comfortably sends, and then watching Jorgensen and Caldwell choose different lines to circumnavigate or send a big dyno move in one of the subsequent pitches, in its way, and in the context of unprecedented route selection, and creativity, that was everything. So apply those ideas to Red Bull Rampage. The athletes are all asking the same questions of themselves and each other: Is this humanly possible? Is it possible for me? With my ability and equipment? In these conditions? Theyāre all seeking their own perfect route up or down the hill. Theyāre all trying to answer, whatās possible? And then theyāre trying to decide: is it worth the risk for the chance to prove that itās humanly possible and that I am the one who can do it? Everyone has a different answer to each question a hill might ask, each opportunity it might present. To dismiss their work, their intelligence, their judgment, their ability, their courage, and their willingness to take measured risks, out of your own need to feel less inferior, or out of your fear of seeing someone else get injured or killed, even though its in pursuit of something meaningful to them? Thatās a disgrace. To serve up justifications about what it might mean to their loved ones, or what medical or rescue costs it might incur? Thatās as bullshit oppressive as when Caldwellās teachers labeled him as retarded, and basically dismissed him as a human being with his own unique worth, from his earliest days in school. I donāt expect many to understand. Even within the cycling community itās not uncommon to see extreme athletes harshly judged by riders from other disciplines, disciplines that are predicated on the accepting the risk of riding full-gas around other riders and cars, and chance of being taken out, through no real wrong doing of your own. You know, like somehow the risk of randomly being put to the pavement, through a fence, over a wall or under a car is somehow more sensible than making a calculated judgment about the terrain, the conditions, your equipment and your skill. And even after everything, spare me about the risks of paved mountain road descents. Same thing. Riders, skill, judgment, conditions. Show some respect. #Fistbump of solidarity to @IamJenSee - end -












