Putting A Price Tag On Climbing

Putting A Price Tag On Climbing

In addition to my obvious obsession with climbing, I’ve been obsessed with the “sport” of poker for quite some time now as well.  While my interest in losing money actually playing has waned in recent years, I still find time to watch various poker programming when it’s on TV.

One of the more popular poker shows out there is a show called High Stakes PokerHSP features some of the world’s most well-known degenerate gamblers putting hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own money on the line in a high stakes game of poker.  A climbing equivalent might be like if cameras were on hand to watch Sharma, Graham, Robinson, Ondra, Hukkataival and Woods session a boulder problem.  Obviously there is no money changing hands in the climbing example, but what attracts most people to a show like HSP is the chance to see their favorite players bantering amongst themselves while they ply their craft.  Although seeing how different players react to losing massive amounts of money can be interesting.  But I digress.

Since winning and losing large sums of money playing actual poker isn’t enough action for the types of degenerate gamblers that appear on shows like HSP, the players often make side bets on any number of topics.  Well known examples of past side bets in the poker world include bets about weight loss, standing in the ocean for 18 hours and a man getting breast implants.  In that same vein, Tom “durrrrr” Dwan bet Phil Ivey $1,000,000 in last week’s episode of HSP that Ivey, a carnivore, couldn’t go a year without eating meat of any kind.  If Ivey makes it a year without eating meat Dwan owes him a million otherwise Ivey has to ship Dwan  a million.  Simple as that.

Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan

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The idea of being paid money to give up something you enjoy got me to thinking about how much money it would take for someone to give up the sport of climbing for a year.  No climbing.  No hanging out at the crag.  No eating pizza at Miguel’s.  No reading ClimbingNarc.com.  Nothing.

I posed the question to Paul Robinson who rightly pointed out that for a large enough sum of money 1 year would be tough but very doable.  You could simply take the money you got for missing that year and spend the rest of your years travelling around climbing.

Perhaps a better question would be this:  how much money would someone have to pay you to give up climbing for the rest of your life?   Obviously this is hypothetical since climbers tend to have more respect for money than the degens on HSP, but it’s an interesting question nonetheless.

Personally, I could be bought for a relatively small amount of money.  I spend half the year not climbing for free anyhow, so getting paid to give up on the other half of the year for the rest of my life would actually be liberating in some sense.  I could take the money and do more productive things with my time, like play more poker.

How about you?  Take the poll and let us know in the comments how much you value climbing.

[poll id=”98″]

Posted In: Off the Board

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27 Responses to Putting A Price Tag On Climbing

  1. Paul Campbell March 9, 2010 at 8:27 am #

    Couldn’t give up climbing ever. Would be pointless to have all that money and not be able to take a climbing trip!

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    • Dustin Harris March 10, 2010 at 5:38 pm #

      They say money can’t buy happiness, but in this case money can buy misery…

      For me, climbing is 1/3 of my entire life. I have my work life, my home life, and my climbing life… which kind of is both my social life, and part of my fitness routine. To give that up would to be give up something I look forward to every morning, and think about every night.

      Could I love something as much as climbing? Definitely. But like a great wife or husband, you stop looking around when you’ve found the perfect one for you, right?

      -D

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  2. John Knoernschild March 9, 2010 at 9:30 am #

    Agreed. No amount of money could make me give up climbing. CLIMB ON FOREVER!!!!!

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  3. John Grotts March 9, 2010 at 10:30 am #

    Such an easy one to answer! No amount! Even if I took the money I would just want to buy climbing gear and travel to crags…it would be devastating. I would pay some of those amounts just to be able to keep climbing for the rest of my life.

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  4. Kate C March 9, 2010 at 11:17 am #

    This question hit home to me today as my husband and I are working on starting a family. It seems to be expected that a pregnant woman or new mother or a “good mother” will give up a selfish sport like climbing. Aside from money, would you give up climbing for a baby? For your family?

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    • Paul Campbell March 9, 2010 at 11:38 am #

      Only if the kid becomes a climbing prodigy and you get to follow him/her around taking pictures and climbing….

      To make up for the years you lost raising the kid hehe.

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    • choss master March 9, 2010 at 7:02 pm #

      We haven’t started a family yet but I’d like to think there is a balance that can be achieved. I think I’d rather raise my kid to appreciate a sport like climbing than sit them in front of the tv every afternoon.

      Oh, and as far as taking money to give up climbing, no way!

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  5. G March 9, 2010 at 12:59 pm #

    Kid due in October. Have not climbed in two months. So its pretty easy to give up. I have not even thought about too. And this comes from a person that on average climbed 5-6 days a week and lived on the road most of the 2-3 last years. But man do i got some motivation when i get back into the ring haha.

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  6. David March 9, 2010 at 1:20 pm #

    @Narc:
    And there reading the first paragraphs I thought you’d propose a new competition format ^_^

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  7. Miles March 9, 2010 at 1:48 pm #

    ‘So obsessed with climbing it hurts…’? Yeah right. If you have so little passion for climbing, what’s the point in running one of the more popular climbing blogs on the net?

    No amount of money of course.

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    • Narc March 9, 2010 at 1:57 pm #

      Stipulating that you would have to give up all aspects of climbing including climbing related activities was a bit broad, but I could certainly give up actually climbing for a price. There are plenty of other interesting and stimulating things one can do in life, especially if you suddenly found yourself with an extra $500,000.

      If I really lost passion for climbing you can rest assured that this blog would not be around much longer. Fortunately that has yet to happen.

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      • Sean March 9, 2010 at 2:37 pm #

        500 grand is kinda chump change in the grand scheme of things. Especially to give up a passion for-ev-er. So is a million. That buys you a small house in a lot of areas. Big whoop.

        You’d have to give me enough money to VASTLY impact and change my life. I realistically think like $10 million at the low end.

        Cmon Narc, you’re telling me if someone in a suit walked up to you with a million in cash in a suitcase and said, “never climb again, and this is yours”, you’d do it? You’d be kicking yourself in a few years when you realize you still need to go to work and you miss your hobby.

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        • Narc March 9, 2010 at 3:18 pm #

          It depends on where you live obviously and what kind of lifestyle you want. Where I live $500k probably goes a lot farther than in other areas. A million dollars is a lot of hours sitting in the office at work though. It would be hard not to take it.

          On a smaller scale the value of climbing experience vs. material wealth is something most climbers weigh all the time. As climbers we are often faced with sacrificing certain life goals like finishing college, getting a job, starting a family, etc. in the name of climbing more. The answer varies greatly from person to person and I think it’s a part of what makes climbing such a cool sport. Any given day at a crag you can meet a climber out on the road or someone just escaping from work for the day, something that provides for a really great variety of people to interact with.

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          • Sean March 9, 2010 at 3:22 pm #

            I guess what I mean is that $1,000,000 would easily let me live the lifestyle I wanted to live, provided that lifestyle was….travelling and climbing (or skibumming I suppose, but climbing sort of overtook that.)

            So if I gave up climbing, I’d basically be going whole hog with the consumer, American lifestyle, making that payoff amount pretty high.

            Now, would I give up my career for a million bucks if I could go off and climb? There’s a tougher question. Most likely yes.

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  8. joel March 9, 2010 at 2:14 pm #

    it’s funny you mention this, because i too have a mild obsession with hold ’em (more watching than playing), and i often wonder about the correlation to climbing (gut instinct, cool headedness, etc).
    anyway, what would it take for me to give up climbing forever? what a distressing question. to never rope up for a perfect route on a perfect day? to never have another bouldering session with friends? to be forbidden from even dreamily crimping on a virgin rock on a walk in the woods? i don’t know if i could do it. or maybe $100 000 would buy me free time and new hobbies. i really can’t say. this would take a lot of thought.

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    • John Knoernschild March 10, 2010 at 12:44 pm #

      Your descriptions of climbing made me drool. I could never give it up. As soon as I started climbing, every other hobby I had, besides music, took a back seat. My life has never been better. Money does not = happiness. Climbing = Happiness 🙂

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  9. Egghead March 9, 2010 at 8:20 pm #

    For me, probably 8 figures tax free, if at all. Just not sure what else I would do.

    @G you don’t need to give up climbing just because you have a kid on the way.

    @Choss Master yeah you can strike a balance but it will take dedication and compromise.

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  10. Joe March 9, 2010 at 10:04 pm #

    No way would I be able to sell myself out like that. While I have had plenty of other hobbies and played other sports, none are anywhere near as rewarding and fulfilling as climbing. I’ll be doing this til the day I die.

    As for the side topic of climbing and kids, like Egghead said, it can be done. Everyones situation is different, but if climbing is important to you, you will make it work. I’ve got two little ones, and I’m climbing better than ever.

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  11. Dave Cummings March 10, 2010 at 12:17 am #

    My wife and I are days away from having your first child. I am planning on bringing him along in his early years and keep climbing as much as I can. I have a friend with a kid and we are going to start going to kid friendly areas together with the kids. When he gets older he will either love or hate climbing, I hope he loves it. I will never give up climbing. Sometimes things take priority but I could never deprive myself of my favorite thing to do. Everyone needs time for themselves. Climbing is how I get my time; the sharp end keeps me in check.

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  12. Dave Cummings March 10, 2010 at 12:19 am #

    our* lol

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  13. Mark March 10, 2010 at 5:25 pm #

    8spray.spew stole your idea and posted it without citing you at all. I went over there and for once used my fake name to voice how crappy that makes them look. Love you Narc! The one, the only, the original!

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    • Narc March 10, 2010 at 5:33 pm #

      Considering how poorly they executed their version I’m not sure I’d want to be associated with it anyhow.

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    • Narc March 10, 2010 at 6:01 pm #

      I’m not sure a rebuke of that nature was really necessary now that I read what you wrote. It’s not the end of the world.

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    • Mark March 10, 2010 at 6:48 pm #

      Meh. I really was being sarcastic. I always go over the top for that website, but I’ll change it up.

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  14. Narc March 11, 2010 at 8:33 am #

    Thanks to everyone who voted and shared their opinion thus far! Definitely some great arguments for keeping climbing in your life no matter what.

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  15. jayclimbs March 14, 2010 at 6:57 am #

    This variation of the Economic Action Theory (that people make choices based on what they think is “best”) is an interesting one, and to a large extent played out in each of our lives.
    I have made many choices along the way (and I’m well past half my life, btw) that have allowed me to climb more whilst simultaneously cutting my income – often drastically.
    I’ve also made decisions that did the opposite – and regretted almost every single one.
    When I first “got into” climbing, it was a sport one had to be passionate about. There weren’t enough partners, products, or information sources to squander one’s time with ambivalence.
    That has changed some; people can now be hobbyists. Don’t make the wrong implication: hobbyists can be quite passionate, they may even appear moreso than “lifers”. But that passion is both time-delimited and “shiftable”; interest wanes after a few years, other interests take predominance, etc.
    My guess is, the division between those who could and could not make this economic decision on a quantifiable sum lies at the high end of the hobbyist range.
    I suspect I could indeed sell out – when I’m 85 or so, for a very large sum (none of this million bucks chump change, I’m talking B.Gates mounds’o’cash). My kids could use the cash for climbing trips.

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