[jwi]

I cannot be the only one worried about, and slightly disgusted by the thought of rock climbing as a professional sport.  I am not particularly worried about competition climbing as a professional sport, iscf seems keen on joining the olympic family which will force them to adopt reasonable standards; what I am more worried about is professional rock climbing.

It is no secret that mountain climbing is marred by rampant abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, from amphetamines aiding quite a few of the big breakthroughs in the 30s and onwards, to present days open use of drugs like for example diamox in both amateur and professional high-altitude mountaineering.

Now when there are also people having sport climbing and bouldering as a job I am absolutely sure that quite a few of them use perfomance-enhancing drugs; mortgaging the long term health for short time gains is only natural in this situation.  Even in regulated sports, where drug-tests are frequent, a large proportion of athletes use dangerous and illegal drugs, and in some unregulated sports all professional athletes use illegal and quite often very dangerous drugs.

In the sports where the professionals more or less openly use drugs (as they indeed do in high-altitude mountaineering) a big tail of amateur athletes follow suit.  We are not there yet with sport climbing, but I fear we quite soon will be, as long as we use pure physical and mental prowess/grade climbed as a yardstick for determining “worth” but do not particularly care if the ascents are—as in some cases—totally made up, or—as in other cases—drug-assisted.

[underground]

I think HA is far removed from what you're worried about and it's a red herring to discuss it in this context. 2 things - 1. I've always known it as exploration, not a 'sport' and although some companies will 'sponsor' the climbers, surely the only true pros are the guides? 2. Diamox I've always believed to be a way of staying alive, not getting up the mountain a few seconds quicker...

So. in point 1. - I'd do what ever I wanted in order to further my goals as an 'explorer' - being a. not a race and b. unregulated etc. And in terms of purity of first ascension etc, fuck it - it isn't just like driving to a crag and bagging a problem (yes I know bloc FA's don't happen in an hour but even if the first ascensionist was drugged up to fuck, no-one ever needs to know so it's pointless talking about it until anyone decides to regulate)

and in point 2. If I were a guide, I'd have thought you'd let clients do what they wanted drug wise too, or at least offer what you could to aid their return to base camp or wherever...

I suppose the point is... comps yes, but you really cannot draw a parallel with HA

[Wood FT]

this is a far from the thread I thought I was about to read

[grumpycrumpy]

The only drug I've ever used whilst attempting to climb was mescaline .........

[jwi]

Diamox is frequently used to help acclimatise. Anyone who uses a drug to improve performance in sport is either doping (if the drug works) or wasting money (if it doesn't work).

Diamox and steroids like dexamethasone will help the climber to survive the serious after-effects of high-altidude sickness; and even though they invalidate most of the previous achievements by the athlete it would be foolish to be against use, but anyone who take Diamox as precaution is doping.

(There is also no secret that much of anabolic steroids taken by athletes in general are used to recuperate after injury, maybe more for that reason than in order to build up the body in the first place)

But I already knew that mountain climbing is an unregulated professional sport, and hence full of braggarts, liars and cheats; I am worried that rock climbing–which is closer to my heart—will go the same way.

[Bubba]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it went that way a long time ago.

[jwi]

I hope not.

I know someone that used steroids to improve power for climber, got depression—one of the not-too-rare side-effects of steroid use—, got a totally fucked up life and lost a decade. But did a FA of a quite impressive route for its time.

With increasing professionalisation at the top stories like these are bound to be more common, I fear.

[slackline]

Same with every other walk of life though, there will always be some who think lying/cheating to get ahead (or give the false impression that they are ahead) is worth the risk to them (e.g. bullshitters at work).

Ultimately they're only cheating themselves and most of the time get their comeuppance.

[lagerstarfish]

about a third of the steroid users I come across have a pretty clear body dysmorphia problem - this has a great deal to do with how they want other people to see them - if a person with such a personality/mental disorder were to be into climbing, then they would probably be into making BIG claims to make themselves feel better about themselves

just saying

[tomtom]

I did TWO 8A's today

[fried]

I did 6Es