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scottstevnson

I can’t pretend to understand what my life would

I can’t pretend to understand what my life would be like had I grown up a black man.
I can, however, realize that if I were to wake up tomorrow as a black man, I would have to deal with a lot of horrible shit that I currently do not have to even think about. And that is my privilege.
I cannot fully understand. But I stand with you. I hear you and I support you! #blackoutuesday

Finished our video about Weed B Gone (.11c/d)... a

@wesburdett @kirk_hilton and I put together this l

@wesburdett @kirk_hilton and I put together this little edit of me climbing Dean’s Problem (V5/6). Wes did most/all of the work honestly, I just spent the day bouldering 😂 I think it turned out sick. Thanks for all the hard work on it dude!!

I tried to get beta for this route, Division (.11d

I tried to get beta for this route, Division (.11d) and flash it. I got to the crux and totally missed the key crimp 😂 took a huge fall. Oh well. It’s a rad route and @kirk_hilton got a sick photo. Thanks dude. And thanks @sohmbody for the catch!!

Another fun one from a while ago.

Another fun one from a while ago.

A route I put up with @ceres_halo earlier this yea

A route I put up with @ceres_halo earlier this year. Nathan found the route and asked if I’d come check it out with him sometime. We went up and bolted it and I was able to send it after a few tries. I rated it .11a but everyone got mad at me so I bumped it to .11a/b 😂. I’m curious to see what people think of its difficulty. It was hard to pick a grade. It has an awkward crux, but the climbing and rock is super cool. Message me if you’re interested in trying it and I’ll tell you where it is.

This is a cool one from a while back. V5 or someth

This is a cool one from a while back. V5 or something.

Ski mountaineering... or I guess in my case, split

Ski mountaineering... or I guess in my case, splitboard mountaineering is something that I’m not great at. I’m not a very good snowboarder, but I like the idea of riding off the top of mountains that you’ve climbed yourself. Over the years, I have developed the skills to get up the mountain, and I can, generally speaking, get down the mountain, but sometimes the conditions or fear make the descent not pretty. I’m alright with it though. I was always way more into skateboarding than snowboarding. I was also way more into warmth than freezing. So I make the most of the winter with some fun objectives on a snowboard and in the mountains until the summer rolls back in and I can get on rock.

(Spring 2019) Ice climbing is relatively new to me

(Spring 2019) Ice climbing is relatively new to me. I tried ice climbing a few times over the last 7 years and every time I tried it, I was like... “nah, not for me.” But then in Jan of 2019, I tried it and for some reason, it felt very secure. I think feeling secure is the only way to ice climb. If you aren’t secure, you’re out of control and since the protection is quite variable, if you are leading on ice, you shouldn’t ever fall. My goal with ice climbing was to feel comfortable enough to climb WI3/AI3 on long alpine objectives. I wanted to feel like I can look up at a route with any kind of obstacle and be confident that I can get up it. Since most of the alpine routes I’m interested in are nowhere near harder than AI3. I felt like a reached that goal and kind of plateaued this last season and didn’t feel interest in pushing into harder ice climbs. Maybe I’m not really comfortable with the danger or maybe I just haven’t got enough volume to feel secure at that level. I guess we’ll see. When I first started rock climbing I had no interest in climbing harder than 5.9... goals and interests change over time, but I’m glad I took initiative to push into ice climbing because I feel like it has opened up a lot of cool opportunities in the mountains and that’s all I’m really looking for. Photo @kirk_hilton

Scrambling is probably my favorite kind of “clim

Scrambling is probably my favorite kind of “climbing.” If you can even call it that. My friend Wes calls it “extreme hiking” which is pretty funny and accurate. This type of climbing is what led me to start actually rock climbing. I did a mountain in Montana and realized if I “scrambled” anything harder than that, I would be crossing a line into free solo territory. So I bought a rope and some trad gear and that’s where it all started for me. I still enjoy scrambling up easy ridges though. Man...there are so many good ones. Here’s a shot from the classic knife edge on Capitol Peak in CO a few years back. What a hoot.

(2019) Putting up first ascents has been something

(2019) Putting up first ascents has been something that I have been quite interested in the last year. While an FA can be done in any style, I think that it qualifies as its own form of climbing. Last year, and earlier this year, I had the privilege of putting up a new alpine trad climb, a few boulder problems and a handful of sport routes. I have to say that it’s a lot more work than I thought it’d be, but it’s also more rewarding as well. It’s a pretty creative experience as you get to set up the route to follow a specific line and make it as scary or protected as you want. This same experience gets to then be shared by others that climb it later. You also get to choose the grade, which is a hard decision process as everything in climbing is so subjective, but the climber’s expectation set by the grade also contributes greatly to the experience. •
FAs also require partners who are willing to waste a bunch of time not actually climbing to help clean and bolt and hike up to the areas. Thanks @kirk_hilton and @ceres_halo and @sohmllc for putting in work on some of the projects we’ve developed over the last year. •
Something about leaving routes behind for others to climb and enjoy is inspiring to me and I really admire people who have done it over the decades, essentially creating the climbs we get to enjoy “forever.” I hope that people will climb my routes and be as stoked about them as I am! Photo by @ceres_halo

(2018) Trad climbing...oh boy. I have a love-hate

(2018) Trad climbing...oh boy. I have a love-hate relationship with trad climbing. It is, by far, the type of climbing that I am the worst at, and ironically, the type I wish I was the best at. I just freak out like 75% of the time and then 25% of the time I magically float up scary stuff and don’t even fret. Then I think, “oh ok, I finally am good at trad climbing,” and bam. Terrified again. I don’t get it. I don’t like it, but I do like it, so I try again. It’s all very confusing. Maybe I’ll just go sport climb again 😂😂. Thoughts? And name that climb 🕺?

(2017) Sport climbing is the easiest type of climb

(2017) Sport climbing is the easiest type of climbing for me. I’m not saying that I’m very good at it, it is just the easiest for me when I compare it to climbing’s other forms. I often find myself in a flow state at some point on most of the hard sport routes I work on. Complete focus, no fear, and climbing at my best. This is especially true for me on multipitch sport routes. If I was meant to do a specific type of climbing, I think it would be multipitch sport routes. I don’t know why, but when I leave the anchors of the first pitch behind, I reach a heightened state that I cannot explain. I don’t think I’m a bold climber. I’m quite conservative and it’s something I kind of dislike about myself, but I guess I feel bold when I do these long sport routes and maybe that’s why I like them so much. •
Anyways... just a bit of introspection. I think I might share some thoughts about each form of climbing and some of my insights and thoughts about them over the next few days. Feel free to give some of your own input. I’d love to hear what you like about sport climbing. My previous post is about bouldering, so check that one out too if you want.

(Nov 2019) I used to not really like bouldering. I

(Nov 2019) I used to not really like bouldering. I kind of thought of it as a good way to get stronger for other types of climbing. I think this boulder was the moment that I realized I love bouldering. Maybe not as much as other types of climbing, but I definitely don’t dislike it like I used to. Anyways. Can’t wait for this madness to end so things can get back to normal.

Photo: @kirk_hilton

Photo: @kirk_hilton

Sent my first V6 outside.. 🕺🕺 I could tell y

Sent my first V6 outside.. 🕺🕺 I could tell you how psyched I am, but you can see it at the end of the video 😂😂 thanks for the video @kim.westover

Instagram post 17842281287014043

Instagram post 17842281287014043

First time ice climbing in Maple. 👌

First time ice climbing in Maple. 👌

Thought this turned out neat. Trying out the new t

Thought this turned out neat. Trying out the new tools last night.

First time in Triassic. Knowing anything about the

First time in Triassic. Knowing anything about the area would have been helpful. Instead we just climbed random stuff. We had no idea what the grades were. Here’s me on some crack problem. Felt kinda hard, was probably V negative 7. Or like 3rd class scrambling. Or maybe equivalent to walking on a sidewalk with cracks in it.

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