“Tristan, it’s all about flow! I can totally understand now why you climb!” I doubted this very much. These words were coming from my next door neighbor, who has gone climbing all of two or three times in her life. She had, however, read about something called flow theory in one of her classes, and went on to explain it to me. And I have to admit, I was pretty intrigued.

Ultimately it comes down to what matters more in the end, the style of the FA or the end product? The problem is that the “quality” of the end product means different things to different people. Some of my favorite routes scared the crap out of me because of runouts or bad gear. Those same things that added to the overall quality of my experience would ruin it for others, because they don’t climb to have a heady experience where they could get hurt or die, they climb because they like the movement and safety of it all.