Presenting: the Bushwhack Rating System

Okay, let’s get some things out in the open before we start. I consider myself a mountaineer, an alpinist. The term climber is too generic these days. It wasn’t always that way. Now, more often than not, a climber refers to a rock gymnast, performing incredible feats on vertical and overhanging manufactured rock walls or at popular and easily accessible crags, all the time being watched and judged by peers (or adoring crowds, if you’re really good). I’m more likely to be found on some obscure peak miles from nowhere, ascending mildly technical rock, snow, or ice. An environment where the dynamics of nature can’t be ignored, where conditions and the character of the climb itself might change rapidly. Places you have to bust your tail to get into and out of. Destinations that aren’t featured in glossy magazines. I abhor crowds.

Photo: Andrew Burr I get a perverse pleasure in battling the primeval