Climber type quiz / The Caretaker

What a Caretaker is like

Same crag, every weekend, and a send or two each visit. You're the one who knows which holds are loose, which landing needs a pad, which problem is dirty. Your season builds slowly and evenly across the grades, a pyramid with a wide base. You rarely chase a number; the crag is your project. The hard lines come eventually, because you're always there.

Take the quiz: are you a Caretaker?

The four traits behind the Caretaker

Every climber type is four letters, one from each pair. The Caretaker is HMPW: Homebody, Metronome, Pyramid and Weekend.

Homebody Where you climb: Homebody, not Explorer

Most of your climbing happens in one place. You know its problems, its conditions and its landings, and that depth is worth more to you than a longer list of places visited.

Metronome How your days fall: Metronome, not Burst

Your climbing is steady. Shorter sessions, few gaps, and a season that adds up a little at a time instead of resting on a handful of huge days.

Pyramid What you go for: Pyramid, not Ceiling

You climb across the grades. Plenty of problems well inside your limit, fewer near the top, and a wide base of sends underneath your hardest ones.

Weekend When you get out: Weekend, not Weekday

You climb when most people do: Saturdays and Sundays, around a working week. That means busier crags, shared pads and making the most of the days you get.

What the Caretaker's kit has to handle

• Homebody: a brush that stays in the bagClimbing the same problems week after week means your own chalk builds up on the holds. Brushing after your session keeps the home circuit worth coming back to.
• Metronome: chalk bought by the bag, not the blockFrequent sessions get through chalk at a steady rate. Keeping a refill at home beats finding the bucket empty at the crag.
• Pyramid: a chalk ball for the long circuitA lot of problems in a day means a lot of chalking up. A ball puts down a thin, even coat without emptying the bucket by lunch.

Types close to the Caretaker

Change one letter and you get a different climber. These four each share three traits with the Caretaker.

• The Globetrotter (EMPW)Explorer instead of Homebody. A steady run of weekends, a new crag each time, lots of sends.
• The Weekend Warrior (HBPW)Burst instead of Metronome. Big weekend days at the home crag, volume first.
• The Specialist (HMCW)Ceiling instead of Pyramid. Knows the home crag's hard lines better than anyone, every weekend.
• The Local (HMPD)Weekday instead of Weekend. Keeps the home crag in order, a few sends every weekday.

The Caretaker's opposite

Flip all four letters and you get The Crusher (EBCD): travels midweek for the hard lines and gets them done.

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