Climber type quiz / The Crusher

What a Crusher is like

You travel for the hard lines and you get them. Midweek trips, quiet crags, a short list of problems at the top of your grade, and the days are big. You're happiest when the crag is empty and the project is steep. Volume isn't the point; the number is. The risk is a season with gaps in it, because you'll skip a weekend rather than climb something easy.

Take the quiz: are you a Crusher?

The four traits behind the Crusher

Every climber type is four letters, one from each pair. The Crusher is EBCD: Explorer, Burst, Ceiling and Weekday.

Explorer Where you climb: Explorer, not Homebody

You spread your days across a lot of different crags or gyms. New rock, unfamiliar styles and no beta are part of the appeal, and the same wall twice in a row feels like a waste.

Burst How your days fall: Burst, not Metronome

Your climbing comes in big days with gaps between them. When you get out you stay until your skin is done, and a quiet few weeks before the next one is normal.

Ceiling What you go for: Ceiling, not Pyramid

You aim at the top of your grade. Warm-ups are short, the day is built around one or two hard lines, and the easy circuit barely shows up in your log.

Weekday When you get out: Weekday, not Weekend

You get out midweek, when the crag or the gym is quiet. Empty landings, no queue for the classic, and conditions picked on your terms.

What the Crusher's kit has to handle

• Explorer: a chalk bucket that closes properlyA different crag every trip means the chalk lives in the car and the pack. A lid that seals keeps it in the bucket and off the back seat.
• Burst: skin care for the day afterBig days end when the skin does. A salve the same evening is the difference between climbing again in three days and waiting a week.
• Ceiling: a way to warm up fingers at the cragGoing straight to hard lines asks a lot of cold fingers. A portable block lets you load them properly before the first real attempt.

Types close to the Crusher

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

• The Crimp Reaper (HBCD)Homebody instead of Explorer. Comes for the home crag's cruxes while everyone's at work.
• The Veteran (EMCD)Metronome instead of Burst. Steady midweek days on hard lines, wherever they are.
• The Drifter (EBPD)Pyramid instead of Ceiling. A different crag every time, midweek, climbing whatever's there.
• The Hotshot (EBCW)Weekend instead of Weekday. Turns up on the weekend, finds the hardest line, leaves with it.

The Crusher's opposite

Flip all four letters and you get The Caretaker (HMPW): same crag every weekend, building it up a send at a time.

All sixteen climber types

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