Climber type quiz / The Dirtbag

What a Dirtbag is like

The home crag on a Tuesday is your natural habitat. You climb in long bursts, send a lot, and know every problem's beta, every landing, and where the sun hits at three. Ticking everything is the plan, and you usually do. Your strength is mileage and a deep base of sends; your hardest lines wait, because there's always one more lap of the circuit.

Take the quiz: are you a Dirtbag?

The four traits behind the Dirtbag

Every climber type is four letters, one from each pair. The Dirtbag is HBPD: Homebody, Burst, Pyramid and Weekday.

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.

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.

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.

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 Dirtbag'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.
• 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.
• 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 Dirtbag

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

• The Drifter (EBPD)Explorer instead of Homebody. A different crag every time, midweek, climbing whatever's there.
• The Local (HMPD)Metronome instead of Burst. Keeps the home crag in order, a few sends every weekday.
• The Crimp Reaper (HBCD)Ceiling instead of Pyramid. Comes for the home crag's cruxes while everyone's at work.
• The Weekend Warrior (HBPW)Weekend instead of Weekday. Big weekend days at the home crag, volume first.

The Dirtbag's opposite

Flip all four letters and you get The Headhunter (EMCW): every weekend somewhere new, always at the top of the grade.

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