A World Less Traveled: Squandering Or Supporting?

Photo from aworldlesstraveled.com

As climbing’s presence in social media has grown, more and more accounts have taken advantage of beautiful areas, climbing ability, and privilege to build followings on Youtube, Instagram, and other online platforms. Exploiting climbing to achieve monetization. The question is: is that a bad thing?

One prominent example is A World Less Traveled, a series of Youtube videos sponsored by Epic TV. The creators, Josh Larson and Charlotte Durrif, travel the world while showcasing crags and their hard sends. I can’t help but think, Wow, must be tough to be them. They’re so lucky. They have traveled to third world countries on nearly every continent to climb. It begs the question: couldn’t they spend all the resources they use to travel to struggling communities to do something more than scale rocks? Not to mention their carbon footprint...

It’s easy to look at this photo and just see a privileged westerner climbing rocks in a third world country…

It’s easy to think that Charlotte and Josh’s endeavors are purely selfish, but isn’t climbing selfish at heart? Accounts like these can have great influences on our sport. They can bring more attention to issues and impacts we have. For example, Tommy Caldwell used his social media account to bring awareness to Protect Our Winters (a climate change action group) and Alex Honold donates much of the revenue from his fame to bring sustainable energy to communities in need. A World Less Traveled brings climbers to economically poor communities while showcasing the local scene, it’s rock, and the work native climbers have put in. They also leave their own mark. Josh and Charlotte have developed many boulders and routes.

…but does your opinion of Honold change when you learn that he was also there to install solar panels for those behind him? (Photo from Rock And Ice)

While it’s easy to point fingers at those who are lucky enough to travel and share their experiences online, we also need to recognize that some have taken the responsibility of being an influencer. We could focus on what they could do to be less selfish, but ALL of us have a long way to go. Before you think of the impact they could have, work on your’s first!

A great example on spending your energy on making a difference rather than blaming others.