This may seem like an obvious statement, but scaling large rock faces can pose significant health risks to its participants. Somehow, though, this seems to be a point of fact lost on the mass migration of gym rats from plastic to rock. Yes, you can climb v8 problems in your gym, but can you thread a rope through a gri-gri correctly? Can you keep your hand on the brake rope? Can you clean a route then rappel from the anchors? When it comes down to it, there is no substitute for experience outside climbing, but hubris has prevented the new generation of climbers from asking the right questions, and learning from the dirty old veterans. There are reasons they were able to survive the climbing lifestyle.
