Is Climbing Like Sex Part II?
by Susan E.B. Schwartz
 

In my last column, I posed the scientific question of how climbing was like sex, and posited equally scientific answers.  But I am not the first to ponder this socially pressing issue.

Over half a century ago, in 1948, the Kinsey Report came out and shocked America with its frank discussion of sex and its controversial findings about both men and women’s sexual behavior. 

But unlikely that the Kinsey report shocked New Paltz.  And it certainly didn’t shock  Gunks climbers.

While writing Into the Unknown, the biography of Shawangunks climbing pioneer, Hans Kraus, I came across a document called, “Kinsey on Climbing Females.”  Written the same year as the Kinsey Report, by an unnamed Gunks climbing enthusiast and member of the Appalachian Mountain Club, it shows that previous generations of Gunks climbers were no strangers to matters of climbing and sex.

What follows are key findings from the document.  And if you had a grandmother who climbed in the Gunks, reading the document will give you a whole new appreciation of Granny.

You think you’re wild and crazy, that you shocked Gran with your escapades? Read on . . . Gran might have staid white hair, click away at her cozy crochet needles, and beam her Norman Rockwell smile. But remember not to judge a book by its cover.

Key Findings from “Kinsey on Climbing Females”

Or, How Climbing Was Like Sex in 1948

1.  In 1948, 23% of married women climbers had climbed before meeting their husbands.

2. At least 33% of these women climbers tied into a rope with  another woman at least once.

3. 13% of these women had tied into a rope with another woman more than once.  (The author explains, in his double entendre prose, that this consists of once on the beginner’s route and at least once as an intermediate.)

4. 57% of women in 1948 who had experience climbing with other women preferred women to men as climbing companions.

5. 23% of these women climbers admitted they never had any satisfaction on a cliff, but were still trying.

6. After five years of climbing, only 25% of women in 1948 were still faithful to the rocks.

7. 37% of married women climbers admitted knew their husbands very well before they had ever been introduced to a cliff.

8. 63% of married women climbers admitted they knew the cliffs very well before they had ever been introduced to their husbands.

9. Several women in 1948 admitted to the document’s author that they wanted to try climbing, but were afraid of the consequences.

10. 12% of women climbers in 1948 fantasized about adventures on the cliffs, and in their fantasies, they didn’t care with whom they were climbing or even necessarily whether male or female.  

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