October 2, 2020

It is a crisp fall morning, and I open my guidebook. The table of contents is a rendering of the Earth, similar to Google Earth. I spin the model and zoom in to the crag I wish to climb at today. It syncs with several weather websites and suggests the best time to climb is mid-afternoon. I see the street crag view with the climbs superimposed on color photos of the rock. Since guidebook space is unlimited, all variations (with grades) are shown. Today I feel like reenacting an old John Gill circuit. I first sort by stars and style. Then by grade and a couple of other personal preferences I have set. Meanwhile, another part of the guidebook web-crawls for all old guidebooks (that have been digitized), blog posts, and videos that relate to today’s climbing. Just in case I want a little more beta. I create a glossy, bound, individualized guidebook for today’s adventure with my personal print-on-depend printer

However, when I get to the crag I change my mind. I am not in the mood for the circuit. I press the Concierge button. My electronic Sherpa remembers I like to onsight 10a off-widths and suggests several that are nearby. Since the guidebook is synced via GPS with my phone, it suggests the most efficient path from where I am to the base of the climbs.

I update the guidebook after I'm done climbing, it is a wiki after all. I add my interpretation of the rock, via text and video with suggestions for grades. It recalculates the mean, median, and mode grade for each climb with standard error. That information is instantly synced in everyone’s guidebook. I have no evidence that a couple of the climbs have been done before so I suggest they might be new. The guidebooks notes this. It highlights those climbs as unconfirmed and sends an alert to other people who are interested in second ascents in that area. I decide to end the day with the best local Mexican food. The guidebook dials the number so I can confirm they are still open. I close the guidebook and continue into a brilliant fall night.

Update - The physical manifestation of this post. 04/29/11