Genre Verbal Lore, Folk Speech

Language English

Country of Origin United States

Informant Billy Boyle

Date Collected February 26, 2018

Collected by Daniel McClafferty

Informant Data

Billy Boyle is an employee at Zimmermann’s The North Face. He was born in 1953 in Germany, but he grew up on American military bases. He participated in the Boston Appalachian Mountain Club of the Boston Chapter, where he organized slideshows that introduced many world-famous mountaineers such as Doug Scott, Charles Houston, and David Breashears.

Contextual Data

This proverb stemmed from the climbers living in Yosemite National Park who would beg and borrow to survive so they could limit their time working and maximize their time climbing. According to the informant, this proverb is not used anymore because the new climbers go to gyms and engage in sport climbing instead of living a life on the road and going on climbs that would take several days. He also noted that in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s the gear was not as advanced as it was now, and it took “harder” climbers back then to live a life of climbing, and this contributed to climbers spending a large portion of their time climbing and thus not working.

Item

Dirtbag Climbers