Climbers have historically viewed self-promoters with disdain. The idea is that if you climb hard enough, you don’t need to self-promote. The climbs would speak for themselves. Fame, attention, and professional opportunities reliably come to everyone who is capable of “sending the gnar,” to quip a Honnold-ism. And, perhaps more importantly, so does respect.

In the era of social media, however, old views about self-promotion feel all but obsolete. The notion that it’s a gross display of grandiosity feels outdated among many climbers today. In fact, many seem to believe the opposite: that self-promotion is as necessary to being a good, respected climber as climbing hard itself. To not be a self-promoter is as silly as avoiding a knee-bar rest on a pumpy route out of some vague, ill-defined ethical code that you, and only you, care about.

Personally, I think it’s a little reductive to hold either the position that self-promotion is always great, or that it’s always bad and should be avoided like wet sandstone.

Self-promotion is a tool. There’s nothing inherently bad about it, per se. It may be appropriate and useful in achieving your goals, assuming those goals include fame, attention, and sponsorships. But it’s also possible to achieve immense professional success while simultaneously losing respect. This is largely the result of a broken climbing industry that cares more about the bottom line, about impressions and follower counts, than it does about merit, vision, risk, and creativity. Thus, we find ourselves in a world in which climbers can have wildly successful careers while also having very little respect from their peers.

Self-promotion can be many things. But it’s not inherently a virtue. It’s not necessary. And it’s certainly not off limits to criticism. And if you receive criticism for …