It's just one of those things in life some people may not understand. Why do you rock climb?.. Well, there are a couple reasons.. We as climber's see rock climbing as a way of Us Vs. Nature.. Mother nature gives us what we call "Problems." These are the natural formations that we see a line that we could possibly climb. If u've ever watched the t.v. show Double dare then u would know what a physical challenge is.. We put our abilities to the test, strength, intelligence, and sheer determination to get up a problem.. This is definitely not a sport that has many team members, perhaps your belay man, or your spotters; but more of a personal sport.. Something that every climber has gone through. Of course it sucks being the worse person climbing the first couple of times you go out time climb, if it starts in a indoor gym or outside. There should be no shame in learning the moves, terms, or getting your body into shape. That is probably the hardest thing a newbie has to overcome..
My first time climbing started when i was in Boy scouts as a lad. I learned how to rappel, i thought that was so fun and enjoyed it ,high five.. I didn't really get into rock climbing until i went to The Culinary Institute of America back in 2002. My friend Daniel was about 8 years older than me. He had been climbing for a couple years and invited me to go to the indoor gym in New Paltz. We started to climb there and i was hooked on the sport. Now to climb outside. Daniel was determined to show me why i should learn to love this sport. He gets me on some routes that he thinks I'm capable of doing. I barely know how to climb, yet alone go and clean his gear for trad.. I do my best at these routes we go and do about once a week. Culinary school definitely keeps you occupied so we could only go so much. The Shawangunks "gunks" for short was the closest crag 30 Min's away.
I can remember the first fall i had on rope.. To trust this little piece of woven fabric, dangling 100 feet off the ground was a little nerve racking. This fall was on City Lights 5.8 trad. I had to just muster up , get in my little Happy place and continue at the task at hand, which was to go up and nothing else.. So about 5 mins of resting i finally get back on it and get to the top where Daniel is belaying me from. Wow does it feel good to get to the top and look at the view. We get on rappel and make our descent back down the pitches.
Now to present day climbing I've been bouldering a bunch now and that keeps me a little lower on the ground. A different style of climbing, sort of a free'er range of motion without all the cams, nuts, and pitons involved. We have been going to our local crag Boat Rock in Atlanta to crush the Granite!.. The rock here is pretty blank in most places, lots of crack climbs and hard pebbles and crystals to rip the living $h!T outta your fingers and hands. Here are a couple pics of my climbing adventures. More to come next time...Thanks for the photo Scott Gross.!!
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