something new to try at the climbing gym

getting bored of your usual gym routine?

here's something to try. you get a seven second head start. be sure your rope is nice and tight.



via: american gladiator / nbc

yea, i really like climbing

with the snow season upon me, i haven't been climbing a whole lot. the last two months have been relatively horizontal. i've also been working crazy hours.

this last week, however, i've managed to find the climbing gym a few times. the routes have been moderate, the body movements predictable.

these visits have reminded me why i like to do this thing.

taking a break isn't always so bad.

362 u.s. climbing gyms

here's a list of climbing gyms by city and state. you also get wall size and pricing information.

http://rockgymlist.com/

pretty useful if you're on the road and need some plastic.

autobelay woah!

autobelays are great things.

when you're itching to hit the climbing gym and have no one to climb with, these devices allow you to pull on your own. you hitch the carabiner to your belay loop and climb up. when you get to the top, you simply let go and the autobelay slowly lowers you to the ground.

but they can also be dangerous.

a few years ago there was an extensive recall of autobelays after a few devices failed to properly engage. climbers were dropped.

yesterday, at my usual climbing gym, i saw a very scary situation involving an autobelay. as i sat on a crash pads, i noticed a climber walk up to a 35' wall. he proceeded to pop in his ipod earbuds and start climbing. i assumed he was simply bouldering some. then, out of nowhere, some woman next to me said, "do you think he realizes he isn't tied in??" oh f*** i thought. she sprints over to him and quickly taps his head with the autobelay strap that's running from the top of the climb to the gym floor. at this point, the guy is free soloing 25' off the ground. feeling the strap, he calmly realizes what's happening and proceeds to down climb. very close call. had he gotten to the top he probably would have let go and fallen 35 feet.

having a partner to check your harness and rope is a good thing. when using an autobelay you are on your own. don't take that self-check lightly!

taking instruction from (a not so) new climber

(note: this guest blog entry was written by my friend matt d. i thought you all deserved a break from my usual dribblings.)

this past weekend, i had the distinct (read: dubious) honor of taking instruction from the purveyor of this blog. to set the scene: a massive, sparsely populated climbing gym in the heart of san francisco’s mission district. the muffled music of a street festival just outside the gym, distracting a bit from the otherwise serene atmosphere. yours truly, clumsily stepping into the wrong spaces of his tangled climbing harness.

having not climbed or bouldered in over a decade—and even then, only every other month or so, on random boy scout treks—i suspected the experience would be vaguely familiar. after a quick refresher from my patient instructor, i whizzed through my belay test, and felt strong enough to tackle any track on the wall.

impressions after my first 5.8: this isn’t as daunting as it looks from the ground.

5.9: what? is this supposed to be challenging? bring it on!

5.10a: oh, wow. now I get it. not so easy when you jump to the next level. technique really does make a difference, apparently.

(a quick aside: am i the only one that thinks the yosemite rating system is nonsensical? maybe it’s the mathematician in me, but shouldn’t a difficulty scale be somewhat uniform? if a 5.9 is 10 times harder than a 5.8, shouldn’t a 5.12 be 10 times harder than a 5.11? even the dewey decimal system seems straightforward by comparison.)

back to a 5.9: rounded out my day as a new climber with a solid, speedy climb in my skill range. endorphines running high after a successfully traversed track.

the experience left a great taste in my mouth…or perhaps the more accurate cliché would be: ‘a tingling sensation in my fingers’. actually, that’s literally how my hands felt after 3+ hours. at the risk of sounding like a drinker of the kool-aid, this is a pastime that everyone should try at least once. going vertical can be quite a rush! and if you’re a seasoned veteran and taking a newbie to the gym with you, practice patience and give vague helper hints—your new climber companion will thank you. who knows, you might even gain a long-term climbing buddy out of the episode.

one last thing. the keeper of this diary isn’t so new to climbing anymore.

newbie introduces newbie

in today's denver post, my columnist friend cindy rodriguez writes about her first climbing experience. i took her to a local climbing gym this week:

maniacal sport? no, but climbing is addictive

"last week i got a taste of why so many people in this state are obsessed with rock climbing.

it was a dip-your-toe-in-the-water approach: my friend david mejías took me to rock'n & jam'n, a climbing gym in thornton."

you can read the whole column here: http://www.denverpost.com/rodriguez/ci_4033723