A Little Bit About my Climbing
Hello!! My name is Everett; I love climbing, and I've been regularly visiting my local indoor-rock-climbing gym since January 2024.
I'm a little guy, barely more than 140 lbs. I'm not scrawny; I have decent muscle mass, but I'm definitely interested in being a little bigger. Over the last 6 years I've worked-out off-and-on in various ways, including running, biking, calisthenics, and my favorite: weight-training. I take a lot of pride in my health, so I also focus on my diet, stretching, breathing, and overall mindfullness. Despite a lot of efforts in my past, I don't have a lot of muscle mass to show off. And until recently, I felt pretty hopeless about my physical appearance. More than that, I felt as though I wouldn't ever be interested in working out enough to build up strength, since every attempt since high school only led to burnout. I felt all that until I went rock climbing on a date at the beginning of January.
I think I went about 3 or 4 times before I knew I wanted to commit to the climbing-gym as my regular gym. After all, they did have a small gym area with free-weights, machines, and treadmills that was for members only... I knew I wouldn't be missing out on much. So on February 4th of 2024, I joined the climbing gym as a new member, committing to the $60 a month fee, (which is a lot, but worth it). I started going by myseflf, and quickly purchased my own harness and shoes from a sporting-goods store nearby. After that, I was free to show up whenever I wanted and do whatever I wanted.
Along with the climbing portion of the gym that extends to about 45 feet high, there are two bouldering areas, which entails shorter, but often more technical climbs. Additionally, they're constantly changing routes every week so that there's always a fresh route to try out. Personally, I gravitated toward these boulders more than the taller climbs at first. I liked the technical aspect, and it was great for when I was by myself because I didn't need to rely on someone else to belay me on a climb, which was a big deal since there weren't a lot of auto-belay machines for the long climbs. (Bouldering doesn't require a harness and rope, but climbing does). Bouldering was also great because I could finish that, and then head upstairs to the gym and get a regular workout in.
I didn't know a lot of what I was doing when I first got my membership. I didn't know technical terms, I didn't know technique, and my strength didn't compare to the other patrons of the gym. If I wasn't going there early enough to be almost entirely alone in the gym, I would've probably been a bit more embarassed and gone less. But because I was comfortable going regularly, I was able to increase the difficulty of the routes I was accomplishing. Looking back, there were not a lot of climbing options for a beginner like me, which is why I focused on bouldering. When I did start, I found myself most comfortable with the 5.8 climbing routes, and I would usually be able to struggle up a 5.9... When it came to boulders, I could only accomplish the V2.
Where my current skill level stands, I am now eagerly climbing 5.10 routes while slowly pushing to the "advanced" 5.11s, and my boulder is pretty exclusive to V3. The biggest development I've made, if not my strength, is likely my endurance. I used to struggle completing boulders, but now I'm happily climbing 6+ tall routes each time I go, which is just so so satisfying... :)
Moving forward, I'm going to do my best to focus on my strength, speed, consistency, endurance, skill, knowledge, and technique. I love being challenged in this way; I find climbing to be far-more ergonomic than lifting weights, (which I still love to do as well), and I've loved building a stronger mind-body connection since I've started. And if you're reading this, thank you for your support! Let's all continue striving to be the best version of ourselves... :)