I don’t think I’ve ever posted a lot about my rock climbing. I haven’t posted much lately, and honestly didn’t have much new to say, so I thought I’d just do a general post about this sport/hobby.

I’ve generally only done indoor rock climbing, though I have climbed outdoors once on the beautiful Perdenales River near Austin at Reimer’s Ranch. Outdoors is a lot of fun because this seemingly impossible wall suddenly comes alive with handholds as you progress up it.

I started out years ago with my friend Kris at Stoneworks in Carrolton. That place is actually an old grain silo. While the walls are concrete and thus it’s not easy to change the holds out frequently, not to mention it’s an oven in the summer, it does have (or at least one time held the record for) the tallest indoor climbs in the world, at about 120 feet if I recall. I don’t think I ever got to the top. It got a little freaky being that high up on a rope. We did it on and off for a while, and became decent but never great.

I didn’t climb much for a while until I started back up with various friends at Texas A&M I met who climbed. My freshman year A&M opened up a fantastic rec center that featured a fairly nice rock wall for being so compact (essentially an upside down Y if I recall). I did ok there, but again sort of reached a plateau.

It wasn’t until the last couple of years that I started climbing again with my friends Vic and Mary at Summit Climbing Gym that I finally climbed regularly enough to gain skill, confidence, and push through that plateau. We have breaks occasionally and I regress a little, but I do feel like I’ve finally begun to pick up some techniques, hand strength, and generally take on more challenging routes.

Rock climbing routes that have been marked out before hand are rated on a scale. For some reason they all start with “5.”. So, a 5.5 or 5.6 is easy, you can practically scamper up the sloped wall. I’ve seen 5.13 and I think 5.14, not sure how high it really goes. Those lean back to the point you’re practically climbing on the ceiling, and have only little nubs to cling to. I usually take on some 5.7s for warmup, then some 5.8s, and sometimes a 5.9 or two and then cool down again. I’ve got a hangboard at home (a small bumpy shaped thing you put on your wall above a door that has various holds for you to hang from and practice your grip and pull up strength). I need to use it more often, especially the smaller more challenging holds.

It’s a fun hobby and I’d be glad to go out with any friends or family who are interested in giving it a try. It may seem kind of pointless to climb up and down a route and never go anywhere, but it’s physically challenging as well as mental as you learn to analyze a route to get through it without using sheer brute strength. And the nice thing is for those who aren’t super built, the lighter you are the easier it is.