Social climber:

I may have a new hobby/sport. Last night Eric (Fuzzy) took me climbing at one of the Midwest’s best indoor climbing clubs. I am sore today, but not too bad. I am also ready to go back ASAP! How’s that for a sales pitch.

http://www.upperlimits.com/stlouis/newclimbers.html
http://www.upperlimits.com/stlouis/index.html

In the ongoing saga of St. Louis as the world’s biggest small town I ran into someone I know there. It turns out that Karen’s younger brother Allen’s girlfriend Brandy – who I knew from Kirksville – works there. Anyway, after getting all strapped into the safety gear I did four climbs over the course of a few hours. I would guess each climb to be forty or fifty feet, but they could have been more or less. The first two were fun and easy and I made it to the top without any problems. Eric did some great teaching getting me to trust the ropes and learn the safety knots. I never fell, but it was nice to know that I could without getting hurt.

I did the third climb too quickly after the first two and about three quarters up the wall my arms just stopped working. I looked like Popeye when I got down, my forearms seemed swollen to twice their normal size and I couldn’t close my hands. It took about an hour for me to be ready to try a fourth climb on a harder course, and then I zipped right up to the top.

Routes – after you get the basics of being against a wall with ropes, toes and fingers for support, you up the ante by following specific paths. The finger and foot holds of a particular path will be marked by colored tape next to them, so, “climb the wall” becomes “climb the wall using only the holds that have silver tape next to them”. Each of these routes has been named with things like, “Brain drain”.

I found the terminology and social vernacular to be much more challenging than the actual climbing. For me, learning the etiquette of an environment is always a fairly nuanced thing. As a sport of risk there are several required interactions as relates to checking your equipment, having appropriate knots tied, negotiating who will “belay” you (hold the other end of your rope), conveying when you’re ready to start the climb, when you’d like the ropes to be tighter, and when you’re ready to rappel down from a climb. Modern man has learned that in any situation involving rope, command words with unequivocal meaning are very important. There is also the small talk of climbers to learn, a banter that codifies details of ascending in holds, grips, and “fucking popped my hips out of socket” falls.

One thing Eric pointed out is that some sports are fairly competitive and difficult to break into. This gym was welcoming and very supportive. I’m not sure how much of a feat it was that I made it to the top several times on my first few tries, but several people warmly congratulated me. In the more difficult climbs people would hang from clips on the wall for several minutes before tackling another stretch. People on the ground watching the climbers would shout out encouragement and praise for every good hold in the assent and there was no rushing or impatience as mid level climbers took their time on harder routes.

Yeah, so I’m looking at maybe two hundred dollars in equipment, or ongoing rental fees involving shoes that are much more beaten then the bowling rental variety. I need a pair of shoes, a harness, a chalk bag, an industrial strength locking carabiner, and a belay device. Someday I might even need some rope.