Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Climbing, But Were Afraid To Ask

[rydra_wong]

This is a post where you can ask all the questions you're always wanted to ask about climbing, whether you've already started or are just beginning to think about maybe possibly kind of giving this a try.

Or maybe you've been climbing for decades, and have always wondered about that one thing, and by now it would be OMG TOO EMBARASSING to admit you don't know.

No topics are off-limit, no questions too clueless, so let rip and get answers from demi-n00bs experienced climbers.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

you guys have pretty well convinced me to sign up.

\o/

I have phone-loathing, so I am duly impressed by that bit.

So, what should I expect?

Depends on whether it's a bouldering-only wall or a roped climbing wall.

If it's the latter, a chunk of the time will be spent on safety and protection issues: how to put on a harness, how to belay, etc.. (Maybe some of the folks who do roped climbing can chip in here? I only know this secondhand, owing to my stubborn refusal to do anything that involves learning to tie knots.)

If it's the former, there's very little to learn in the way of safety ("try to land with your weight on both feet and bend your knees" and "for fuck's sake don't walk under anyone who's climbing" is pretty much all of it), so more time may be spent on movement technique.

Either way, they'll tend to start you out on a climb that's very, very easy -- big holds and quite probably on a slab (less-than-vertical, so you don't have to use any muscle to hold on). This is mostly there to get you past the psychological freakout that comes from OMG I'M VERY HIGH UP NOW.

Then they'll try you on something a bit harder.

You may get to deliberately practice falling, so you start feeling confident that it's safe. You will almost certainly get to practice non-deliberate falling, which is a shock to the system at first but (IMHE) surprisingly okay -- at least, not nearly as bad as I imagined it to be, and over very quickly.

Really, all you have to do is not run out of there screaming.

If you can manage that, you're good. And remember that everyone else in the class is likely to be freaking out too, whether they show it or not.

The question is whether, amidst the freaking out, you get that glimpse of it as something you could fall in love with.

Afterwards: drink a lot of water, take a hot bath, and be prepared to wake up extremely achy the day after (and possibly worse the day after that). Climbing works a lot of muscles that get minimal work in everyday life, so initially the delayed-onset muscle soreness is a killer.

[bessemerprocess]

They have bouldering, top-rope and lead walls, so I think that means they have a little bit of everything? I feel like after having to tie bowlines at 100ft under water wearing 5mm gloves, I can tie anything that comes my way with some practice.

I'm actually sort of looking forward to the learning to fall bit. I always liked jumping off things as a kid and I just don't get to do enough of that these days.

All of this sounds like things I can do and I'm really looking forward to it.

A few more questions:

Are there a lot of loud and/or sudden, unexpected noises? And is there a lot of being touched during the learning stage? (I'm okay with both of these things as long as I know up front.)

[rydra_wong]

I can tie anything that comes my way with some practice.

In that case, you're probably well ahead of the game.

Loud noises: people calling instructions to belayers, occasionally thumps as boulderers hit the mats. I'm very noise-sensitive, and for me, it only gets problematic if there's a school party in.

There might be skin contact in passing to get a harness adjusted or demonstrate how to tie a knot. If someone freaks out completely on the bouldering wall and doesn't feel able to get down, an instructor might climb up next to them and offer them a hand. Otherwise, no, I wouldn't expect touching.

(FWIW, it sounds like we have some fairly similar sensory issues, so if I found it tolerable in those respects, you probably will.)

[bessemerprocess]

That sounds completely manageable to me. Thank you so much!