New Partners and the Wonder of the Climbing Community
Recently, I had a chance to bring two n00bs into the wonderful world of climbing as part of a weekly climbing group I joined when I first moved to Philadelphia. It was incredibly daunting trying to make new friends in a new city, much less friends who climb, but meetup.com was and has been a great resource for me. After a few months participating in events, I got to start leading and planning my own events, including trips to the local climbing gym.
Tuesday, I met two people who'd never tried before with completely different abilities, levels of fear, and climbing. Granted it can be a little difficult - I'm not always prepared to spend a night I thought I'd spend climbing teaching - but we were all n00bs once. We had a blast, as per usual.
Fast forward a few days. I went back to Go Vertical (GV) last night, a pretty normal Thursday night occurrence, and planned on meeting Nina and her friend Linds, who has never climbed before. I got there a little early and sat on the floor in the middle of the gym goofing around waiting for them. After a while, I decided I should start bouldering, and got up with chalk bag in hand. As I stood up, a guy I recognized as a regular gym climber approached me and asked me if I was waiting for someone. When I replied I was, Eric said he was as well, introduced himself, and asked if I wanted to TR or lead with him until our friends arrived. I happily obliged, and we managed a handful of 5.7 and 5.8 warm-up climbs until Nina and Linds arrived.
It turns out Eric looked familiar for a number of reasons. Not only is he a regular at GV, he happens to work in my office building. Small world, eh? We've probably run into each other a dozen times. The point of these vignettes is to introduce a not-so-groundbreaking concept I've become acutely aware of over the past several months: the climbing community is full of friendly, generous, helpful people, most of whom are very interested in bonding with and helping each other.
Now, all of us climbers, we know this. I've talked about it a couple of times already, personal experiences with helpful climbing buddies. We couldn't do any of it without a little help, and in some cases, without trusting another human being with our life. And that's a big deal. We're also bound to each other by a couple of other important concepts - trust and sharing knowledge. Although climbing can be competitive, and there are different schools of thought around everything, no new climber gets started without a little help, and no seasoned climber can advance without support. (Unless you're a free soloist, I suppose). Even for seasoned climbers, there has to have been a time when each had to ask someone about the location of a route, for beta, or for a belay.
Climbers, we just take care of each other.
So when Eric asked me if I wanted to climb with him, I hesitated, saying something silly about bouldering. Don't get me wrong, I love bouldering, but if I'd said no to him, it would've been because I was afraid. I was afraid, of course, I have introvert tendencies. I also don't like to be lowered super fast off climbs, and feel embarrassed telling belayers that... the fewer people I have to tell, the better. But I said yes, and it ended up being great.
Have you had chance encounters at the climbing gym, or elsewhere in your outdoor life? Made fast friends with someone because of a common interest?
Tuesday, I met two people who'd never tried before with completely different abilities, levels of fear, and climbing. Granted it can be a little difficult - I'm not always prepared to spend a night I thought I'd spend climbing teaching - but we were all n00bs once. We had a blast, as per usual.
Fast forward a few days. I went back to Go Vertical (GV) last night, a pretty normal Thursday night occurrence, and planned on meeting Nina and her friend Linds, who has never climbed before. I got there a little early and sat on the floor in the middle of the gym goofing around waiting for them. After a while, I decided I should start bouldering, and got up with chalk bag in hand. As I stood up, a guy I recognized as a regular gym climber approached me and asked me if I was waiting for someone. When I replied I was, Eric said he was as well, introduced himself, and asked if I wanted to TR or lead with him until our friends arrived. I happily obliged, and we managed a handful of 5.7 and 5.8 warm-up climbs until Nina and Linds arrived.
It turns out Eric looked familiar for a number of reasons. Not only is he a regular at GV, he happens to work in my office building. Small world, eh? We've probably run into each other a dozen times. The point of these vignettes is to introduce a not-so-groundbreaking concept I've become acutely aware of over the past several months: the climbing community is full of friendly, generous, helpful people, most of whom are very interested in bonding with and helping each other.
Now, all of us climbers, we know this. I've talked about it a couple of times already, personal experiences with helpful climbing buddies. We couldn't do any of it without a little help, and in some cases, without trusting another human being with our life. And that's a big deal. We're also bound to each other by a couple of other important concepts - trust and sharing knowledge. Although climbing can be competitive, and there are different schools of thought around everything, no new climber gets started without a little help, and no seasoned climber can advance without support. (Unless you're a free soloist, I suppose). Even for seasoned climbers, there has to have been a time when each had to ask someone about the location of a route, for beta, or for a belay.
Climbers, we just take care of each other.
So when Eric asked me if I wanted to climb with him, I hesitated, saying something silly about bouldering. Don't get me wrong, I love bouldering, but if I'd said no to him, it would've been because I was afraid. I was afraid, of course, I have introvert tendencies. I also don't like to be lowered super fast off climbs, and feel embarrassed telling belayers that... the fewer people I have to tell, the better. But I said yes, and it ended up being great.
Have you had chance encounters at the climbing gym, or elsewhere in your outdoor life? Made fast friends with someone because of a common interest?
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