About a year after first starting to climb, I’ve had a very limited exposure to climbing types outside of indoor gym bouldering. While Bridges Rock Gym has been an incredible place to learn to climb, it certainly has been limiting not only in the climbing type exposure, but also in the type of routes and grading. In Berkeley, I’ve climbed almost exclusively at Bridges, with a couple brief stints at Indian Rock in Berkeley and on campus.
Since arriving in San Diego for the summer, I’ve gotten to try out climbing at Mesa Rim Climbing Gym. While the bouldering seems slightly harder but about similar in grading difficulty, the emphasis seems to be more on the fingers (which is more like what you’ll see outdoor climbing as well). But overall, it’s most of the same type of intense strength necessary at about the same level.
More interestingly, I’ve gotten to try top-roping for the first time as well. Top-roping is completely different from bouldering. It as all about efficient climbing. In the first try, my friend and I took the required belay class where we learned how to tie the necessary knots and go through the needed safety measures before climbing. All-in-all, it was incredibly enjoyable being able to climb much higher albeit with much more difficulty. Some quick take-aways: it is a lot of fun, relaxing and breathing despite the height and tiredness if very important, and trust the belayer! I still have to learn to trust the rope more and make the same type of moves I would on the lower bouldering wall.
In addition, Kenneth, his good friend from high school, Nathan, and I took a trip today to Santee Boulders, a well-known bouldering spot in San Diego. We took a couple of stops around the area, but the only real success we had was on what we later discovered to be known as EB Boulder. Here is a quick video of Kenneth sending it nicely. After getting home and looking into it, it looks like we did it completely wrong and there is a much easier way of going about it. Outdoor bouldering is so much more difficult compared to its indoor counterpart. The holds are smaller, the edges are rougher, the feet are nearly non-existent, and you never quite know what you’re doing. To top it all off, you don’t feel quite as secure making moves 5-10 feet up on the air when there isn’t a large indoor mat to catch your fall. Nonetheless, it’s an important skill to have as that’s what climbing is all about. Taking in the nature and enjoying the climb =).
Definitely look forward to doing more top-roping and outdoor climbing this summer!
