Many of you may be wondering how and why I got into rock climbing. Well it’s a long story and here it is. When I was growing up my dad did some rock climbing, but he stopped when I was about 2 or 3 year old. He stopped because one day he was doing a multi-pitch climb with is brother-in-law Shane. Shane lead the route and was belaying my dad up from the top. Wen my dad got to the top he realized that shane had not anchored himself to the cliff and if my dad had fallen he would have fallen to his death and would have pulled Shane off with him. This was enough to scare my dad out of the sport. He sold most of his gear and never climbed again. When he sold his gear he decided to keep his harness, shoes and a couple of carabiners. This basic equipment has been sitting in our garage ever since. From time to time growing up I would see this gear and it would spark my interest in the sport. I was always curious about climbing, but because of my dad’s experience he never advocated for me to get into rock climbing.
In Provo there is an indoor gym called The Quarry. It was the only climbing gym near my house growing up and I would go there sometimes with my friends. I always loved going to The Quarry, but it was kind of expensive and I stopped going when I was in high school. I didn’t really think about climbing for about 5 or so years. But one summer one of my best friends went to Colorado to do summer sales and he met some people out there that rock climbed. He started to do some basic climbing and fell in love with it. When he and the friend that he made came back from Colorado they invited me to go climbing with them. I was stoked because finally I had someone to help me get into outdoor climbing. I also fell in love with the sport the first time I climbed. The next day I went out and bought my own harness and shoes and I’ve been climbing ever since.
Climbing is something that really doesn’t make any sense and doesn’t have practical use in the world. For me climbing is about more than just the scaling of a rock wall. It’s about comradery with your climbing friends, setting and accomplishing goals, and seeing more of this beautiful earth we live on. Rock climbing is something that I plan on doing for the rest of my life, or as long as my body will allow me to. I’ve gained too much from it to quit. I’m not the best climber by any means. Right now I’m only climbing 5.10d indoors and maybe 5.10a outdoors on lead. But that doesn’t matter to me, and I hope it doesn’t matter to you. If climbing makes you happy, keep doing it.
A Beginner's Guide To Rock Climbing 