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Club climbing is not entirely up the wall yet. Instead more than a dozen members of the team are scaling a preliminary challenges before attempting a granite face of a mountain.
The goal is to launch outdoor climbs in the fall, said Francesca Gina Aguirre-Wong, a senior and the team president.
“It has taken a long time for us to get accepted as a club, and this is not a great time because it is the end of the year,” said Aguirre-Wong. “We hope to revive some of the climbers who came to our initial meeting in the winter.”
The team is close to getting official club status on campus, but before they do questions regarding the liability of participants in a potentially dangerous activity, funding and certification need to be resolved. However, the members hope that they have constructed a club that has unique resources and opportunities.
“I like the puzzle aspect of climbing, it’s a very mental sport as well as physical,” said freshman Alex Ristau.
Freshman Justin Field agrees. “Climbing is a sport where you are competing against yourself, so your only real competition is yourself,” he said.
The other members said that the allure of the sport stems from its mental and physical intricacies, but it is the bond one gets from interacting with nature that is most important.
“Nothing beats the feeling of getting to the top,” said freshman Patrick Gillespe.
Climbing really brings you to something more, you are outside and you are all of a sudden unbeatable. You are one with everything are really experiencing nature.”
Aguirre-Wong and sophomore Nick Nelson each bring four years of practice with them.
“Never really played team sports and I never really liked them,” said Nelson, the team’s equipment manager. “The thing about climbing is that the only person who is going to decide if you get better is you.”
There is a sense of commonality and camaraderie at the meeting, members laugh at each other jokes and similar feelings about being on the mountain are discussed.
Despite the fact that climbing is an individual sport, there is a sense of togetherness in their mission and the goals they hope to obtain.
The club is picking up momentum going into next season, said Aguirre-Wong. Already the team has a league they will compete in and a gym they will train in.
“Right now we are using the wall at the Rockin’ and Jammin’ gym (Washington St. in Thorton),” said Aguirre-Wong about where the team is practicing now while it awaits its certification as a club. “We will be climbing outside in the fall and spring of next year, but we will be training more intensely in the winter and training inside.”
There is that theme of individuality in the sport that is mentioned.
Field compares a climbing tournament to wrestling tournament, where there is a lot of emphasis on how the individual does.
Although the team has a lot of answers and definite strategies for the future of their small group, the club still faces two lingering challenges—limitation of climbing at the Ritchie Center rock wall and finances.
“We can’t use the wall in the Ritchie Center yet, because of liability and our certification status as club,” said Aguirre-Wong.
Every member is confident that gaining club rights to climb at the Ritchie Center wall will produce a higher number of people, because it gives the wall gives members a facility they can practice in, something that is uncommon in club sports, according to Nelson.
Club members reiterate how important structure is, because they believe it can make the club more sustainable for the future, said Ristau and Agurre-Wong.
Members discuss fundraisers, partnering up with the Ritchie Center and another outside source, which they think will not only eliminate the club’s financial burden, but also give it some leeway it what it can do to attract new members.
“Without structure this club will most certainly fail,” says Ristau.
Field follows him immediately, “But we are committed to keeping the structure of this club.”
