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climbingnoise
Mar 17, 2009, 10:45 PM
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Hi, I've got a climbing date tomorrow with this girl I just start seeing and needless to say I have aspirations to cultivate climbing stoke in her so I can have a climbing girlfriend. I've been thinking about it a bit because it was sort of peculiar the way I got into rock climbing, just the intersection of coincidences and the timing and I've been thinking about all of the things that have brought me to deeper and deeper levels of stoke and motivation ( first high(problem height) send, first lead, watching climbing videos stoned, watching people try hard projects stoned, first time climbing high (marijuana), not being able to do a problem and eventually doing it, first v3 outdoors, first v4 in gym, first v4 outdoors, first redpoint lead failure) and I want to hear people's stories, how they got into climbing and stayed motivated even though they were perhaps weak and had to struggle up boring 5.5s in the gym.
Part of the reason I am asking is because I would like to do my best to get her stoked without going overboard. So post things about beginning that turned you on as well as things that put you off.
cheers
Mike
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Sin
Mar 18, 2009, 3:25 AM
Post #2 of 22
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Registered: Apr 17, 2007
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hehe get her stoned! For free!
I took a trip to Ecuador 4 years ago, went on a 4 hour hike in the jungle. We ended up on a 25 ft waterfall and swam in the pool below it. We wanted to jump off of the top, so we started boulder hoping on the moss covered rocks,.... Barefoot. Came back to the states and signed up at the gym. It felt natural. Oh I forgot, I met bear grylls there, and he taught me all I know.
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caleb_danner
Mar 18, 2009, 3:55 AM
Post #3 of 22
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Registered: Nov 18, 2007
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gym along time ago
that was the first time i went
it was a family outing
then got hooked in 11 grade when i went outside never looked back
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caliclimbergrl
Mar 18, 2009, 4:37 AM
Post #4 of 22
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I'm in the same boat as you -- my boyfriend and I have been together for 4 months and he doesn't climb. I've taken him to the gym several times and he seems to be enjoying it. He's agreed to go on an outdoor trip with me. I'm really hoping he takes to it ...
I also got into climbing (sort of) because I was dating a climber. So I can tell you how that went, what worked and what didn't. And what I think is working with my boyfriend (although I think the gender difference makes it a little different ... but I think that'll work in your favor).
The first time I climbed I was 18 and was working as a camp counselor for the YMCA. There was a rock climbing camp and we went to the climbing gym for 1/2 the day and then took the kids somewhere else for the other 1/2 of the day. The kids were nuts and I guess the staff at the gym were pretty impressed with me, because they gave me a free membership there for the summer!! I didn't get to use it much though -- they didn't have much bouldering and I could never convince anyone to go with me. It went on like this for years -- I wasn't sure how to break into the sport since I didn't know anyone who climbed.
During grad school, I met a guy who was really into climbing. Honestly, I think a big part of why we started dating was because I was hoping he'd teach me to climb. And he did a little. But he was soooo impatient! He would tie a figure 8 follow through for me really fast and think that that meant I knew how to do it. The next time we'd climb, I'd ask him to show me how and instead, he'd get all flustered and say, "I already showed you!" and again tie it really fast without really showing me how. Most of it was like that -- he was a very impatient teacher. But we started going out climbing in big groups with all of his climbing friends and eventually, I would go out climbing with them on my own when he was busy and that's when I really started learning. Being in a big group was nice when there were a lot of people and they didn't mind having people play around on top-ropes. It was easy to teach people to lead belay -- there were plenty of people who could lead while someone else belayed while explaining everything or letting a new belayer belay while they backed them up. Being around patient, laid back, and non-competitive people was important.
If you're teaching your girlfriend, take her to laid back craggs for a while. Don't put any pressure on her, just let her enjoy it. Be patient. Give her beta when she needs it to get through the crux of a climb. And spend time at crags when the weather is nice and it's just enjoyable to be out there!
Hopefully everything goes well for both of us and you get your climbing girlfriend and I get my climbing boyfriend. I don't think my boyfriend will ever really be a climber in the way that I am, but hopefully he doesn't mind tagging along on some trips.
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ACJ
Mar 18, 2009, 4:54 AM
Post #5 of 22
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Registered: Oct 25, 2008
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I got into climbing in a strange way. I interviewed for a job with an organization that did climbing trips along with other things. They asked if I would be interested in learning to climb during the interview. I said no, and that I thought climbing was ridiculous and why waste your time climbing up something you can just walk around (I was blunt but it didn't sound arrogant). They hired me and the rest was history.
As far as girlfriends go. I have gone through a few and they all climbed a bit but eventually I get yelled at with something along the lines of "You'd rather stick your hand in a crack then hang out with me!" Funny. The most recent one though, coming up on two years together as of this summer wasn't really into climbing when I met her. I wont date someone who doesn't climb so that was an issue. I bought her a nice harness and chalkbag and got her a comfortable pair of shoes for her birthday (using other peoples grungy old gear doesn't get me stoked). After that I took her out to a classic climb or two that felt secure but had nice exposure and shared my view on what climbing is all about.
Nowadays she might not be as strong on lead as I am but she will follow me up 5.12's if that's on the daily agenda. Usually though it's trad 5.10-5.11 that works me hard on lead and she cruises on TR. Great climbing partner and girlfriend at the same time.
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brownie710
Mar 18, 2009, 10:53 AM
Post #6 of 22
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back in the day i decided to go to a school i had never heard of SUNY New Paltz...
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chadnsc
Mar 18, 2009, 12:45 PM
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I was first introduced to indoor climbing about nine years ago as a form of physical therapy to help me learn to walk again. It’s a long story but for nearly a year I was confined to a wheel chair. The indoor climbing was done as part of my therapy to help with coordination and general total body conditioning. The general idea of climbing stuck with me until five years ago when I moved up here to Duluth, Minnesota where I met a group of climbers through the Access Fund. Shortly their after I was reintroduced to climbing and the joys of climbing outdoors.
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clee03m
Mar 18, 2009, 4:33 PM
Post #8 of 22
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I tagged along with a friend and top-roped at Malibu beach and was hooked. I hate to say this, but either she'll be hooked or she won't. Unless you go out of your way to make it a bad experience for her, it's really up to her.
If I sound bitter, it's because I just realized that my husband still doesn't like climbing. I go through this devastation every spring.
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johnwesely
Mar 18, 2009, 4:39 PM
Post #9 of 22
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There are two ways to look at it. Some people try climbing and get discouraged because it is difficult, so you might want to make it easy on her. I got into climbing because it was really hard, and it was something that I could not do at all. Chances are that she will be neither, but good luck anyway.
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Bats
Mar 18, 2009, 4:50 PM
Post #10 of 22
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I always liked to climb as a kid, especially trees. When I would go to the mountain areas, I said it would be real cool to try it. Then UH made the REC Center and I thought I died and went to heaven. After 3 years of gym climbing, my first climb was on Yosemite slab and I flashed it. Now my New Year's Resolution was to climb at least once a month, either at Erock or Reimers. So far I have been keeping my resolution up. Next year I will have more vacation time...sooooo more climbing trips.
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drector
Mar 18, 2009, 4:50 PM
Post #11 of 22
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In the year 2000, I was taking a walk with a friend. We saw a playground with a very simplistic climbing wall. It was large sheets of 3/4 or 1 inch plastic material with holes cut in it and routed smooth. I decided that my daughter ought to have this same thing at home. My plan was to use the 16' tall garage wall (yes, 16 feet) and mount plywood on 2x4s so that there was 3 1/2 inch clearance behind the wood.
While planning this, I realized that we need some gear. I started learning everything I could about climbing gear. I bought her a full body harness and myself a regular harness. I bought a short rope (11mm) and enough gear and hardware to make a two piece bolted anchor in the ceiling beam. My house holds a snow load so the beams are plenty strong for the most serious climbing anyone can do in 16 feet ;-)
It was fun to build. My daughter had a lot of fun on it. I learned a lot about climbing. I bought some shoes.
The friend suggests that we try out the local crag, Trippy Rock in Incline Village, and we head there with next to no gear. Just enough to use the bolted anchors for top roping. It was a blast.
That's how I got started. I was motivated by a silly playground "wall" made from yellow plastic.
The home wall soon had holds and some overhanging sections for me. The short rope and gear for top roping eventually became a complete rack for trad and sport climbing with a little aid gear just for fun.
But these days...
The home wall sees little use and my climbing partner that learned to climb, lead, and do everything else climbing related, moved away years ago so even the outdoor climbing isn't happening nearly as much as in that first few years. Those were good times getting out for a full day at least once a week.
My daughter is now 13 and is old enough and big enough to handle more challenging outdoor climbing. She was not interested for a while but is getting back into it again. We hope to get out more this summer.
Dave
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Gmburns2000
Mar 18, 2009, 4:57 PM
Post #12 of 22
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this is how I got into it.
Yeah, I've posted it before, but then so has the question been asked before, too.
Simply put, a couple of friends kicked, drugged, kidnapped invited me along, and the rest is history.
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GeneralZon
Mar 18, 2009, 5:25 PM
Post #13 of 22
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To get her stoked, make sure you reinforce how well she is doing and try not to talk about how awesome you are at climbing which will make her nervous. Also, don't take your shirt off!! 
My girlfriend and I had our second date at the rock gym. She never climbed before that and now she loves it. Funny thing was 2 guys she works with also joined us (i have a feeling they were trying to court her too) for her "protection" LOL. After showing them all a good time and working the guys egos (the guys were big time into Gold's Gym and bench pressing the world) the guys were high-fiving me and she is now my soon to be fiancé. 
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petsfed
Mar 18, 2009, 5:44 PM
Post #14 of 22
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Registered: Sep 25, 2002
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I've been exposed to climbing more or less since birth. My father's first lead (a route I've soloed many times over the years) was done 4 months before my birth. I watched him climb when I was 4 years old. More than any of my siblings, I got bit by the climbing bug, and its been in my blood for as long as I can remember. What's definitely helped is that I've surrounded myself with people who were also passionate about climbing, so I could feed off their enthusiasm. They were, however, very well rounded people who elected to place climbing at the center of their lives, rather than people who had nothing else.
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climbingnoise
Mar 18, 2009, 7:21 PM
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Gmburns2000 wrote: this is how I got into it. Yeah, I've posted it before, but then so has the question been asked before, too. Simply put, a couple of friends kicked, drugged, kidnapped invited me along, and the rest is history.
I decided that I would become a climber while staying at Railay last march. People I lived with climbed but it seemed like sort of a scary thing. That trip to Asia was a really important step for me into a new stage of my life and scrambling around on the amazing limestone a little bit with climbers and then also exploring on my own was where I started to feel it. One day I tried to snorkle across the little bay and see some fish and ended up climbing up onto this ledge and then barefoot soloing a short ways (felt significant) over an R/X landing into this cave. Crawling into the cave which was too tight for me to sit up in was pretty scary. It was dark and confined and just the type of thing that scared the bejesus out of me my whole life. I pushed myself in a little, and just listened, and then I crawled in a little bit more, and then more, tense and scared and therefore exhilarated. There was a strange sound in the cave like.. (wait I'm going to get my thailand journal and find what I wrote reflecting on it later at the beach).
"This place is so old, it makes the settlement here seem naive and extremely temporary. The cliffs look to have been tortured by time and have a melty downward aspect, opening jagged mouths that whisper a sound, an echo thats like a hundred million years of silence, of anonymous roaring waters that carved the bowls in which we celebrate and are, will be, cleansed from, to leave one day, the holes and rubble that will house our own echo."
That sound to me was like time, water and rock, and in that moment a previous experience, a moment of recognition and connection, sitting on a rock in the middle of a stream in the mountains in front of an ancient boulder, came back to me. Since then and increasingly through comparable moments I've sort of felt rocks as a distant extension and extent of my own permanence. The elements from which I was remotely formed and will eventually succumb to. Rock climbing is sometimes for me like reading something modern man has forgotten, our movements spelling sentences on these incarnations of time and change at once senseless and profound.
Rock climbing and sex are the closest things I've found to worship. Our bodies: the temples. The acts: the rites. The god: the boundless potential of existence.
Thanks everyone for sharing.
I'm feeling positive and that the right thing will inevitably happen and at the right time.
(editted some punctuation for clarity)
(This post was edited by climbingnoise on Mar 18, 2009, 7:27 PM)
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Gmburns2000
Mar 18, 2009, 7:36 PM
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climbingnoise wrote: Gmburns2000 wrote: this is how I got into it. Yeah, I've posted it before, but then so has the question been asked before, too. Simply put, a couple of friends kicked, drugged, kidnapped invited me along, and the rest is history. That is a really powerful story; thanks for sharing. I really felt it. Your friend Matt's gift is still resonating through the climbing community I see, through you, now through me, I think I will always remember it. I decided that I would become a climber while staying at Railay last march. People I lived with climbed but it seemed like sort of a scary thing. That trip to Asia was a really important step for me into a new stage of my life and scrambling around on the amazing limestone a little bit with climbers and then also exploring on my own was where I started to feel it. One day I tried to snorkle across the little bay and see some fish and ended up climbing up onto this ledge and then barefoot soloing a short ways (felt significant) over an R/X landing into this cave. Crawling into the cave which was too tight for me to sit up in was pretty scary. It was dark and confined and just the type of thing that scared the bejesus out of me my whole life. I pushed myself in a little, and just listened, and then I crawled in a little bit more, and then more, tense and scared and therefore exhilarated. There was a strange sound in the cave like.. (wait I'm going to get my thailand journal and find what I wrote reflecting on it later at the beach). "This place is so old, it makes the settlement here seem naive and extremely temporary. The cliffs look to have been tortured by time and have a melty downward aspect, opening jagged mouths that whisper a sound, an echo thats like a hundred million years of silence, of anonymous roaring waters that carved the bowls in which we celebrate and are, will be, cleansed from, to leave one day, the holes and rubble that will house our own echo." That sound to me was like time, water and rock, and in that moment a previous experience, a moment of recognition and connection, sitting on a rock in the middle of a stream in the mountains in front of an ancient boulder, came back to me. Since then and increasingly through comparable moments I've sort of felt rocks as a distant extension and extent of my own permanence. The elements from which I was remotely formed and will eventually succumb to. Rock climbing is sometimes for me like reading something modern man has forgotten, our movements spelling sentences on these incarnations of time and change at once senseless and profound. Rock climbing and sex are the closest things I've found to worship. Our bodies: the temples. The acts: the rites. The god: the boundless potential of existence. Thanks everyone for sharing. I'm feeling positive and that the right thing will inevitably happen and at the right time. (editted some punctuation for clarity)
Thanks for reading. I can identify with your cave experience. I used to jaunt around on the cliffs near my home when I was younger, and I remember being afraid and yet exhilerated at the same time. Little did I know what I was getting myself into then. 
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patmay81
Mar 18, 2009, 8:08 PM
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dude, were you stoned when you wrote this? I can hardly figure out what your talking about/asking, so I'll just answer "how did you get into rock climbing?"
I climbed trees and buildings since, literally, before I could walk. Every time I went camping, hiking and hunting I would boulder or solo any cliff or rock I came across.
When I was in college I took a climbing class and learned the basics. From there I climbed every boulder or rock I came across, and took every opportunity I could to head to the crag.
For me there was no coaxing or easing into it, I have always loved climbing.
I do have a little experience helping others "get stoked about" climbing. My sister is my most common climbing partner, and she was first uncomfortable following 5.6 more than 20'. But with some encouragement, plenty of beer, and lots of patience she is now leading some pretty sketchy run out moderates when she needs to.
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Adk
Mar 18, 2009, 8:23 PM
Post #18 of 22
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Registered: Dec 2, 2006
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I started solo hiking and leading caving groups when I was a teen. I first got on a rope on a cliff while in Scouts. I got on soloed cliffs before that but without a rope. We do some crazy things when we are kids. Some of the stuff I climbed then I would never do now without a rope.
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patmay81
Mar 18, 2009, 8:31 PM
Post #19 of 22
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Adk wrote: We do some crazy things when we are kids. Some of the stuff I climbed then I would never do now without a rope.
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gblauer
Moderator
Mar 18, 2009, 10:18 PM
Post #20 of 22
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Registered: Oct 4, 2002
Posts: 2824
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Bone Tumor.
I was recovering from bone tumor surgery and I was vacationing at the Mohonk Mountain House at the Gunks. I had NO idea that the Gunks was a climbing mecca because I wasn't a climber.
I saw people climbing, I thought it looked way cool, I went to the Philadelphia Rock Gym and learned to climb. That was 7 years ago. I am now hopelessly addicted, I met my husband through climbing, all of our vacations are planned around climbing and we just bought a climbing cottage at the Gunks.
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ronamick
Mar 19, 2009, 3:59 AM
Post #21 of 22
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Registered: Nov 28, 2002
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I backpacked in HS, and being in the mtns made me want to get to the summits around me (high places have always called to me) and my friends had similar ambitions. When a friend of mine learned how to climb with a rope from a guy he knew that went to the NOLS school he was smitten immediately, and bought a rope and few chocks and slings and some biners. Him and I had a winter trip to MT Whitney coming up, and he told me to buy 6 carabiners and 20' of 1" tubular webbing, and he would teach me how to climb.
We snowshoed to trail camp (10,600ft)on top of about 20' of snowpack, and setup camp on the snow. Giant granite walls rose thousands of feet all around us, and my buddy decided we would do my first climb on thor peak, a vertical granite wall that formed the north side of the cirque we were camped in.
The next morning he showed me how to make a harness out of my 20 ft sling and tie a water knot, then how to tie in with a figure 8 knot. I practiced each a couple times and we headed for the crag. At the base i got a lesson in belaying and rope calls, and we started climbing a ledge system unroped. About 300 feet up the wall the ledges ran out. I sat straddling a flake that projected over the abyss while he climbed over a small overhang to check the route above. After much moaning and gasping from above, he told me he finally found an anchor, and he was going to lower the rope so i could put him on belay.
The wall above the flake upon which i sat was overhanging, and pushed me toward the edge, and i could only feel secure by pressing hard into the wall. Unfortunately, a meltwater stream ran down the wall there, so i was getting drenched with freezing water the entire time I waited. Soon the end of the rope snaked down from above, and my friend shouted for me to put on my harness and tie into the rope.
Making a swiss army seat harness out of a 20 ft piece of webbibg for the first time would have been challenge enough, but doing it drenched and frozen as i was, pushed toward 300ft of air anytime i moved made it extra special. I managed to do it, then tied the figure 8 as i remembered. Having no anchor, i jammed one leg behind the flake and yelled he was on belay. In time he had me on belay, so i stood up drenched and numb, mountain boots on my feet, looking at an overhanging move. My belayer was out of sight somewhere above me and i was tied in with knots i learned only an hour before, so excitement was running high as i yelled "climbing!".
I climbed the pitch without too much trouble, and we sat there looking at a surreal scene of snow dusted walls under bright blue sky. That was 34 years ago, and led to a lifetime of climbing.
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mecalekahi-mekahidyho
Mar 20, 2009, 12:37 AM
Post #22 of 22
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Nothing remarkable. Many of my friends had gotten into climbing about 6 months prior and I always saw them get psyched before a climbing trip.
One of them invited me along to the gym to check it out. When I was a young lad I was always climbing stuff, so the thought of being very high off the deck yet relatively safe was appealing to me.
There are lakeside cliffs close to my home that I would jump off and DWSolo back to the top. (none of the cliffs exceed 60 feet.) This was years before I got into rock climbing and usually I was wet and shoeless.
I didnt think I did that well my first (gym) climb but my friends thought otherwise. I think I flailed up a 5.9 something or other. I dont think I used my feet much other than to kick around all over the place.
What I really enjoyed about climbing and also what kept me interested was working through a problem or route that I have never sent, then figuring out the beta which usually ends up being a move I have never done. I guess figuring out what Im capable of on the rock. As I first started there were routes and problems that I could barely hold myself on, and now those size holds are bomber to me. I guess how I mentally and physically evolve over time.
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